National Weather Center, Norman, Oklahoma

In January 2008, I had the opportunity to attend training at the National Weather Center to learn about a program called OK-FIRST.  OK-FIRST is an outreach project of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS) and Oklahoma Mesonet. It provides training and real-time weather data to public safety officials for use in weather-impacted situations.  There is so much weather data at your fingertips at the Oklahoma Mesonet site, just remember to download the "WxScope Plugin" to get the full benefits of these maps.  The Oklahoma Mesonet consists of 119 automated observing stations that continuously monitor numerous important weather and soil variables.

In these pictures you will find the photo's of the National Weather Center, a large hanging ball that has four projectors projecting a image that appears to rotate around the globe, it is truly amazing, a shot or two of "Dorothy" which was used in the movie Twister, and a few shots outside what what a mesonet site actually looks like. The last few photos were taken inside the National Weather Center forcast office.