Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office in Boulder after the Trump administration laid off hundreds of workers from the agency.

NOAA, situated under the Commerce Department, is instrumental in climate research and houses the National Weather Service, which provides detailed forecasts and weather modeling. In Colorado, NOAA maintains laboratories in Boulder, while the National Weather service has forecasting offices covering Boulder, Grand Junction and Pueblo.

About a thousand people, many of them retirees who had worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gathered Monday in Boulder to protest last week's firings of federal government