For many people, Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer, but along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, it also means the start of hurricane season is nearly here too.

And this particular hurricane season comes at a moment when NOAA and its agencies are being cut and facing their own turmoil.

Science correspondent Miles O'Brien has the story. Nearly 20 years after Hurricane

Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, federal officials came to Gretna, Louisiana to predict the U.S.

is on the cusp of another above-normal hurricane season. Between 13 and 19 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes, three

to five of them major. National Weather Service Director Ken Graham did not utter the word

climate, now scrubbed from the federal lexicon, and yet still made clear the main culprit.

When you have a planet that's warmer, you look at the ocean temperatures could be impacted by that.

Warm sea surface temperatures, probably the number one contributor to the whole thing.

A lot has changed since Katrina.

Forecasters now issue an outlook for global tropical storms three weeks in advance.

Hurricane Hunter aircraft are flying with new experimental radars able to collect data on the ocean waves and the wind.

And there are improved models for predicting precipitation and the rapid intensification of storms.

The modeling has never been better. Our service has never been better. Our ability to serve this country has never been better. And it will be this season as well.

And yet, the Weather Service and its parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are facing an uncertain

financial forecast.

The Trump federal spending overview, known as the skinny budget, released by the White House

on May 2, calls for a 24 percent cut to NOAA's budget.

The Department of Government Efficiency terminated more than 800 NOAA employees, raising

concerns about the frequency of essential forecasting tasks, like launching weather balloons.

And the science budget is hit even harder.

Trump proposes a 74 percent cut to the Office of Oceanic Research.

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