Staff cuts forced this forecast office to shut overnight. Then a tornado hit.

If not for the storms, the critically understaffed National Weather Service office responsible for monitoring weather hazards across eastern Kentucky would have gone dark by midnight. It’s one of a growing number the agency’s local offices that have been unable to cover an overnight shift since the Trump administration significantly reduced staffing levels through buyouts and firings earlier this year.

But Friday brought the kind of harrowing conditions meteorologists train for. Storms that killed at least 21 people across the heart of the nation unleashed what was likely a violent and long-lived tornado across Kentucky, a state that accounted for at least 14 of those deaths.

It posed the latest test for a beleaguered Weather Service corps that has endured a season of dangerous storms and floods while facing major upheaval in their offices. The forecasting office in Jackson, Kentucky, is four meteorologists short of what agency officials have deemed ideal staffing — a 31% vacancy rate that makes 24/7 operations impossible, according to the union that represents Weather Service staff.

It was an all-hands-on-deck situation in the Jackson office on Friday night.

“We saw the risk many days ago. We were already planning how we would staff days in advance,” said Christian Cassell, one of the office’s lead meteorologists. By Thursday, the staff had set up a schedule to stagger shifts Friday “knowing we were looking at a nearly full day of a threat of severe weather,” he said.

“I’m glad to say we were very well staffed for the entirety of the event,” Cassell said.

Weather Service officials confirmed that account and said in a statement that the Jackson office “is prepared with additional staffing and neighboring office support through the weekend to meet its core mission of providing lifesaving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders.”

“NWS continues to ensure a continuity of service for mission-critical functions.”

Dangerous storms began developing in the Ohio River Valley region by early Friday.

“Storms over central KY are becoming feisty quickly, and are moving into our western/southwestern counties. We are tracking,” Cassell wrote around 9:30 a.m. Friday on a messaging system the Weather Service uses to communicate with emergency managers and the media.

By early afternoon, Weather Service officials had made the call to bring all meteorologists into work, said Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the staff union.

Fully staffed, the Jackson office would have 13 meteorologists. But it’s currently down to nine, he said. Two management positions are also vacant — including the top role of meteorologist-in-charge, which has been vacant since last year — as are slots for three technical specialists, he added.

“Everyone said, ‘We have to show up for this,’” Fahy said.

By 5 p.m., initial storms had calmed down. But Jonathan Pelton, another meteorologist in the Jackson office, warned that “some stronger cells” could form as another line of storms approached later that evening.

Around 11 p.m., sightings of a funnel cloud began emerging. A local HAM radio operator shared a drone image depicting a narrow tornado spout stretching down from dark clouds over the town of Somerset. Police in nearby Monticello shared an image of a classic funnel cloud looming over what looked like backyard in Somerset.

The likely tornado tore a devastating path across Somerset and the neighboring town of London. Two Jackson-based meteorologists — the only managers currently on staff at the office — were headed Saturday morning to survey the damage and determine any tornado’s path and intensity.

Quieter weather was moving into the region Saturday, giving staff a breather after what had been a long and trying night.

As the storms continued into the early hours of Saturday morning, a broadcast meteorologist on the messaging system noted to the Weather Service team a concerning spot on radar readings, north of the town of Blackley. By then, it was after 1 a.m.

“Watching it closely, Bryan,” Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Greif wrote. “It may not be quite done with us, yet.”