NWS METEOROLOGIST BILL READ RECEIVES NATIONAL HURRICANE CONFERENCE
PUBLIC EDUCATION AWARD

The National Hurricane Conference has honored veteran National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Bill Read with its 2004 Special Award for Public Education. Read is the meteorologist-in-charge (MIC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Office serving the Houston/Galveston area. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The award was presented today at the 26th annual National Hurricane Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The award recognizes Read - “For outstanding leadership over the past decade in developing a public education program on hurricane preparedness that is unsurpassed in the nation, including the annual Houston/Galveston Hurricane Workshop co-sponsored by the East Harris County Manufacturers Association, the largest meeting of its kind in the country”.

Prior to joining the NWS in 1977, Read had an active career in the U.S. Navy including duties as an on-board meteorologist with the Hurricane Hunters. He began his career with the NWS Test and Evaluation Division in Sterling, Va., developed his forecasting skills in Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas; and, served as severe thunderstorm and flash flood Program Leader at NWS Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Read was appointed MIC for the Houston/Galveston Weather Forecast Office in 1992 and led the office through the challenges of the NWS modernization and restructuring program in the mid 1990s. While he has extensive experience with a wide range of severe weather events, tropical storms and hurricanes have frequently played a major role in his professional life. Read and his team were at the forefront again in July 2003 as Hurricane Claudette made landfall on the Texas coast. He also was part of the Hurricane Liaison Team at the National Hurricane Center in Miami when Hurricane Isabel came ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and raced northeast in September 2003.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources.

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