Slidell’s NWS office takes it personal to always be right
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The weather might be the most talked about topic on the face of the earth.
Everyone cares about it.
“What’s the weather going to be like today?”
“Is it going to rain?”
“Do you think we might get snow?”
The weather forecast that virtually everyone checks in on daily is something taken for granted by the majority of the population—we always know the forecast is there and we usually only complain when it turns out to be a bit off.
But taking the forecast for granted is hardly something you will see from the large group of meteorologists who work at the Southeast Louisiana office for the National Weather Service (NWS), which happens to be on Airport Road in Slidell.
Approximately 30 meteorologists or support staff work there, and the office is staffed by a minimum of three people, 365 days a year and 24 hours every day. Most of the time there are many more in the office working together to come up with important forecasts that cover a gamut of topics.
One walk into the main office space quickly tells you how serious it is for NWS staff to get their forecasts right. There are more than a dozen large TV screens on the wall with maps and data, not to mention meteorologists with two or three computer screens at many of the desks.
Most people have no idea how many weather topics they are responsible to forecast. Besides the daily weather, precipitation and temperatures and things like river stages, tornado possibilities, high wind warnings, hurricanes, fire-related weather, aviation forecasts, climate predictions, ocean predictions and even general environmental modeling.
The weatherperson on TV is the one who draws the most attention when the average citizen thinks about forecasts, but behind the scenes there are dozens of college-trained meteorologists who spend every minute of the day reviewing tons of data and maps to come up with the final big call of the day—the forecast.
“People normally notice us when we miss a forecast,” said Meteorologist Lauren Nash, one of the Slidell staffers. “Our goal every day is to review all of this data, and then come up with a forecast that we hope is correct. And quite honestly, yes, we take it a little personally when we miss—it’s that important to us to get it right.”
All the warnings of any kind for the Southeast Louisiana area, as well as eight counties in Mississippi, come from the Slidell office, one of over 120 similar offices throughout the country.
“Most people think about the TV meteorologist when they consider weather and forecasting,” Nash said. “But we are the ones who come up with every watch or warning there is. That takes a constant review of data—it never stops, and it is always changing.”
As we toured the Slidell office there was a brief announcement about Thursday’s high temperature of the day that hit 84 last week. It broke the record for that day in history.
Nash made a good point in noting the challenge faced every day by meteorologists to come up with an exact forecast.
“Think about it. Can you predict the winning lottery ticket? What about the stock market, or what college you will go to? Most of those things require a lot of information gathered, which helps you make the prediction,” she said. “But even then, you might end up making a prediction that isn’t always right.”
The office also goes to schools and puts on educational classes, while they have more than their share of classes or individuals who come to the Slidell NWS office for a tour, something the entire staff takes turns doing.
Then, twice a day at all NWS offices in the country, a weather balloon is released into the atmosphere that goes approximately 100,000 feet in the air before popping. Connected to the balloon on a long string is a small unit that gathers information of all kinds as it goes higher.
“We have gauges all over the place to read temperatures and other data on the ground,” Nash noted. “But this allows us to get readings from different heights into the sky. It can prove very helpful when we have dangerous weather coming since we can read troughs of air moving at higher levels.”
She said that when Hurricane Sandy was heading up the east coast the NWS offices were releasing their weather balloon four times a day. It helped them determine where the higher wind troughs were that would move Sandy inland.
Nash also said that for those students who decide to get a meteorology degree at college, there are many more jobs than people think.
Besides working at any of the NWS offices or with any media, there are jobs needing meteorology degrees with electric companies, private companies, oil and gas, insurance companies, airlines, research and technology.
Starting pay for NWS meteorologists is somewhere in the $50,000 range, and you can earn well over $100,000 after 15 years with the agency.
The Slidell office, like others around the country, has access to weather conditions anywhere in the world and can connect to those sites with the press of a computer button, all thanks to thousands of weather satellites that are far up in the sky.
As for the person to finally put together the weather forecast for the day, Nash said it can come from a single meteorologist who gathers all the information, or it can be a team decision when more critical situations approach.
“Everything we do, and all the time we study this data every day, is about making the most accurate forecast we can,” Nash said. “And it’s something we take very seriously. We are the ones more than anyone who don’t like when it is wrong.”