As an engineer who flies into hurricanes for the US government, Josh Ripp is accustomed to turbulence. But the last two weeks have been far bumpier than he's used to.

In late February, the Trump administration fired Mr Ripp and over 800 recently hired or promoted staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration using a form email, part of ongoing cuts to the federal workforce.

Suddenly, he and several other members of the elite Hurricane Hunters flight team were out of a job - until around 21:00 Friday when he received a second email. He was to report back to work in Lakeland, Florida, 12 March, it said.

For Mr Ripp, a retired US Navy officer who voted for Donald Trump, the confusion highlighted the dangers of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency slashing thousands of government jobs to cut costs without agency input.

As soon as this week, the Trump administration could consider axing more than 1,000 additional staffers at NOAA, according to BBC News partner CBS News. Those potential cuts, plus losses from previous firings and buyouts, would cost the agency up to 20% of its workforce, the New York Times reported.

The White House did not comment on additional cuts, but a Trump administration official said an "extensive process was conducted" to ensure "mission critical functions" were not compromised during the first round of dismissals.

"NOAA provides vital information to the entire country and we do it at a fraction of the cost that anyone else could do," Mr Ripp said. "There's a lot of jobs out there that are very important. NOAA is a small agency. Every little bit hurts."

The cuts will not only harm government functions, staffers and weather experts warn, but they could disrupt the daily lives of Americans who rely on accurate NOAA data more than they know.

The data........

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