National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS), once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States government. It is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The NWS is tasked with providing "weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy." This is done through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices (WFOs). Since the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain and available free of charge.
Read more about National Weather Service: History, Forecasting, Event-driven Products, Product Dissemination, Technology, Organization, Controversy
Famous quotes containing the words national, weather and/or service:
“America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Barnard’s greatest war service ... was the continuance of full-scale instruction in the liberal arts ... It was Barnard’s responsibility to keep alive in the minds of young people the great liberal tradition of the past and the study of philosophy, of history, of Greek.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)