National Weather Service Norman, Oklahoma
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National Weather Service - Norman, Oklahoma (office identification code: OUN) is a Weather Forecast Office (WFO) of the
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
based in Norman,
Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
, which is responsible for forecasts and the dissemination of weather warnings and advisories for central and most of
western Oklahoma On a simple east/west basis, Western Oklahoma is popularly considered that part of the state west of I-35. I-35 creates a north/south line through the approximate center of the main body of the state (i.e., without regard for the Oklahoma Panhand ...
(with the exception of the
panhandle A salient, panhandle, or bootheel is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state. While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Ins ...
), and western portions of
north Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
. It is located in the
National Weather Center The National Weather Center (NWC), on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, is a confederation of federal, state, and academic organizations that work together to better understand events that take place in Earth's atmosphere over a wide rang ...
on the
University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
campus, where it acts as one of the NOAA Weather Partners, a group of close-together weather-related agencies of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
. NWS Norman is currently overseen by Mark Fox, who serves as the Meteorologist In Charge of the office. The Norman Weather Forecast Office – which operates as a branch of the National Weather Service's Southern Region Headquarters (SRH) division – manages three
NEXRAD NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 159 high-resolution S-band pulse-Doppler radar, Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ...
(WSR-88D)
Doppler weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pu ...
sites that cover its area of forecasting responsibility, based in
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
(radar identification code: TLX), serving central Oklahoma;
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(FDR), serving
southwestern Oklahoma Southwest Oklahoma is a geographical name for the southwest portion of the state of Oklahoma, typically considered to be south of the Canadian River, extending eastward from the Texas border to a line roughly from Weatherford, Oklahoma, Weatherfo ...
and western north Texas; and at
Vance Air Force Base Vance Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in southern Enid, Oklahoma, about north northwest of Oklahoma City. The base is named after local World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Robert V ...
(VNX), serving north-central and northwestern parts of Oklahoma, and portions of southern
Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...
. The office has earned widespread recognition from local media outlets, especially in concern with certain weather conditions that are or are forecast to occur. It has also received attention from national media, and was even recognized by
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.


History


Location

The U.S. Weather Bureau created the Central Oklahoma forecast office on November 1, 1890; it was originally based in
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
at the Overholser Opera House, on the southeast corner of Robinson Avenue and Grand Boulevard in the city's
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
district. Twelve years later, the Weather Bureau relocated the Oklahoma City office's operations to the Culbertson Building, at the southeast corner of Grand and Broadway Avenue, where it began operating from on July 1, 1902. (The former location at the Overholser Opera House was eventually demolished in 1964; the Myriad Convention Center was later built on the property, where it remains to this day, having since been repurposed as the film production facility Prairie Surf Studios.) The offices at the Culbertson Building was closed four years later on January 16, 1906, with the operations moving once again, this time to a newly constructed weather observatory located at 1923 Classen Boulevard in northwest Oklahoma City. In 1932, the office began to slowly migrate its forecasting operations and other functions from the observatory to a new Weather Bureau office based in an existing building at Will Rogers Airport on the city's southwestern edge, which opened on April 2 of that year. Eventually, an actual proprietary building to solely house the Weather Bureau office was constructed at the airport, where it moved on October 22, 1965. Shortly afterward, the U.S. Weather Bureau was renamed the
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
(NWS). On January 27, 1987, the National Weather Service moved its central Oklahoma office away from Oklahoma City (and
Oklahoma County Oklahoma County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 796,292, making it the most populous county in Oklahoma. The county seat is Oklahoma City, the state capital and ...
), and relocated its operations into a building that had been constructed specifically for NWS use in Cleveland County, at Max Westheimer Airport (now the
University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport (Max Westheimer Airport) is a public use airport in Norman, in Cleveland County, Oklahoma. It is owned by the University of Oklahoma. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2021–2025 ca ...
) in Norman. The
National Severe Storms Laboratory The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather research laboratory under the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories (RLs). NSS ...
(NSSL) followed the central Oklahoma office there in 1990. Then, in October 1995, the National Severe Storms Forecast Center – was subsequently renamed the
Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency that is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), operating under the control of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is part of the National Oceani ...
(SPC) – migrated its operations from
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
to a wing of the Max Westheimer Airport campus. On August 7, 2006, the National Weather Service office, the Storm Prediction Center and the National Severe Storms Laboratory began moving their respective operations into the newly constructed
National Weather Center The National Weather Center (NWC), on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, is a confederation of federal, state, and academic organizations that work together to better understand events that take place in Earth's atmosphere over a wide rang ...
building on the southern portion of the
University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...
's Research Campus.


