The Weather Company Lays Off Dozens

The Weather Company, which operates the popular websites Weather.com and Weather Underground, and offers forecast and weather graphics services to many industries, has slashed dozens of jobs, part of a wave of large-scale layoffs imposed by its parent company, IBM. The layoffs were announced internally May 21, and the last day for affected workers is June 22.

The total number of IBM jobs cut worldwide, linked to the economic downturn tied to the covid-19 pandemic, has not been disclosed but is likely in the thousands, according to The Washington Post citing reports at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

For weather enthusiasts, one of the most recognizable casualties of the cuts is the shuttering of Weather Underground’s Category 6 blog, started by Weather Underground co-founder Jeff Masters in 2005.

The blog has been a centerpiece of the Weather Underground website, which is a hub of weather forecasts, data and maps. Masters, who holds a doctorate in meteorology and served for four years as a flight meteorologist for NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters, co-founded the company in 1995 and sold it to the Weather Company in 2012.

Most recently, the Category 6 blog has been run by meteorologist and weather journalist Bob Henson, who is among those laid off. Henson confirmed that updates to the blog will cease after June 22, when he departs.

The blog, which launched in 2005, became a destination for in-depth commentary on extreme weather events. Best known for its hurricane updates, which expertly dissected computer model forecasts, it covered the most significant weather stories all over the world, offering fresh analysis and details often not available elsewhere.