U.S. senators are set to interview President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday in a confirmation hearing that may be charged with concern over whether massive cuts to the agency’s workforce may have contributed to the deaths of more than 100 people when torrential rain flooded Central Texas early Friday. In the five months since Trump chose Neil Jacobs to serve as NOAA administrator, hundreds of NOAA scientists and meteorologists have left the agency through firings, buyouts and retirements. … Jacobs has emphasized a need for the United States to improve the accuracy of its weather forecasting models, which routinely perform worse than models operated in Europe and, at times, Canada. He has most recently served as chief science adviser for the Unified Forecast System, an initiative he has spearheaded to improve U.S. weather and climate forecasting accuracy using government, academic and private-sector data.

Other NOAA news:

• E&E News by Politico: NOAA nominees face questions on Texas floods, staff cuts
• Axios: Blog: Trump’s NOAA pick vows strong weather forecasting amid criticism
• Politico: A month after getting permission, NWS still hasn’t posted help wanted ads
• UPI: NOAA still confident in weather forecasting after Pentagon program ends