Weathering The Woke Storm: NOAA DEI Policies Under Fire

By Jeffrey Schwartz  |  BwB National Weather Desk

MIAMI, FL -- The White House announced this week that the National Weather Service may lose its funding if it continues using what officials describe as “radically woke hurricane names” introduced during the Biden administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

Boardwalk Barker’s Chief Meteorologist, Aura Moon-Caldwell, got a sneak preview of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane roster. It features storms such as Hurricane Sha’Quisha, Hurricane Omolara, and Hurricane Waleska. Moon-Caldwell reports the list of names was created to “ensure a more representative range of identities for America’s natural disasters.”

“These storms have historically favored a narrow subset of names,” a NOAA statement explained. “We recognize that whiteness in meteorology has left too many communities unseen in the path of destruction.”

But critics say the DEI approach has gone too far, “For hundreds of years, hurricanes had strong, American names,” said former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pensacola. “Andrew, Michael, Katrina — beautiful names, very successful names. Now we’ve got hurricanes I can’t even pronounce. They’re making weather woke, folks. It’s a disaster — maybe the biggest one yet.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also vowed to “restore traditional storm values,” promising to create a Patriotic Weather Task Force to rename future storms “after Founding Fathers and good, hard-working freedom words.”

FEMA Director David Richardson defended the initiative when it was first introduced, insisting it’s about fairness.  “Our mission is inclusion in destruction,” Richardson said. “Every community deserves equal opportunity to rebuild.”

When he announced the program in 2023, President Joe Biden, speaking from the Rose Garden, celebrated the move but appeared confused about the specifics.

“Look, folks, when I was growing up, storms had names like Donna and Hazel. Now we’ve got—uh—Shar-something-or-other. That’s progress, man. We’re blowing equality into the atmosphere.”

Despite backlash, the National Weather Service said it will continue its new naming policy, noting that “Equity in hurricane-naming outcomes has long been a goal of this agency that has, until now, eluded us. Representation matters,” the agency’s statement concluded. “For the first time, everyone can see themselves reflected in the eye of the storm.”

A White House spokesman responded sharply, “The director will probably be fired by Monday if he can’t do his job and return our tropical storm naming to its roots. WASPy storm names are our heritage, and liberals are trying to destroy that.”

Activists say they will not give up until meteorologists also stop assuming hurricane genders.

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