The National Weather Service began a nationwide major restructuring and modernization program that began in the mid 1980's. This program brought about major improvements in facilities and technology to the weather service in Nashville, including a new 3.5 million dollar weather facility and Doppler radar. This modern weather facility, which opened during the late summer of 1994, utilizes state-of-the-art technology including the WSR-88D Doppler weather radar system, ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System, located at the Nashville International Airport), and AWIPS (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System) workstations. Our staff utilizes this equipment to provide weather forecasts and warnings to Middle Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau.

Today, the National Weather Service Office in Old Hickory is staffed with a Meteorologist-in-Charge, a Warning Coordination Meteorologist, a Science-and-Operations Officer, a Service Hydrologist, five senior meteorologists, eight general forecasters, an Observations Program Leader, an Electronics Systems Analyst, an Information Technology Officer, two Electronics Technicians, and an Administrative Assistant. Thus, with a staff of 23 personnel, your NWS office provides forecasts and warnings for 38 counties in Middle Tennessee, comprising approximately 17,000 square miles, with a total population of nearly 3 million. The office operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is always staffed with at least two meteorologists.

Awards

August 2024 | WFO Nashville was awarded a Bronze Medal for highly skilled forecasts, exceptional briefings, and life-saving emergency warnings during the catastrophic Waverly, TN flood on August 21, 2021.

August 2015 | WFO Nashville was awarded the National Weather Service 2013 Isaac M. Cline Award for Hydrometeorology for superior federal service during the April 27, 2013 Flash Flood event.

August 2011 | WFO Nashville was awarded the National Weather Service 2011 Southern Region Director's Award for Emergency Response Decision Support "for demonstrating responsiveness and innovation in serving key decision makers".

April 2010 | WFO Nashville was awarded the United States Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for superior federal service "for providing proactive and life-saving service during the record-breaking February 5th, 2008, "Super Tuesday" killer tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee.

May 2007 | WFO Nashville was awarded the United States Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for superior federal service "for exceeding tornado lead times and providing life-saving warning services during the April 7, 2006 tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee.

December 1998 | WFO Nashville was awarded the United States Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for superior federal service "for providing timely and accurate severe weather warning services during the April 16, 1998 tornado outbreak in Middle Tennessee."

NWS Nashville is managed by the Meteorologist-in-Charge (MIC)  Krissy Hurley . Additional management personnel include the Warning Coordination Meteorologist who leads the local outreach program (WCM,  Ryan Husted ) and the Science and Operations Officer who runs the local training program (SOO,  Josh Barnwell ). Operational personnel includes 14 meteorologists (6 lead meteorologists, 8 meteorologists) whose responsibilities include issuing hazardous weather watches, warnings and statements, public forecasts and discussions, aviation forecasts (called "terminal aerodrome forecasts"), and fire weather forecasts.

In addition to operational personnel, there is the Service Hydrologist (SH,  James LaRosa ) who manages the river program for Middle Tennessee and north Alabama, and the Observation Program Leader (OPL,  Faith Borden ) who is in charge of the data acquisition program. On the software and equipment side, the office is supported by a talented team including the Electronics Systems Analyst (ESA), Information Technology Officer (ITO), 2 Electronics Technicians (ET), and an Administrative Assistant (ASA).

Where did NWS Nashville meteorologists attend college?

Looking to join our team?

If there are no vacancies listed at NWS Nashville, it means job announcements have not been posted yet. Please check back at a later time.

There are multiple local and national programs that our office has to offer. For more information, click the links below:

 Cooperative Weather Observer (COOP) Program 

 NWS StormReady Program 

 Weather Radio 

 Past Weather Events 

For our latest forecast information across Middle Tennessee, go to  weather.gov/Nashville.  To learn more about the forecast process, check out our latest  Area Forecast Discussion. 

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Thank you for your interest in NWS Nashville!

For information about this StoryMap, please email  caleb.cravens@noaa.gov .