Durham man nominated to lead NOAA. Confirmation hearing comes as storms ravage US

Durham resident Neil Jacobs Jr. was listening to NOAA weather radio at a campsite in Florida around 10 p.m. when he realized a tornado was coming toward him.

He got in his vehicle and drove through the campsite blowing his horn alerting other campers of the fast-approaching danger.

After evacuating the site, he and his fellow campers drove to an emergency room — the closest sturdy building — to wait out the storm.

The storm leveled their campsite.

“A NOAA weather radio saved my life in 1996,” Jacobs testified before Congress on Wednesday. “And there’s a lot of other things we can do as far as communications.”

NOAA confirmation hearing

Jacobs, now 51, sat before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for the confirmation hearing for his nomination by President Donald Trump to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA.

Trump nominated Jacobs for the position before, during his first term, but Jacobs, despite being approved by the committee, never made it to a floor vote.

In a typical week, Jacobs’ nomination, and his story, may have gone unnoticed, but on Wednesday, the hearing was standing-room only and it was clear from not only his words, but those of the committee members, that this was anything but normal.

Since January, 27 extreme weather events have taken place.

And since Friday, flash floods have killed more than 100 people in Texas, five in North Carolina and three in New Mexico. More than 170 people are still missing in the Texas flood.

And the deaths included 27 children and a counselor at Camp Mystic in the Hill Country of Texas.

“My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones in the devastating Texas floods,” Jacobs said. “As a parent with two kids in summer camp right now, I can’t imagine what these families are going through.”

Jacobs’ resume includes degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of South Carolina and a doctorate in atmospheric science from NC State.

He served as assistant secretary for Environmental Observation and Prediction and as acting secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.

Sharpie-gate

But Democrats on the committee weren’t going to let Jacobs leave his confirmation hearing without bringing up a 2019 weather controversy he faced. The controversy is well-known, though Jacobs’ involvement might have escaped those outside the weather community.

It was then that Trump took a Sharpie to a model of Hurricane Dorian and said that he expected the storm to hit Alabama hard, despite forecasting. His statements immediately drew reaction from the National Weather Service in Alabama, which tried to quell fears of residents there and explain that science did not support Trump’s assessment. But Jacobs was found in violation of NOAA’s scientific integrity policy, by a panel commissioned by the agency to investigate, after he helped draft a statement on behalf of the agency supporting Trump’s map, The New York Times reported.

The storm missed Alabama.

At the time, Jacobs told the Department of Commerce and the inspector general that it felt like his job was on the line if he didn’t support Trump, and that he would make the same decision again, fearing what a statement might look like without him, CBS News reported then.

“I just had constituents die in New Mexico; there’s constituents dying in Texas,” Sen. Ben Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, told Jacobs. “Would you sign an inaccurate statement due to political pressure in the same event?”

“No, sir,” Jacobs said.

Lujan told Jacobs he “very much appreciated” his answer.

NOAA budget cuts

Jacobs was one of three people facing a confirmation hearing Wednesday. Taylor Jordan, of Washington, is nominated to be assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction within NOAA and Harry Kumar, of New York, is nominated to be assistant secretary of commerce for legislative and intergovernmental affairs.

But due to the ongoing storm recovery missions throughout the United States, with more storms forecast in the coming days, Jacobs was asked the most questions. Concerns appeared to be bipartisan, with senators looking for better and more robust technology to warn their constituents about impending natural disasters.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, the committee’s top Democrat, questioned why U.S. officials were allowing Europe to outpace the country in forecast models.

Jacobs told senators he wants to see enhanced weather forecasting, wants to advance and modernize weather radios, and would work with lawmakers in finding ways to alert people about impending floods.

Several Democrats, including Cantwell and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, expressed concerns that Trump wants to cut NOAA’s funding by 27%.

“Gutting NOAA is a costly mistake that Americans would pay the price for through rising home insurance rates, destroyed communities and in some cases, their lives,” Blunt Rochester told Jacobs.

Jacobs said he supports the cuts, adding that the agency’s mission could be preserved within other departments.

“It’s my hope for certain things that we’re looking at, basically the building mission requirements of the forecasting capacities that the weather service takes over a lot of that, and some other aspects transfer to the Ocean Service,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs also agreed that staffing needs to be a top priority and the weather service needs to have people on the ground locally.

“It’s really important for the people to be there because they have relationships with the people in the local community, where trusted sources are,” Jacobs said. “I would love for people to be more embedded in the community.”

Jacobs told senators he also agreed human activities, like greenhouse gas emissions, played a dominant role in observed warming since the mid-20th century .

“Obviously there’s a lot of lot of natural signals that are mixed in there too,” Jacobs said. “And so in the absence of any natural signals that might dominate that, yes, sir, there’s human influence, is certainly there.”

The committee did not immediately take action on Jacobs’ nomination. A vote is usually scheduled at a later date.

This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM.

Danielle Battaglia

McClatchy DC

Danielle Battaglia is the congressional impact reporter for The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, leading coverage of the impact of North Carolina’s congressional delegation and the White House. Her career has spanned three North Carolina newsrooms where she has covered crime, courts and local, state and national politics. She has won two McClatchy President’s awards and numerous national and state awards for her work.