The National Weather Center
The National Weather Center houses a unique confederation of University of Oklahoma, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and state organizations that work together in partnership to improve understanding of events occurring in Earth's atmosphere over a wide range of time and space scales.
NWC Facts
- The National Weather Center sits on a 22-acre site on the NE corner of Jenkins and Highway 9 in Norman, Oklahoma.
- The building was designed by Beck – LAN/Daly, a joint venture between Beck Associates Architects and LAN/Daly. Oscar J. Boldt Company was the general contractor. Burns & MacDonnell Architects assisted in the development of NOAA program and facility requirements and construction oversight.
- Ground breaking was held in November 2002 and bids were taken in early Spring 2003. Construction began August 2003. The building opened in summer 2006, with building dedication on September 29, 2006.
- The NWC is an OU building with NOAA as the primary tenant. OU and NOAA have expended a total of $69 million to construct and occupy the building.
- The building is 244,000 square feet with five stories plus a rooftop outdoor classroom and enclosed weather observation deck.
- The exterior is made up of face brick, architectural cast stone, metal-faced composite panels, and glass curtain walls.
- The NWC houses about 550 people. This includes research scientists, operational meteorologists and climatologists, engineers and technicians, support staff, and graduate and undergraduate students.
Building Configuration
1st Floor – Administration, Visitors Center, Food Court, Research Vehicle/Equipment Bay, Auditorium
2nd Floor – Operations, Administration
3rd Floor – Computing, Research, Training, Administration
4th Floor – Research, Academics, Training
5th Floor – Academics
Rooftop Outdoor Classroom
Enclosed Weather Observation Deck
NWC Tenants
NOAA Weather Partners (www.norman.noaa.gov)
National Severe Storms Laboratory (www.nssl.noaa.gov)
National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office (www.srh.noaa.gov/oun)
Radar Operations Center Applications Branch (www.roc.noaa.gov)
Storm Prediction Center (www.spc.noaa.gov)
Warning Decision Training Branch (www.wdtb.noaa.gov)
University Weather and Climate Programs
College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences (ags.ou.edu)
School of Meteorology (weather.ou.edu)
Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (www.caps.ou.edu)
Center for Spatial Analysis (www.csa.ou.edu)
Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (http://www.cimms.ou.edu)
Center for Natural Hazard and Disaster Research (nhdr.ou.edu)
Oklahoma Climatological Survey (www.ocs.ou.edu)
For more information contact:
Sarah Swift, OU College of Atmospheric and Geographic
Sciences, (405) 325-1819, sswift@ou.edu;
Keli Tarp, NOAA Public Affairs, (405)
325-6933, keli.tarp@noaa.gov
National Weather Center
120 David L. Boren Blvd.
Norman, OK 73072
http://www.nwc.ou.edu/
September 2006