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Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency layoffs at the Oklahoma National Weather Center raise safety concerns during tornado season.

Former NOAA officials warned that jobs cuts undermine critical weather forecasting and basic science that companies and communities rely on.

Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired

The cuts could have life-or-death consequences, according to critics of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.

A federal judge in California ruled late Thursday President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firings of probationary government employees were illegal, siding with a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit groups.

Mark Eakin, a recently retired NOAA veteran who ran its Coral Reef Watch program for many years, told the Miami Herald he was alarmed by the “indiscriminate” slashes throughout the agency, which oversees everything from cutting-edge climate research to day-to-day operations that farmers and fishers rely on, as well as life-saving weather warnings.

Elon Musk threatened to fire even more federal workers if they did not respond to his email demanding a list of five tasks completed.

NOAA staff members, like thousands of others, were caught up in the mass terminations underway in the federal government.