Challenges and opportunities abound for the National Weather Service (NWS) as the new century unfolds. Today’s society expects weather products that are far more detailed and accurate than those of just 10 years ago, and the demand for longer-range and higher resolution forecasts will continue to increase. This evolution necessitates a corresponding improvement in infrastructure, as well as a nurturing of flexible, innovative thinking on the part of NWS personnel. A variety of new observing and forecasting technologies have been implemented in the Weather Forecast Office (WFO) and National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) environments, and forecasters are well equipped to provide an array of enhanced services to the communities they serve. Substantial opportunities exist for collaboration between the NWS and the research and educational communities, as well as with the media and other elements of the private meteorological community. However, it is imperative that the human dimension of the NWS evolves sufficiently to manage the challenges and fully exploit the various opportunities at hand. This requires a much broader approach to training and professional development in the National Weather Service.

In the fall of 2001, the NWS made a decision to install a new Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Huntsville, Alabama. This afforded the agency with an opportunity to incorporate new training techniques and operational philosophies at the WFO level. The local leadership team developed a performance vision centered on three fundamental building blocks:

1) Ensuring that the entire staff develops an intimate understanding of the WFO’s customers and their needs

2) Developing operational processes that yield high quality products and services to meet those customer needs

3) Developing efficient communication methods for imparting WFO products and services to the customers

Two other key elements are also needed to fulfill the performance vision: 1) Enhancing team relationship and communication skills to facilitate the delivery of products and services, and 2) establishing customer feedback to improve the understanding of user needs.

Prior to the start up date in January, 2003, professional development activities at WFO Huntsville focused heavily on each of the building blocks described above. These efforts were incorporated in a comprehensive program called “FORTE –Forging Our Recommitment to Excellence”. Facilitators were brought into the WFO to help the staff explore relationship and diversity issues, with a particular focus on the understanding of different personality types and methods for coping with these differences. A week-long workshop was held to explore leadership issues such as empowerment, 360 feedback, strategic and unconventional decision making, and servant leadership. Communication and customer service skills were sharpened with a set of workshops and practice sessions. The WFO staff also completed an exhaustive forecast area familiarization program designed to better understand the customer base and their needs. Meteorological training needs were also met in force. An extensive one-week warning decision making workshop was conducted at the WFO, and follow up sessions on severe weather and winter weather forecasting were held in the months leading up to the assumption of operational responsibilities.

Current training efforts attempt to strike a balance between meteorological proficiency and social development, but still emphasize growth within the building blocks described earlier. One avenue is particularly exploited to instill relationship, leadership and customer service values to the staff on a continuous basis. At WFO Huntsville and other field offices in the NWS Southern Region, this avenue is known as “BLAST – Building Leaders for A Solid Tomorrow”. Local BLAST meetings are held on a monthly basis, and provide an opportunity to explore a variety of non-meteorological topics such as diversity, personality coping strategies, stress management, time management, interpersonal communication, customer service, leadership development, and the development of personal and agency visions. BLAST serves as a crucial complement to the various training efforts designed to maintain the WFO staff’s technological and meteorological proficiency.

Though early in its infancy as an operational office, WFO Huntsville has enjoyed forecast and warning success, and received substantial positive feedback from its customer base. Like any other public or private service-oriented entity, however, the WFO (and the entire NWS) must be flexible and willing to change quickly to meet evolving user needs. This philosophy represents a paradigm shift for some NWS field forecasters, and requires innovative approaches to training and operational procedures. A more in-depth discussion of the methods employed at WFO Huntsville will be presented at the conference.