2014 Lubbock National Weather Service Open House

Lubbock National Weather Service Open House a Big Success

Experiment conducted by Texas Tech faculty and students during the NWS Lubbock open house.

The National Weather Service office in Lubbock hosted its first public open house in more than a decade on September 20, 2014. The day started out cloudy, rainy, and cool, but it didn't dampen the festivities. The stream of people coming through the doors was pretty steady through the day and we counted almost 200 total visitors.

First, upon entering the lobby, visitors encountered a group of students and faculty from the Texas Tech Atmospheric Science Department. Kids and adults alike were able to see several demonstrations of some basic weather principles.

Interactive experiment conducted by Texas Tech faculty and students during the NWS Lubbock open house.

Interactive experiments conducted by Texas Tech faculty and students during the NWS Lubbock open house.

Then, the visitors were ushered into our conference room, where we presented a brief introduction to the National Weather Service and the Lubbock forecast office. From there, visitors got to see our operations areas, or the "guts" of our forecast office, where our meteorologists gather weather information, create forecasts, and issue warnings. In fact, during the tour, we had to issue flood advisories and warnings, due to the ongoing rain across portions of our service area.

NWS Lubbock meteorologists give a few different presentations about the National Weather Service.

NWS Lubbock meteorologists give a few different presentations about the National Weather Service.

Visitors also got to hear from several members of the South Plains Storm Spotting Team, who shared their experiences tracking severe thunderstorms and being our eyes and ears in the field during severe events.

Finally, visitors went outside where they saw some of the weather instrumentation we use. Around our office, several of our partners brought displays of their equipment for all to inspect while chatting with the experts who use them.

Several of our partners also helped with the open house, including the South Plains Storm Spotting Team (upper left), the County of Lubbock (upper center), Texas Tech Wind Science and Engineering (upper right and lower left), the City of Lubbock (lower center), and the Levelland EMCOMM Team (lower right).

We hope everyone who stopped by had as much fun visiting as we did in putting together the open house. We don't often get to interact on a face-to-face basis with most of the residents in our service area, but you can hear us every day on the weather radio. Additionally, you can read our forecast discussions online, which is our in-depth examination of how the weather will unfold in the upcoming week. You can also follow our latest activities on Facebook and Twitter.

Many of the NWS Lubbock staff and volunteers who helped out with the open house.

We would like to thank everyone who made this open house a great success.