CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — As more cuts happen at the federal level through President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), experts are keeping an eye on what’s to come.

DOGE has slashed several different federal agencies in the administration’s first month. And now, some are wondering how potential future cuts could impact the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and communities who depend on it.

“Again, nobody knows if there will be any cuts or what the magnitude of those will be,” said Jeff Frame, University of Illinois professor and atmospheric scientist.

NOAA is the parent agency of the National Weather Service. They provide weather forecasts, warnings, and observations, and run the satellite and radar programs along with computer forecast models. Frame stressed the importance of ensuring the service is well funded.

Concerns over federal cost-cutting have reached several different agencies, and now, most recently, NOAA. Former NOAA officials told CBS News earlier this month that current employees have been told to expect a 50% reduction in staff and budget cuts of 30%.

“They issue all of your tornado, flash flood, and severe thunderstorm warnings,” Frame said. “So, when your phone goes off, when it buzzes during severe weather, that is due to a warning issued by your local National Weather Service office.”

He said the magnitude of the cuts will tell the story of to what extent the service will be impacted.

“I think the first thing to be affected would be some of the staffing if the Weather Service is hit with that,” Frame said. “So that would mean offices would be more short-staffed than a lot of them already are. Maybe you only have one person working the overnight shift, and if something unexpected happens, well, that person could get real, real busy, real, real fast.”

He also said there have been some federal discussions about securing a public safety exception for the National Weather Service.

“I’m fairly confident right now there are some types of high-level discussions going on in Washington, D.C., involving the Weather Service and whether or not they get exempted from this or not,” Frame said.

This would protect it from potentially devastating cuts. But for now, Frame said it’s very much a game of wait and see.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I talked to some of my colleagues yesterday, they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Frame said. “I talked to some colleagues at the Weather Service, I think, on Tuesday, and they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Frame said if staffing cuts happened, current employees would be stretched thin on their day-to-day tasks, making weather emergency situations all the more difficult.