A federal judge in Denver issued a temporary injunction Monday blocking the Trump administration from breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, one of the country’s premier weather and climate research facilities, ruling that the move appeared arbitrary and showed signs of politically motivated retaliation against Colorado.
The court order halted the National Science Foundation’s effort to strip NCAR of its supercomputer and restructure the lab’s operations. NCAR, based in Boulder, is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research under a federal cooperative agreement. The supercomputing center it operates jointly with Wyoming hosts critical modeling systems used by federal agencies, universities, and the military.
Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote, as per The Hill, that the science foundation “failed to abide its own process to consider public feedback before proceeding with the transfer.”
He added that the lab “supports the efficient and uninterrupted data collection that supports more accurate climate-prediction modeling, which in turn is used to mitigate harmful extreme weather events that are a feature of our world,” and went on to note, “Any degradation in forecasting, modeling, or related scientific capabilities carries real-world consequences, including potential harm to property and human life.”
NCAR was established in 1960 and has since become one of the most significant atmospheric science institutions in the world. Its supercomputing resources support weather forecasting models, hurricane research, and air quality monitoring, among other functions. Losing access to those systems would disrupt work across dozens of universities and federal programs that rely on NCAR’s infrastructure.
The initial decision to shut down the lab comes as the Trump administration sought to combat climate alarmism. “The National Science Foundation will be breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said last year, adding, “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country. A comprehensive review is underway & any vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”
