NSSL celebrates 40 years!
"'You're going to Oklahoma. Why?
Where's that?' my friends in Connecticut would say," recalls Ed Kessler,
NSSL's Founding Director. "I said, look, you may not know it, but to
be the director of the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the
national center of severe storms research, no meteorologist
could aspire to more than that."
Kessler served as NSSL's director from its establishment
in 1964 until 1986, and was one of nine speakers invited to
celebrate NSSL's 40th Anniversary on Friday, October 15 and
Saturday, October 16, 2004 in Norman, OK. Bob Maddox,
NSSL Director from 1986 through 1996, was also invited to
speak but was unable to attend. Jeff Kimpel, current NSSL
Director, said, "We want to take this time to savor our accomplishments
over these past 40 years and look optimistically
toward the future."
Events included tours for middle school groups from across
Oklahoma on Friday morning. Friday afternoon, current and
former NSSL employees and friends gathered at the Oklahoma
Museum of Natural History auditorium to listen to
invited speakers highlight NSSL's history, accomplishments,
and future direction. Friday evening a dinner was held at the
museum to give everyone a chance to reminisce and enjoy
a video that included interviews with people representing
different areas of NSSL's work. Saturday morning, NSSL
co-hosted a public open house with the other NOAA Weather
Partners in Norman. The variety of displays and activities
included Doppler and phased array radar, forecasting tools,
mobile facilities, balloon launches, and winter weather and
tornado videos.
In the early years, part of NSSL's initial role was to maximize
the use of the WSR-57 surveillance radar for the Weather
Bureau. Today NSSL leads the way in investigating all
aspects of severe and hazardous weather through dual-polarization,
the new phased-array radar, numerical modeling, field
projects, and hydrometeorology studies.
"If you had to determine the bottom line on what are the
achievements...you'd have to say NSSL has significantly contributed
to saving lives," said Kimpel. "Some of the tools and
the science that NSSL produced over its 40 years are really
core to the reduction in lives lost because of modern forecasting
and warning techniques." 
Visit the NSSL
40th Anniversary website to view event presentations and photos!
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