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. Greg Romano and Mary Fairbanks met with Dr. Uccellini at NWS Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD for this sixth and final interview on October 21, 2021.

Dr. Louis W. Uccellini was named Director of the National Weather Service on February 7, 2013. He took over an organization that was reeling from financial management issues and quickly set out to make major changes to the agency’s budget structure. 

In this sixth oral history session, Dr. Uccellini reflects on the problems with the NWS’ budget structure and processes and reorganization he put in place. He also recounts his role as the United States representative to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and his run for President of the body, leading the National Weather Service through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the leadership challenges associated with the “Sharpiegate” controversy. 

Here are excerpts from the interview recorded in October 2021:

On facing the NWS budget challenges as he took over the role of NWS Director: 

“I remember coming here into this office in February 2013 and realizing that we were going to have to make major changes within Headquarters from a budget-structure perspective, from the structure of Headquarters itself, since we had offices that were, I would couch, as being disenfranchised, I think that was the word I was using. They had responsibilities, but they really weren't connected to the budget structure much at all, especially as it related to the field, the field needs, the forecaster needs. And, I reflected on that immediately. That would be something I would have to do.”

On running for WMO President:

“Part of the political interest in me doing this was that I was articulating the public-private relationship. Because I believe in it. And I believe the importance of the private sector across the whole value chain. We can't -- we can't do it alone. And building a Weather-Ready Nation, we can't do it alone even realizing our own mission. We need the larger enterprise working with us, not competing with us, but working with us, and we working with them, providing the basics of what they need without having to tell them what to say, because we can't do that. ... We were working towards this declaration, the public-private declaration in the WMO at the same time. It wasn't just restructuring the WMO, it was also having this kind of a declaration and getting the member states to embrace the private sector, which we did, ultimately in the Congress in 2019.”

On the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic: 

“It was really remarkable to see how creative and flexible the field was. And determined, by the way, because everybody felt like they were dealing with an unknown situation. To get this set up where people worked from home, we started doing backup of offices. Not just primary backup, but secondary and tertiary back up because we were now coming into the severe weather season as well. ... They came up with ways of operating, two people per shift. Working socially distant apart with masks. No visitors to the forecast offices. Shift changes that go through different doors of the office, so there'd be no interaction between [shifts]. They have within the forecast office, they have about a half-hour overlap where the new shift is being briefed by the folks. The new shift was in their cars being briefed on the phones. So we never shut down.”

Reflecting on his National Weather Association speech supporting the NWS Birmingham Weather Forecast Office:

“Know what you have to do. I mean, I really did feel what I had to do. And one of the things that I heard right away, coming off the podium ... Joe Friday sent a message out and said, ‘If you want to hear one of the really complimentary -.’ I mean, I forget exactly what he said. You know, ‘the finest piece of leadership I've seen,’ or something like that, ‘listen to the last five minutes of this.’ And I thought, because Joe hired me in. He was part of the hiring process and me coming into the Weather Service. And when I did good work, he'd say, ‘You did good work.’ If I screwed up, he said, ‘You screwed up.’ I mean, it was no sugar coating or whatever. But I really felt good when I saw that.” 

Resources and Additional Reading

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