Weather Service Could Furlough 5,000 Workers Due To Budget Crunch?

A cash crunch at the National Weather Service means that up to 5,000 federal workers may find themselves without paychecks for two weeks this summer, should Congress fail to allocate the $36 million the agency needs to meet payroll through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

"[The move] would require each employee to be furloughed for 13 days, or the equivalent of at least one full pay period," staggered over the summer, reports WOKV.com, citing a fact sheet from the Commerce Department, which oversees the Weather Service.

But the furloughs won't merely affect the government workers' bank accounts. As The Washington Post reports, the cutbacks come at the height of the hurricane season, and the forced time off could disrupt critical forecasting and other operations that the NWS provides.