H.R. 5089

Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025

Sponsor: Frank D. Lucas

26 cosponsors
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Official summary

Written by the Congressional Research Service.

Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2025 or the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025

This bill reauthorizes, revises, and establishes several programs related to weather forecasting, monitoring, and research. 

For example, the bill reauthorizes through FY2030 programs that are administered by the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including the U.S. Weather Research Program. It also provides statutory authority for NOAA's Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (known as VORTEX-USA).

The bill also requires NOAA to establish programs that support weather forecasting technology, including improvements to radar accuracy, weather forecasting in underserved areas, and coastal flooding forecasting. NOAA must also acquire weather-related data from the private sector and establish a pilot program to test the compatibility of this data with NOAA infrastructure. 

In addition, NOAA must improve weather-related communication systems, including those related to hazardous weather events, through system upgrades that use more modern technology (e.g., cloud-based services) and that allow for expanded coverage (e.g., in rural areas).

Finally, NOAA must administer programs that support weather forecasting for agricultural and water management, including pilot programs to improve precipitation forecasts in the western and central states and a soil moisture monitoring network. 

Text of the bill

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I Reauthorization of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017

II Enhancing Federal Weather Forecasting and Innovation

III Commercial Weather and Environmental Observations

IV Communicating Weather to the Public

V Improving Weather Information for Agriculture and Water Management

Sec. 501. Weather and climate information in agriculture and water management

Section 1762 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (15 U.S.C. 8521) is amended—

(1) by amending subsection (h) to read as follows:

Text this section adds to the law

(h) Subseasonal to seasonal forecasting pilot projects

(1) Establishment. The Under Secretary shall establish not fewer than two pilot projects, in accordance with paragraph (2), within the U.S. Weather Research Program of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support improved subseasonal to seasonal precipitation forecasts for the following:

(A) Water management in the western United States.

(B) Agriculture in the central United States.

(2) Objectives. In carrying out this subsection, the Under Secretary shall ensure the following:

(A) A pilot project under subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) addresses key science challenges to improving forecasts and developing related products for water management in the western United States, including the following:

(i) Improving operational model resolution, both horizontal and vertical, to resolve issues associated with mountainous terrain, such as intensity of precipitation and relative fraction of rain versus snow precipitation.

(ii) Improving fidelity in the operational modeling of the atmospheric boundary layer in mountainous regions.

(iii) Resolving challenges in predicting winter atmospheric circulation and storm tracks, including periods of blocked versus unblocked flow over the eastern North Pacific Ocean and western United States.

(iv) Utilizing outcomes from the Atmospheric Rivers Forecast Improvement Program as authorized in section 204 of the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025 to produce operational tools and services.

(v) Improving the quality and temporal and spatial resolution of observations and accurate operational modeling of air-sea interactions, and the influence of oceans on subseasonal and seasonal forecasting.

(B) A pilot project under subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) addresses key science challenges to improving forecasts and developing related products for agriculture in the central United States, including the following:

(i) Improving the quality and temporal and spatial resolution of observations and accurate operational modeling of the land surface and hydrologic cycle, including soil moisture and flash drought processes.

(ii) Improving fidelity in the operational modeling of warm season precipitation processes.

(iii) Understanding and predicting large-scale upper-level dynamical flow anomalies that occur in spring and summer.

(3) Activities. A pilot project under this subsection shall include activities that carry out the following:

(A) Best implement recommendations of the National Weather Service’s 2020 Report, entitled Subseasonal and Seasonal Forecasting Innovation: Plans for the Twenty-First Century.

(B) Achieve measurable objectives for operational forecast improvement.

(C) Engage with, and leverage the resources of, institutions of higher education (as such term is defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)), or a consortia thereof, and entities within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in existence as of the date of the enactment of this subsection, including Regional Climate Centers and the National Centers for Environmental Information.

(D) Are carried out in coordination with the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Director of the National Weather Service.

(4) Sunset. The authority under this subsection shall terminate on the date that is five years after the date of the enactment of this subsection.

; and

(2) by amending subsection (j) to read as follows:

Text this section adds to the law

(j) Authorization of appropriations. There are authorized to be appropriated $50,300,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out the activities under this section.