Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Thursday, March 13th.

Today on Forbes, this startup can't replace the National Weather Service, but it might have to.

For Shimon Elkabets, the Department of Government Efficiency's rampage through the National Weather Service, or NWS, is a conundrum.

On one hand, it represents an unprecedented opportunity for his AI-powered weather forecasting company, Tomorrow.io, if degraded service, boosts demand for his own company's forecasts.

On the other, replacing the NWS was never on his roadmap. It's not something the nine-year-old

company, which provides customized weather forecasts for business customers, was designed to do.

But that was before Elon Musk's Doge Minions orchestrated the firing of up to 20% of the

staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and proposed closing

crucial facilities that produce weather forecasts. And while the Trump administration hasn't

been clear about what its endgame is here, some speculate that it may be to privatize

some of the government's weather forecasting services, as recommended by conservative policy blueprint,

Project 2025. Many of the key architects of Project 2025 have been appointed to major roles by President

Trump. But if Doge's cuts prevent the NWS from providing reliable weather data, there may be no other

choice. The sacking of more than

1,000 employees from NOAA in late February has already delayed the launch of weather balloons

the NWS uses to produce reliable data, and the New York Times reported over the weekend

that more cuts are on the horizon. Meanwhile, the General Services Administration is currently considering

terminating the lease for a critical weather center in Maryland, where weather forecast operations

have been consolidated and centralized for the whole country. During Commerce Secretary Howard

Lutnik's February confirmation hearing before the Senate, he insisted that NOAA's spending

could be easily cut without compromising weather forecasting, because he thinks it can be done

more efficiently. While he didn't argue for full privatization, some climatologists fear the cuts

...