The relocation of the National Weather Service’s Charleston Forecast Office from Southridge Centre to a new building in the West Virginia Regional Technology Park, in South Charleston, was officially acknowledged during a ceremony on Thursday.
“This site offers a spacious environment for us to continue our mission of protecting lives and property,” Jamie Bielinski, the forecast office’s meteorologist in charge, told those attending a ribbon-cutting event for the new building. “We look forward to a lasting relationship with this building and the Technology Park.”
The new Charleston Forecast Office, which has actually been staffed and in service since Sept. 27, occupies the ground level of a two-story, 22,000-square-foot building, the top floor of which eventually will be leased to another entity. It is the fifth Charleston-area site to be occupied by the National Weather Service or its precursor, the National Weather Bureau, since establishing a presence here in 1950 under the air traffic control tower at Kanawha Airport.
The new building, commissioned by the Technology Park and designed by Charleston-based ZMM Architects and Engineers, replaces a much smaller building at Southridge that the Weather Service occupied from 1994 until last month.
In 2018, the forecast office staff was forced to temporarily abandon that building because of a black mold infestation. The mold issue forced the Charleston office to shut down for three days, and then resume operations working from NWS offices in Pittsburgh and Jackson, Kentucky, followed by six months in a construction trailer.
“It was almost 10 years ago that I first heard from Jamie about how much a new facility was needed,” said Jason Tuell, director of the National Weather Service’s eastern region, headquartered in Bohemia, New York. “It took six or seven years in planning and execution for this building to be completed, but it is now the crown jewel of the 23 forecast offices in the eastern region.”
Tuell said the new forecast office’s spacious, open design “creates an environment that’s conducive to the collaborative nature of the work done here.”
The primary mission of the Charleston Forecast Office’s 24-person staff is to provide information on impending severe weather that poses threats to lives and property in 34 West Virginia counties, as well as nine counties in Southeastern Ohio, four in Eastern Kentucky and two in Southwest Virginia. The forecast office’s service area covers nearly 22,000 square miles.
“I’m confident that the forecast office will thrive here,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who also spoke at Thursday’s ceremony. “You’re saving lives through the incredible science that’s done here.”
“Your ability to tell emergency managers immediately about hazardous weather patterns before they arrive is critical to the safety of people across West Virginia,” echoed Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper.
Bielinski said the building’s location puts her team in closer proximity to state and county emergency managers. Its larger footprint and new design “allow us to host more events here, like emergency services conferences and training, along with school groups and other tours.”
Bielinski said she and her staff also appreciate their proximity to other scientists who work at the Technology Park.
Tours of the new building were not available on Thursday because of Kanawha County’s listing as a medium-risk site for COVID-19 by health officials. An open house event will be scheduled when the county’s COVID risk status drops to the low category.