Trump administration's dismissal of hundreds of scientists and experts compiling a key report on climate change is only the latest in a series of science-related rollbacks and cuts.

That includes job cuts at the National Weather Service.

An associated press analysis found a 20% vacancy rate in nearly half its forecast offices.

AP science writer Seth Borenstein wrote that story.

Seth, 20%, how does that compare to past years or to what's normal?

So four years ago, about the same time period in March, it was about 10%.

A year before, it was 12%.

So that's a huge jump. And when you talk to meteorologists,

they sort of have a critical level they consider for an office vacancy. It's 20%.

How is the ultimate consumer of their product, the American public, how are they going to feel the difference?

You're going to see some forecasts what they call degraded.

They may not be as good.

In an emergency, there's some concerns about whether people will be worn fast enough and well enough.

If you have radar and counties and tornadoes going everywhere, and you only have one set of eyes, something may be missed.

The most concrete thing we can see right now is weather balloons.

Weather balloons sound very low-tech, but they are sort of the key in weather forecasts.

It brings measurements from the atmosphere and the ground and it's sort of

is a glue to everything. And normally, the weather service puts out 100 balloon launches twice a day.

So since this has happened, about 17 different stations are not launching either at all or just once a day.

Four years ago, that was only nine stations.

It means all the information that goes into your forecast,

which goes into your apps or your television forecasts,

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