Department of Commerce Gold Medal for Customer Service During Historic Tornado Outbreak

Forecasters Mark Jarvis and Dan McKemy represented NWS Louisville in receiving the Department of Commerce's highest honor, the Gold Medal. The award was presented for "exceptional warnings and Impact-based Decision Support Services during the unseasonal Kentucky and Illinois Tornado Outbreak, December 10-11, 2021." NWS Louisville joined NWS Paducah and St. Louis in receiving this award.

Forecasters Dan McKemy and Mark Jarvis (Louisville), Christine Wielgos and Steve Eddy (Paducah), and Fred Glass and Jim Sieveking (St. Louis) with the shared gold medal.

Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo attended the ceremony and spoke about the hard work of all of the bureaus.

It is the first time for the office receiving the Gold Medal. We had received a Silver Medal for "providing life-saving information before, during, and after the record snowstorms and floods across the Ohio Valley in December 2004 and January 2005." Our last national level award was a Bronze Medal in 2017 for "extraordinary performance before, during, and after the historic Blizzard of January 2016."