NOAA and you: How the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration works for your community

The services provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are vast. This includes, but is not limited to, weather forecasting, storm warnings and alerts, fisheries management, marine protection and conservation, and commerce and transportation. It supports a breadth of programs such as the National Weather Service, Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, NOAA Fisheries and the National Sea Grant College Program.

Despite making up less than 1 percent of the federal budget, NOAA has an enormous return on investment. In 2024, the National Weather Service alone transformed its $1.3 billion budget into over $100 billion in national economic benefits through its work with businesses, academia, and research.  NOAA’s coastal and fisheries funding opportunities from 2022 to 2023 totaled $717 million but are expected to generate over $1.4 billion and create over 7,800 jobs.

NOAA in Your Community

Headlines of NOAA’s shrinking budget and massive staff cuts have dominated the news, but it can be difficult to understand NOAA’s work on a regional level and, therefore, how these cuts might impact communities. EDF has created the NOAA Footprint map to illustrate NOAA’s presence across the U.S as of January 2025. Data for the map was compiled from NOAA’s publicly available “NOAA in Your State and Territory” documents and other official sources.

Between National Weather Service outposts, research institutions, labs, programs, partnerships and other NOAA facilities, NOAA has local benefits nationwide. In our new interactive map, all 735 NOAA sites nationwide are broken down by federal budget line item so you can see which how specific budget cuts would impact your community.