NWS Charleston, SC - Education

Office Tours/Presentations | Education Resources | Careers in Meteorology

Welcome to National Weather Service Charleston’s Education Resource Page! The NWS’s mission is to protect life and property and educating the youth plays a vital role in achieving this mission. We created this page so educators could easily access numerous weather-related technologies and websites and incorporate them into the classroom. If you have a question for a meteorologist, feel free to call the office at 843-747-5860 or email us at nws.charlestonsc@noaa.gov.

Office Tours and Presentations

To Request an Office Tour or Off-site Group Presentation:

Submit all requests via our Outreach Request Form. Please provide a contact name, phone number, email address and number of attendees, including ages, in the request. For an office tour, all adults must sign in and show a photo ID, and an adult must accompany minors. All attendees must be U.S. citizens. All NWS tours/presentations are free of charge.

Office Tours:

Tours are available Monday through Friday between 8 AM to 5 PM and finalized 3 weeks in advance to ensure adequate staffing. Our facility can comfortably accommodate tour groups of approximately 20 people (age of 8 years old and older); although, larger groups can be divided. Group leaders should contact the NWS tour leader via email or phone a couple days prior as a final confirmation. Please note, office tours may be subject to last minute cancellations due to hazardous weather; however, we will gladly reschedule any cancelled tours.

Tours scheduled outside of the requested tour window are discouraged but feasible. If an evening tour or weekend tour is necessary, you are encouraged to submit your request as early as possible.

School/Group Presentations:

Meteorologists are available to speak to your class/group. We have weather safety talks prepared and can customize presentations toward specific topics, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and more!

Resources for Teachers, Students and Kids of All Ages

NEW! Weather-Ready Nation Modules

This new resource was fine-tuned by the Georgia Science Teachers Association and preparedness experts at FEMA. The modules teach folks how to prepare for, survive and recover from weather emergencies. The Raytheon-developed Weather-Ready Nation modules, eight in all, each 10-minutes long are designed for grade-schoolers, as well as adults ages 13 and above. They focus on the highest-priority actions to take before, during and after bad weather, and are tailored to each U.S. state.

Free download available!

Science On a Sphere Explorer

SOS Explorer^™ uses the NOAA-developed Terraviz^™ visualization engine to create an interactive Earth for a flat screen display including those projected on walls, computers, and large displays, providing teachers, students, and the public access to a library of selected SOS datasets and movies. In order to make the product more accessible for teachers, lesson plans and pre-programmed tours through standards-relevant topics are provided.

CoCoRaHS for Schools

CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers working together to measure and map precipitation. By taking daily rainfall observations and comparing them to surrounding sites, students use their math, science, and social skills.

NOAA Educational Resources

From sea turtles to tornadoes, this webpage is a NOAA-wide educational reference for educators and students. Their Facebook page is a great place for formal and informal educators to stay connected with NOAA resources and professional development opportunities on a daily basis.