Building Relationships with State Partners and the Role of the NWS State Liaison Office

Enhancing relationships with deep core partners is one of the key initiatives as the National Weather Service (NWS) continues building a Weather-Ready Nation. Impact-based decision support services provided by the NWS leads to stronger relationships with these partners. Further, by understanding the roles and responsibilities of deep core partners, their needs, and how working together will protect lives and livelihoods, relationships are strengthened further.

In Montana, NWS Great Falls, the state liaison office, has made great strides in building relationships with deep core partners locally and at the state level. Building relationships with state partners has proven to be effective in fulfilling our mission because of the reach, capability and resources state partners can harness and the similarity of our missions.

NWS Great Falls has supported state-level partners in a multitude of ways from preparing weather information for emergency declarations, planning and participating in state-level exercises, and providing close support when the State Emergency Coordination Center is activated. In 2017 alone, NWS Great Falls provided support for wildfires, drought, winter storms, and invasive species mitigation. We have also served as a liaison to bring other state agencies together during an emergency and provided support on improving public communication. Most recently, NWS Great Falls implemented a whole office concept to participate in the Montana Vigilant Guard exercise while also being on the planning team. This presentation will elaborate on these experiences and share ideas on how these experiences can extend all across the National Weather Service and weather enterprise.