Who We Are
The National Weather Service
is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings
for the United States. Television weathercasters and private
meteorology companies prepare their forecasts using this information.
The NWS is the sole United States official voice for issuing
warnings during life-threatening weather situations. The weather
service has about 4,800 employees and an operating budget of
approximately $680 million.
What We Do
The National Weather Service provides weather, hydrologic,
and climate forecasts
and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent
waters and ocean areas, to protect life and property and enhance
the national economy. The National Weather Service has a national
infrastructure in place to gather and process data from the land,
This includes data from familiar
technologies such as weather radars and satellites and also less-familiar
technologies such as data buoys for marine observations and surface
observing systems for data that help the aviation industry. The
National Weather Service's highly trained and skilled workforce
uses sophisticated computer models, and high-speed communications
systems to generate data, outlooks, forecasts and warnings.
The National Weather Service
is completing a $4.5 billion modernization program. When the
program is complete over the next several years, the agency
will be a leaner, more efficient operation, with 121 field offices,
13 River Forecast Centers, and nine national centers. The modernized,
streamlined weather service is good government and supports NOAA's
commitment to creating a government that works better and costs
less.
Ongoing research and development
efforts yield breakthroughs in all areas of weather, hydrologic
and climate forecasting. Advances in climate forecast modeling,
for example, allowed National Weather Service scientists to predict
the onset of the 1997-98 El
Niño event as early as late 1996.
The National Weather Service
maintains the largest meteorological telecommunications switching
center in the world, sending and receiving around 400,000 weather
bulletins each day through a gateway in Silver Spring, Md. This
data originates from weather offices around the country.
Weather warnings don't mean anything
if they aren't received by those in harm's way. The National
Weather Service broadcasts public life-saving information during
severe weather events and other hazardous situations on the NOAA
Weather Radio network. The newest models of NOAA
Weather Radios can be programmed to sound an alert for individual
counties. This feature has been known to wake people with warnings
when they are asleep. In addition, the National Weather Service
relies on its partners in emergency management and the media
to help get out severe warnings and critical forecasts keeping
communities safe.
The National Weather Service
uses the Internet to reach a growing number of the online population.
Information includes official forecasts and warnings as well
as outlooks and summaries on climate topics such as El Niño.
Most weather service Internet sites are linked to the National
Weather Service home page at the following address: http://www.nws.noaa.gov
What Are the Benefits
Weather services cost each American about $4 a year the same
price as a hamburger, french fries and a shake. This investment
of tax dollars allows the National Weather Service to issue more
than 734,000 forecasts (fire weather, public, aviation, marine)
and 850,000 river and flood forecasts annually. Each year, the
National Weather Service issues between 45,000 and 50,000 potentially
life-saving severe weather warnings.
Every day, millions of weather-based
economic decisions are made in agriculture, transportation, power,
construction, and other sectors of the economy. Weather and flood
conditions affect the entire economy in many direct and indirect
ways. Better weather, hydrologic and climate forecasts and information
bring new economic opportunities to almost every sector of the
economy. The labor-intensive construction industry contributes
more than $200 billion annually to the U.S. economy, and is directly
dependent on accurate short- and long-range weather forecasts.
National Weather Service forecasts are also critical to the commercial
and private transportation sector, including airline shipping
and trucking industries, nationally and internationally. Airlines,
for example, rely on short-term forecasts to best position their
aircraft and adjust flight routes. Long-term climate forecasts
help city managers better manage the
purchase of resources such as salt and sand for roads and sidewalks.
Hyrdrologic forecasts help
communities protect their property by preparing for floods.
The National Weather Service
has a vision of becoming a "no surprise weather service,"
and that goal is becoming a reality today. For example, the weather
service has doubled the warning lead-time for tornados from approximately
5-10 minutes over the last five years. These extra minutes save
lives. Today's three-to-four day forecast is as accurate as the
two day forecast was 15 years ago. The National Weather Service
is working to make the 6-10 day forecast as accurate as the forecast
for tomorrow.
Products issued around the clock
by the National Weather Service affect the lives of every American.
Important advances in the science of meteorology and hydrology,
coupled with major new technological capabilities for observing
and analyzing the atmosphere, will allow the National Weather
Service to continue providing unprecedented weather services
to the Nation.
