Where will the national weather center be?

[DHall]

As we all know, Atlanta is home to the national weather center, which there have been specs that they may leave town for Norman. They currently do all of their research and readings out of Norman, but will they move their headquarters and broadcasting operations for Norman as well? There is no doubt that Norman is a better place, with the university and the plethera of existing high tech companies, but after the construction of 3 more weather esearch centers on campus, I seriously doubt they won't jump in on all the excitement.

One of the newest of these complexes, built for the NOAA.

The nws's current Norman complex.

edit:

A better pic of the new NOAA center.

another edit: How is that for some pretty sweet architecture?

[Brickell]

national weather center???

what are you going on about.

the NWS is based out of the DC area.

Norman is probably 3rd in the number of meterologist in the US anyway. DC and Boulder ahead of them. Probably follwed by miami.

there's is nothing based in atlanta besides a regional weather office as far as i know.

[DHall]

No, I am actually speaking of the nws. The weather channel is also based out of Atlanta. I don't know what all Boulder has... maybe too many affiliates.

[Brickell]

Outside a WFO, there is nothing in Atlanta. So what exactly are you getting from them?

Are you making stuff up?

[DHall]

It's all on OU's website. David Boren wrote a page on, "What Weather Means To Norman"

Maybe you can't see, but the NWS is no even entirely "in" DC, The Alder building on campus is home to the forecasting department, which is really most of NWS.

What is a WFO.

We also got atleast a good handful of meteorology corporations from ATLANTA. Not DC, or even Boulder.

[DHall]

From the NOAA's website, it looks like they are based out of Norman. The NWS's Forecasting Department, most of the NWS, is in fact already in place at Norman.

Weather Underground, some of you may know them from their neat little website, is in Norman, from their Website.

A company called Weather News came over to Norman from Atlanta.

Weather Decision Technologies recently moved over from ATLANTA.

The NWS does their radio program out of NORMAN.

Weather Risk Management LLC came over from Atlanta as well.

I beg to differ that Atlanta was not important to the weather industry, and that the industry has shifted to Norman.

[DHall]

http://etecok.com/nedc/weather1.html

The website for the Norman Economic Development Coalition. The link is for the page about the weather industry located in Norman. Need I mention that the National Weather Center is headquartered in Norman, and always has been? The University of Oklahoma, among some of it's renowned tradition and programs, is the nation's best Meteorology program, that has produced some of the nation's finest weatherman, like Gary England, or Paul Cantore.

[DHall]

I suppose this goes to show what any city make out of a curse. Norman's curse is wicked weather, and their savior is hte University of Oklahoma, with it's famed engineering schools.

[monsoon]

[DHall]

O.K. So they have a suped up meteorology department. That just means they employ more weathermen than anywhere else. It means nothing else.

[monsoon]

[DHall]

I wouldn't compare it to Atlanta or Norman however. I will look into this "Accuweather" thing. Sounds like some new technology company, nothing big.

But... It is impossible to say a single company can override the effect of the NWS Forecasting Department (or this alone) the National Weather Center, the NOAA, and the nation's best weather program. In fact, I wonder what your source is. I seriously doubt you have any validity now that I figure it.

[monsoon]

[Brickell]

the national weather center is just a name. It's not national and it has little to do with the national weather service.

They do a lot of work in Norman. The National Server Storms Laboratory and the Storm Prediction Center are both there. OU has a fine meteorology program, but I wouldn't call it the best. Penn State is usually considered tops and largest. U of Chicago is the best if you take into accout their historical work.

[Brickell]

Empire, I think your homerism is clouding your view of the industry.

[DHall]

Oh dear. We have no sources.

http://geosciences.ou.edu/index/menu.php

Firstly, it looks like forbes seems to say Oklahoma does indeed have the nation's best school of meteorology.

[DHall]

Yeah, I probably have a little homerism. But it's all good because it counters the general public's view of Oklahoma. Which goes something like, Cowboys, Indians, Oilers, Bison, and prairie grass.

[Brickell]

i see nothing on that link that backs up that claim. i've never seen any rankings of meteorology programs. if you can find one i'll be more than glad to see it.

[monsoon]

[Brickell]

Other important weather offices...

Central Pacific Hurricane Center - Honolulu

Joint Typhoon Warning Center - Guam

National Severe Storms Laboratory - Norman

Storm Prediction Center - Norman

Tropical Precition Center/National Hurricane Center - Miami

Hurricane Research Division - Miami

National Climactic Data Center - Asheville

Climate Prediction Center - DC

Aviation Weather Center - Kansas City

Space Weather Center - Boulder

NWS Headquarters - DC

Ocean Preciction Center - DC

I don't think there's a point to this, only to show that like a lot of federal agencies, they like to spread the work around.

[Spartan]

Firstly, it looks like forbes seems to say Oklahoma does indeed have the nation's best school of meteorology.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is true. I had a friend who was considering being a meteorologist and he reasearched the various schools. He had it down to The one in Oklahoma and one in Mississippi. I think it was Ole Miss- not sure though.

[Brickell]

^ it really depends on what you're looking for. Meteorological schools are few and far between so they tend to be pretty competive. If you're looking for macroscale thunderstorm and tornado research, you certainly can't go wrong with OU. If you're into tropical weather, however, UM, Coloroda State and Hawaii might be more to your liking. I was a meteorology student for 2 years. Penn State definitely gets the most pub.

The school in Mississippi is Mississippi State University. It doesn't get much respect from what I can tell. I think they're mainly for broadcast people.

[Brickell]

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/edu/schools.html

You can see how few schools offer a full degree program, with specific Meteorological or Atmospheric Science departments/schools.

[Tornado]

Wow. There are so many misconceptions and factual errors in this entire thread, in almost every post, that I wouldn't even know where to start in correcting them all, point by point. Almost none of the posts so far are really accurate! So instead I'll just set things straight the best I can. Please click on the links to learn full details on any of the organizations there.

The National Weather Center is a series of buildings on the OU South Research Campus in Norman, OK. Nothing whatsoever moved there from Atlanta.

The main building ( under construction, to be completed early next year) is a six story edifice with rooftop weather observatory. It will house each of these weather related entities:

* OU School of Meteorology (OUSOM)

* National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)

* NOAA's Storm Prediction Center (SPC)

* Central Oklahoma weather forecast office (WFO) of the National Weather Service

* Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS, a research institute)

* Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS, another research institute)

* International Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Research (NHDR)

* Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS)

* Center for Spatial Analysis (CSA)

* Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC)

* Sasaki Institute (research-outreach entity)

...along with parts of other weather agencies in the area, mainly radar outfits.

Two smaller and adjacent structures, already finished, house the Stephenson Center for Research and Technology (SCRT) and WeatherNews Americas, which is the U.S. branch of the world's largest private weather firm, WNI (WeatherNews International). The parent company is the largest private weather company in the world, dwarfing both The Weather Channel and AccuWeather; however most of them work in the company's Japanese world headquarters.

If you are interested in construction practices and how the main NWC building is being done, see this neat little story from Associated Construction Publications.

That's enough for now!

===== Roger Edwards =====

Meteorologist and Photographer

Norman OK

[sandiego2]

What station in Oklahoma City (I take it that it is OKC you work in) do you work at?

If it's either 3, 5, or 9 I must be talking to a celebrity! *blushes*

Anyway, I have been somewhat marooned in the Sooner state lately, but it's nice to see some authority in this thread for once.

You also have some very nice photographs on your website.