PHOTO COLLECTION: EU Summit

This is a photo collection curated by AP photo editors.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, left, speaks with European Council President Antonio Costa as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, center, and European Council President Antonio Costa, second right, speak with the media during an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, left, speaks with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, center left, speaks with European Council President Antonio Costa during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, center, speaks with Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, left, and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, center, arrives for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Portugal's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Austria's Chancellor Christian Stocker arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

European Union leaders attend a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

CAPTION CORRECTS PHOTOGRAPHER BYLINE Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, left, and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, left, and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, center, during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Netherland's Prime Minister Dick Schoof, right, and Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrive for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Ireland's Prime Minister Michael Martin, left, arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, right, arrives for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, center, and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, left, arrive for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attends a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center, arrives for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, left, speaks with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, left, speaks with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is eliminating or reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations, which meteorologists and former agency leaders said will degrade the accuracy of forecasts just as severe weather season kicks in.

The normally twice-daily launches of weather balloons in about 100 locations provide information that forecasters and computer models use to figure out what the weather will be and how dangerous it can get, so cutting back is a mistake, said eight different scientists, meteorologists and former top officials at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the weather service's parent agency.

The balloons soar 100,000 feet in the air with sensors called radiosondes hanging about 20 feet below them that measure temperature, dew point, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction.

“The thing about weather balloons is that they give you information you can't get any other way,” said D. James Baker, a former NOAA chief during the Clinton administration. He had to cut spending in the agency during his tenure but he said he refused to cut observations such as weather balloons. “It's an absolutely essential piece of the forecasting system.”

University of Oklahoma environment professor Renee McPherson said, “This frankly is just dangerous.”

“Bad,” Ryan Maue, who was NOAA's chief scientist at the end of President Donald Trump's first term, wrote in an email. “We should not degrade our weather system by skipping balloon launches. Not only is this embarrassing for NOAA, the cessation of weather balloon launches will worsen America's weather forecasts.”

Launches will be eliminated in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, “due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing,” the weather service said in a notice issued late Thursday. It also is cutting from twice daily to once daily launches i n Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gaylord, Michigan; North Platte, Nebraska and Riverton, Wyoming.

The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency fired hundreds, likely more than 1,000, NOAA workers earlier this year. The government then sent out letters telling probationary employees let go that they will get paid, but should not report to work.

Earlier this month, the agency had announced weather balloon cuts in Albany, New York and Gray, Maine, and in late February, it ended launches in Kotzebue, Alaska. That makes 11 announced sites with reduced or eliminated balloon observations, or about one out of nine launch locations which include part of the Pacific and Caribbean.

Among regularly reporting weather stations, NOAA had averaged about only one outage of balloon launches a day from 2021 to 2024, according to an Associated Press analysis of launch data.

Meteorologists Jeff Masters and Tomer Burg calculate that 14 of 83 U.S. balloon sites, or 17%, are doing partial or no launches. That includes two stations that aren't launching because of a helium shortage and a third that is hindered because of coastal erosion.

“The more data we can feed into our weather models, the more accurate our forecasts, but I can’t speculate on the extent of future impacts,” weather service spokesperson Susan Buchanan said in an email.

University at Albany meteorology professor Kristen Corbosiero looked at the map of launches Friday and said “wow, that is an empty area ... That's not great.”

Corbosiero works in the building where the Albany weather service used to go to the roof to launch twice-daily weather balloons. It's now down to one at night, which she said it is worrisome heading into severe weather season.

“For those of us east of the Rocky Mountains, this is probably the worst time of year,” said Oklahoma's McPherson. “It's the time of year that we have some of our largest tornado outbreaks, especially as we move into April and May.”

Former National Weather Service Director Elbert “Joe” Friday said the weather balloons get “the detailed lower atmospheric level of temperature and humidity that can determine whether the atmosphere is going to be hot enough to set off severe storms and how intense they might be.”

Satellites do a good job getting a big picture and ground measurements and radar show what's happening on the ground, but the weather balloons provide the key middle part of the forecasting puzzle — the atmosphere — where so much weather brews, several meteorologists said.

All of the 10 announced reductions are in the northern part of the United States. That's about where the jet stream — which is a river of air that moves weather systems across the globe — is this time of year, so not having as many observations is especially problematic, McPherson and Corbosiero said.

Weather balloons are also vital for helping forecast when and where it will rain, said Baker and another former NOAA chief, Rick Spinrad.

The weather agency has been launching balloons regularly since the 1930s. During World War II, weather balloon launches in the Arctic helped America win the air battle over Europe with better forecasts for planes, former weather chief Friday said.

It takes 90 minutes to an hour to fill a weather balloon with helium or hydrogen, get it fitted with a sensor, then ready it for launch making sure the radiosonde doesn't drag on the ground, said Friday, who recalled launching a balloon in Nome, Alaska with 30 mph winds and windchill of about 30 degrees below zero.

Meteorologists then track the data for a couple hours before the balloon falls back to the ground for a total of about four of five hours work for one person, Friday said.

“It's kind of fun to do,” Friday said on Friday.

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Data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

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FILE - A National Weather Service weather balloon sits ready for launch in the Upper Air Inflation Building at the National Weather Service, April 27, 2006, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Greenberg, File)