SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Charleston say opening a new facility will help enhance their goal of providing accurate forecasts to the region.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Thursday at the new building located at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston. Staff moved in a few weeks ago.
“This site offers a spacious environment for the staff to perform our mission critical to protect life and property,” said head meteorologist Jamie Balinski.
The new facility also offers educational tours of the Tech Park’s new Science on a Sphere Display. The global display system projects visualizations of planetary data for middle and high school students to view.
.@NWSCharlestonWV opens new local forecast office at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston. 🌎🌧❄️☀️ @WVMetroNews @580WCHS pic.twitter.com/7CIdL3yv27
— Carrie Hodousek (@CarrieHodousek) October 20, 2022
Dr. Jason Tuel, director of the eastern region of the NWS, said the staff made it a smooth transition despite the amount of equipment it took to move in.
“When you move an office, you don’t just unplug a computer and then take it here and plug it back in. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. They did this move with only eight hours of downtime,” he said.
The previous NWS office was located off Southridge in Charleston.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said the county is in constant communication with the NWS especially when bad weathers moves in.
“We’re worrying about how much rain we’re going to get, the creek rising and different rivers. To have this facility in arm’s reach from our emergency people is critical to the safety of West Virginia. We learned that in 2016,” Carper said.
The June 2016 flood wiped out the Kanawha County towns of Elview and Clendenin and claimed the lives of 23 people statewide. The NWS was there to provide up-to-date forecasts during the storm and afterwards.
The opening of the new facility was made possible by West Virginia’s congressional delegation. It was a process that took more than six years to complete.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) was on site Thursday and said it’s critical to keep the weather service in the Capital City region because people depend on it.
“We can evacuate, we can strengthen our homes if we see the rivers rising. We know if storm systems are hanging over certain areas like they were over the Montgomery area several weeks ago. You’re saving lives,” Capito told the NWS team.