Joe Sullivan, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, to Retire

On January 16, 2007, an 80-car train carrying hazardous materials derailed in Brooks, Kentucky, causing a fireball to explode over a thousand feet into the sky...and Joe Sullivan arrived in Louisville for his first day as our Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM).

The WCM acts as a liaison between the office and our core partners, including Emergency Management at both local and state levels. The WCM also runs the severe weather spotter program and is a primary link between the weather office and the media. NWS Louisville has truly appreciated the exemplary service Joe has shown in the role of WCM, and the people of southern Indiana and central Kentucky have benefitted deeply from his tireless dedication to the job.

Joe grew up in northern Iowa and was a weather junkie from an early age. Benefitting from living in an area that is often home to some of the world's most dangerous weather, Joe enjoyed chasing storms through the Midwestern cornfields, once barely making it back home on his moped before golf ball sized hail started pelting the town.

Joe studied engineering and meteorology at Iowa State University, earning his degree in 1986. Before the end of the year he landed his first professional job in weather when he was hired by KYTV in Springfield, Missouri, as their morning and weekend meteorologist. 

After spending 1987 delivering forecast information to the people of southwest Missouri, Joe decided to take a different path and joined the National Weather Service. His first position was at the 5-person office in Concordia, Kansas, before modernization in the 1980s and 90s consolidated the small, local weather offices into larger ones like what we have at Louisville today. 

Moving from one office to another was a common occurrence in those days, and after about two years in Kansas Joe went to a similarly small office in Grand Island, Nebraska, and then returned home in 1991 when he joined the staff at NWS Des Moines. As Forecaster and Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Joe found his calling while deployed to the Des Moines Emergency Operations Center during the Great Flood of 1993. Also while at Des Moines, Joe pioneered the use of bullet format in NWS severe weather warnings, which became the norm and is still used today.

In 1994 Joe moved again, this time to become the WCM at NWS Cheyenne. Joe became steeped in fire weather forecasting and developed a method of ranking the severity of winter weather events.

Joe moved up the ranks to become a regional WCM in 1998, which necessitated a move to Kansas City, Missouri. While it was personally and professionally rewarding to contribute input on regional and national issues, Joe missed working with local partners. So, in 2001 Joe returned to Wyoming when he became the Meteorologist-in-Charge of NWS Riverton, a few hours southeast of Yellowstone National Park. Joe not only got to run a National Weather Service office, he became a hot air balloon pilot!

Finally, as that train was speeding off the track in Brooks, Joe arrived at NWS Louisville in January 2007 and was back in the role of WCM. Joe spent his energy helping partners in southern Indiana and central Kentucky in our shared mission of protecting lives and property. This meant traveling throughout the area giving spotter talks, meeting with emergency managers, talking to mayors and county judge executives, and sometimes even spending the night at the Kentucky State Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort during particularly bad weather.

As Joe moves on to the next chapter of his life beginning on December 31, all of us here at NWS Louisville will miss his devotion, drive, and camaraderie.