Weather forecasting

The Norman Weather Forecast Office handles responsibility for the general forecasting and the issuance of watches, warnings and advisories for hazardous weather conditions for 48 counties in Oklahoma and eight counties in western
north Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
(with major cities served by the office including Oklahoma City, Lawton, Enid and
Wichita Falls Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita Counties. According to ...
). Though, as the Storm Prediction Center is responsible for issuing
severe thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorm ...
and
tornado watch A tornado watch ( SAME code: TOA) is a statement issued by weather forecasting agencies to advise the public that atmospheric conditions in a given region may lead to the development of tornadoes within (or near) the region over a period of seve ...
es, the Norman WFO only composes outline and status updates for SPC-issued watches affecting any portion of its designated County Warning Area. Under NOAA operational guidelines for such situations, responsibility over the issuance of forecasts – both routine and short-term – and weather alert products can be transferred to the National Weather Service office in
Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
in the event of an outage (such as a computer system failure or building-wide power disruption) or an emergency necessitating the enactment of evacuation procedures for NWS and guidance center personnel (such as an approaching strong tornadic circulation or
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
on the ground) that affects the Norman campus. (Prior to this plan of action being implemented, the NWS would also authorize local media to take over warning responsibilities. One notable instance in which such a situation occurred was on June 8, 1974, when a gas line rupture caused by an F3 tornado that touched down just southwest of the former Will Rogers Airport office – the first of 22 that hit Oklahoma and of five that affected the Oklahoma City area on that date, taking an northeastward track across the city – forced NWS officials to evacuate the building until the line was repaired; this resulted in NWS officials requesting to
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate WKY-TV's hannel 4, now KFOR-TV">KFOR-TV.html" ;"title="hannel 4, now KFOR-TV">hannel 4, now KFOR-TVchief meteorologist at the time, Jim Williams, to temporarily assume responsibility for issuing warnings on the unfolding outbreak until the office could resume operations.) The forecast office has been responsible for advance warning dissemination and short-term forecasting during many severe weather and winter weather events that have happened within the County Warning Area, including notable tornado outbreaks and other significant weather events that the Norman office's area of responsibility has been the site of. During the first week of May 1999, a major tornado outbreak affected portions of the Central and
Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...
, with the most severe activity impacting much of Oklahoma – especially locations within the Norman County Warning Area – on the late-afternoon and evening of May 3. The ninth tornado produced by the first
supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone, a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (su ...
was the most significant, becoming the first tornado recorded to have produced damage costs surpassing
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
1 billion. This tornado affected much of the southern portion of the
Oklahoma City metropolitan area The Oklahoma City metropolitan area is an urban region in Central Oklahoma. It is the largest metropolitan area in the state of Oklahoma and contains the state capital and principal city, Oklahoma City. It is often known as the Oklahoma City Metr ...
, and as it progressed over Bridge Creek in northeastern Grady County, a mobile
Doppler on Wheels Doppler on Wheels (DOW) is a fleet of quickly deployable truck-mounted weather radars managed by FARM (Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets), an American research company affiliated with the University of Alabama Huntsville. The group, which ...
radar recorded maximum wind speeds within the tornado at upper elevations at , among the highest winds known to have ever been observed on or near the Earth's surface. At 6:57 p.m. Central Time that evening, as the tornado tracked near
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
, the Norman office disseminated the first
tornado emergency A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences. Although it is not a new warning type from the NWS, issue ...
ever issued by the National Weather Service for
Moore Moore may refer to: Language * Mooré language, spoken in West Africa People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior ...
and southern Oklahoma City; the enhanced warning statement – which in its initial version, was issued as a separate Severe Weather Statement, and is now incorporated within a newly issued or a Special Weather Statement on an existing tornado warning to denote a damaging tornado affecting densely populated areas – was drafted by staff meteorologist David Andra (who would later be appointed Meteorologist in Charge of the Norman office in 2012), in order to convey to the public and local media outlets the heightened danger and imminent impact of the destructive tornado.


