Editor’s Note: Six oral history interviews were conducted with Louis W. Uccellini, Ph.D., Director of the National Weather Service, between June and October 2021. Dr. Uccellini retired from Federal service on January 2, 2022. This fourth interview was conducted remotely on August 31, 2021 by Greg Romano on behalf of the NWS Heritage Program. 

As Chief of the Meteorological Operations Division (MOD) in the National Weather Service’s National Meteorological Center (NMC) from 1989 to 1994, Dr. Louis W. Uccellini was well aware of the limitations of the building that housed its operations ... and of abortive attempt to move to a more suitable location. Named Director of the renamed National Centers for Environmental Prediction in 1999, Dr. Uccellini faced ongoing issues with its building and spearheaded a campaign to build a new state-of-the-art facility. This effort, too, was fraught with delays, but Uccellini’s perseverance won out and the completed building was completed in 2012. 

In this fourth oral history session with Dr. Uccellini, he recounts the trials and tribulations involved in bringing the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction to fruition.

Here are excerpts from the interview recorded in August 2021:

On the need for synergy: 

“There's always been this interest ... around being co-located with a research group, a research and education group, to help facilitate the research to operations process, and also attract the next generation of people to work for us; not just visit us from other places, but to work for us.” 

On Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s role in encouraging the University of Maryland to support the new building:

“She gave her speech and basically told the university that they need to support what she just heard, because this is the kind of science-to-service [project] that she wants to see. She was a big fan of the Weather Service, by the way. She was the chair of our Appropriations Committee. So this all fell in place like in a month, maybe two months. That's how we got it off the ground.”

On finding the perfect location at the University of Maryland’s M2 Research Park:

“We walked the locations. It turns out that there was nothing, they didn't even have the ground graded for their science park. Nothing was there. We walked through the woods, went over a stream, came in from a back parking lot, walked through the property with Dave Caldwell and one other person that was from [University of Maryland President] Mote's office. And I said, this is where we're going to be, and I pointed to the ground in the woods, which is exactly where the building is today. You know, it just happened that way. We got it done.”

On the feeling of accomplishment when NCWCP was finally complete:

“NCO (NCEP Central Operations) would be moving in first to get the infrastructure of the building in. Ben Kyger was bragging on how he was going to be the first person in the building, officially in the building. They had a day where NCO could actually go in with their blueprints and everything and start work in the Data Center, and build out from there. What he didn't know was that Dave Caldwell and I made a pact that Dave and I would be the first ones in. So, we got there. Ben set up a meeting for seven o' clock in the morning, we got there at 6:30 in the morning, and set up a card table in the Data Center. Dave was sitting at the card table when they came walking in with their blueprints. ... I said, ‘Well, what kept you guys? The meeting started here at 6:30 in the morning, as the first official meeting in the new building.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I'm sure glad you brought the coffee and donuts, because we were getting a little bit hungry and thirsty here.’ Ben was just flabbergasted, he just, you know, he started laughing. He says, ‘Oh, you got me. You got me.’ So, we sat through that first meeting where they were going to be mapping out the whole wiring system. And it was like you got to imagine these experts at NCO, and the contracting support they had, to be able to do this in the new building. It's sort of like the world, they got their world in their hands. And to build the data center the way it should be, it was really a sight to behold. Dave and I left after about two hours, and the next time I was at the building was in August. I came in, I was back and forth, inspecting, but I officially moved in, in August of 2012, 13 years after we started.”

 

Resources and Additional Reading

Full transcripts and audio recordings available here: https://voices.nmfs.noaa.gov/louis-w-uccellini