What is NOAA? Federal weather, climate agency hit with job cuts has a big mission. Hazelton, like others, was still considered probationary, not for poor performance, but because he'd been in his job for less than a year.

Mark Eakin, a recently retired NOAA veteran who ran its Coral Reef Watch program for many years, told the Miami Herald he was alarmed by the “indiscriminate” slashes throughout the agency, which oversees everything from cutting-edge climate research to day-to-day operations that farmers and fishers rely on, as well as life-saving weather warnings.

I, along with about 800 of us with NOAA classified as probationary employees, were sent an email that said our abilities and skills were no longer needed