Websites

The National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office in Norman maintains a multitude of websites available to the public, which provide weather information for the Norman forecast area of responsibility. The Norman office's subpage within the main Weather.gov website includes a main page that contains a variety of information, including, but not limited to, pages featuring current conditions and extended point forecasts for cities served by the office, which can also be accessed through a point map that features active watches, warnings and advisories for the western two-thirds of Oklahoma and western north Texas; an updated roundup of weather observations throughout the County Warning Area at the current hour; information about past and present events involving the Norman forecast area; and, generally, a text-based Hazardous Weather Outlook. The NWS Norman office also operates
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
accounts on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
to provide short-term forecasts and weather alert information.


Local map

Among the features included by the Norman office's website is a localized forecast map that is accessible from its front page (similar to others that exist on the sites of other offices operating within the Southern Region Headquarters), which typically outlines current weather observations and forecasted weather conditions over the next two to five days within the Norman Forecast Area, and a diagram depicting a generalized seven-day forecast for the region (accessible through a selection of tabs which varies depending on the conditions expected). However, specialized maps are sometimes incorporated for expected hazardous weather events, including regionalized outlines of SPC-issued severe thunderstorm risk threats, and estimated precipitation amounts for upcoming and ongoing hydrological and winter weather events.


Observation data

The Norman office's website contains a list of
Automated Surface Observing System Airport weather stations are automated sensor suites which are designed to serve aviation and meteorological operations, weather forecasting and climatology. Automated airport weather stations have become part of the backbone of weather observing ...
sites overseen by the National Weather Service within its area of forecasting responsibility, which can be accessed through either the main page of the current weather subpage of the site. These include landing pages containing a log of observation data collected over the past three days at individual sites in region, with updated information generally being added at constant intervals that vary depending on each location.


Social media

The Norman WFO, like many of the other National Weather Service forecast offices, maintains a large social media presence in order to better communicate hazardous weather information and short-term forecast data to the public. The Norman office posts and uploads weather-related information of determined significance, such as warnings, forecasts, and other updates relevant to its area of forecast responsibility, via Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. On occasion, it also shares important or otherwise relevant links to other sites, as part of an attempt to keep people aware of upcoming weather conditions, particularly those of potential hazard to travel, life or property. , the Norman office's Twitter page had the most followers of any account on that site operated by a NWS WFO, with 26,866 followers, over 19,000 more than the 7,625 that follow the Boston WFO's page, which is the second highest total. In 2023, the Norman office's Twitter account had over 116,500 followers, just 400 more than the Boston's office Twitter account.


NOAA Weather Radio

The Norman Weather Forecast Office maintains twelve
NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, is an automated 24-hour network of Very high frequency, VHF Frequency modulation, FM weather radio stations in the United States which broadcast weather information direct ...
transmitters across Oklahoma and one in western north
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
to transmit routine extended and specialized short-term forecasts, current weather observations, hazardous weather outlooks and historical weather information. Each of the transmitters, through the
Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
, also disseminate watches, warnings and advisories issued by the NWS office, severe thunderstorm and tornado watches issued by the Storm Prediction Center and other emergency information to the public. The office schedules a required weekly test of the
Specific Area Message Encoding Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a Communications protocol, protocol used for framing and classification of broadcasting Emergency population warning, emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Serv ...
system for public alert dissemination on all thirteen NOAA Weather Radio transmitters in the region each Wednesday at 12:00 and 7:00 p.m. Central Time; exceptions exist if there is a threat of severe weather that day within the listening area of any or all of the stations, in which case the test will be postponed until the following Wednesday, barring that severe weather is not forecast to occur then.


References


External links

*
NOAA Weather Partners
{{List of National Weather Service forecast offices , state=collapsed 1890 establishments in Oklahoma Territory Meteorological research institutes National Weather Service Forecast Offices Buildings and structures in Norman, Oklahoma Oklahoma City University of Oklahoma