Name: Dan Smith

Q: Where in NOAA do you work now?
A: I'm chief of the Scientific Services Division of NWS Southern Region Headquarters, Fort Worth, TX.

Q: When did you begin your work with NOAA?
A: I started working at the National Hurricane Center in Miami while still a high school student. One afternoon a week while a jr/sr I took part in a science research program organized by the Dade County School system. That was about 1960. I received school credit, but more important, actual work experience. After graduation I became a Student Trainee at NHC - and a Weather Bureau employee.

Q: Looking back, what events stand out as the most memorable during your time with NOAA?
A: One of the most significant events I recall during my 35-yr USWB/NWS career happened very early. I tore off of the teletype machine at NHC the message which announced the successful launch of TIROS 1. Even then I realized the significance of that event. I began working full-time after college in 1970. That year there were few computers in use in the USWB (soon after, the NWS), outside of NMC, but I was able to do some things "after hours" with one here at the Southern Region HQ (actually, here because of the collocated Fort Worth River Forecast Center) that eventually led to changes in forecast operations. Time - and computers - quickly overtook that, but I was pleased to have been involved in some of the pioneering work in that area.

Q: From your point of view, what have been the most significant changes NOAA has experienced during the past 30 years?
A:  My perspective on changes over the years in NOAA is pretty much related to NWS. Fundamentally, we've changed from a colored pencil and paper forecast operation, with very limited computer-based guidance provided to forecasters in field offices, to a science-based organization equipped with cutting-edge obvservation/communication technology. In 1970, when the USWB became the NWS many - if not most - of our forecasters were WW-II trained meteorologists just ending their careers. Radars comprising the first national network were still going in, and the oldest network radars were no more than a dozen years years in operation. What forecasters did and how they did it had changed little in a generation. Geostationary satellites changed all that in the '70s, then the rapid acceleration of computer technology thru the '80s.

The modernization and restructuring of the NWS in the '90s was the single biggest "event" that has marked my career. MAR increased the number of meteorologists in the NWS drastically - changing NWS from a workforce comprising primarily technicians to one staffed mainly by meteorologists. Even though the number of offices and the overall workforce were reduced, arguably to levels which could limit our effectiveness, there is no doubt better trained scientists/forecasters and other specialists, along with new technology, have equipped the NWS to provide better service then ever before.

This page updated on: Monday, 07-Jan-2002 21:41:59 GMT
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