(Click on the pictures to make them larger).
The NWS is in a beautiful 5-story building on the campus of the University of Oklahoma (OU).
The building houses the OU School of Meteorology. Two students conducted the tour. One is in his sophomore year and the other is working on his doctorate. The tour started in the vehicle bay for a look at radar and research trucks.
There’s two mesonet vehicles. They were banged up with hail damage, and one had a broken windshield and side mirror, and a cracked headlight. All "battle" damage from rolling through severe thunderstorms.
They're basically mobile weather stations, with instruments mounted on the roof to measure temperature, humidity, wind speed, and rain amounts.
This is the equipment repair room. Students learn how to keep the equipment in good condition, everything from radar equipment to weather balloons.
We went up to the observation deck on the roof, where they have a small agricultural garden to study the effects of plants and soil on the weather.
A view looking down at the atrium from the fifth floor to the first.
The building houses many activities and research labs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It also has the Storm Prediction Center, which is the heartbeat of the National Weather Service. All the weather advisories, warnings, and alerts for the whole U.S. originate from this room.
Right next door is the Oklahoma City/Norman Forecast Office. They're the "local" forecasters. They keep their TV's tuned to all the local stations so that when they issue severe weather warnings they make sure they're broadcast to local TV viewers. There are hundreds of local NWS offices like this all over the U.S.
In the lobby is "Science on a Sphere." It's a globe that has a continuous images projected on it from four different projectors, showing weather maps in real time. It's fascinating to look at. Our tour guide said they turned it into a disco ball for an entertainment event they had recently.
There’s flat screen monitors all over the building showing the current weather.
It was a wonderful two hour tour of a great establishment. I’m so glad I got to take the tour, I learned so much.
Before heading home we took a drive around the campus. It's very large and spread out, and very pretty. One facility that's hard to miss is the large football stadium. They love their Sooners football team!
It was a great day.
6 comments:
I didn't know you could tour the Norman facility! I am a weather junky myself..we'll have to check it out.
It sounds like a fascinating tour. I am interested in weather patterns and how storms on our eastern seaboard eventually cross over to the western part of Europe.
My dad was a ham operator, and was on the radio every minute he wasn't at work during the Alaskan earthquake back in the 1950's(?). I remember him relaying messages and "patching" people through to loved ones. In those days that was the only way to get info and the hams kept the flow of info going.
Fascinating tour and one that I would never have thought of. Thanks for the info.
One of my daughter's a weather junky. I don't know where she got that inclination, but she would get a charge out of touring that place.
A radio operator's dream tour and day's outing....
Now I'm jealous as heck.... Rod
That was an awesome tour. How cool to see all the equipment behind the scenes of weather forcasting.
Those instruments on top of the van looked mighty delicate, wonder how they survive hailstorms?
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