Decision Support Collaboration between the NWS and the US Border Patrol

The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) is a US Federal law enforcement agency whose mission is to detect and prevent illegal aliens, terrorists, and weapons from entering the United States, and to prevent illegal trafficking of people and contraband. This agency is part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection which is a component of the Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Border Patrol is a large, complex agency that has thousands of employees that work near the U.S./Mexico border at numerous sector offices and stations. Much of their work takes place outdoors, both day and night, and is heavily affected by weather. For the last several years, local National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) have been providing direct support to the U.S. Border Patrol sector offices and stations in the southwestern states. Within the NWS’s decision support paradigm, the USBP is a “deep relationship” core partner. The NWS support to the agency over the past few years has included email briefings for various weather threats which directly impact the USBP (e.g. strong winds, monsoon season thunderstorms with lightning and heavy rainfall, extreme heat, and dense fog). In addition, each of the local NWS offices in the southwest have provided dedicated on-site support with the USBP at times. For instance, meteorologists from NWS Tucson office have provided on-site support at the USBP Sector Tucson office, and have a dedicated work space available. NWS San Diego has had meteorologists deployed for a handful of tabletop exercises with the USBP, and provided on-site support for the recent Presidential visit. Staff from NWS Phoenix have also provided on-site support and have set up lightning alerts for the USBP offices in their coverage area.

During summer 2018, the Warning Coordination Meteorologists (WCMs) and Meteorologists-in-Charge of each of NWS Tucson, NWS San Diego, and NWS Phoenix undertook a collaborative project with the goal of streamlining support for this key NWS partner. This group of NWS leadership made visits together with USBP leadership from the Tucson, Yuma, El Centro, and San Diego Sector offices. The goals of this project include compiling best practices for USBP support from each NWS office, coming up with a framework for consistent NWS service delivery to the USBP, working toward a uniform decision support template and standard suite of products for USBP support, and hashing out any coordination issues.