OVERVIEW:

We provide forecast and warning services for 46 counties in Maryland, northern Virginia, and the eastern West Virginia panhandle, plus the District of Columbia and the city of Baltimore, as highlighted in yellow on the map below. In addition, we provide aviation weather services to Washington National, Washington Dulles International, Baltimore-Washington International, Martin State, Charlottesville-Albemarle, and Shepherd Field/Eastern West Virginia Regional (Martinsburg) airports, and marine services on the Tidal Potomac, and the Chesapeake Bay north of Smith Point, highlighted in cyan.

There are 122 field offices like ours across the country. All offices are comparably staffed and equipped, with state-of-the-art computer technology and Doppler radar. The Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is also the home to National Weather Service Headquarters (in Silver Spring, MD), and the National Center for Environmental Prediction at the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, MD.

As part of the NWS, there are also support centers for Severe Local Storms (Storm Prediction Center) in Norman, OK; national aviation interests (Aviation Weather Center) in Kansas City; tropical weather (National Hurricane Center) in Miami, FL; and 13 River Forecast Centers across the country to assist in river hydrology. The River Forecast Center we rely upon for assistance is located in State College, PA.

This office is unique in that our local service area includes the nation's capital-- Washington, D.C.-- and our users include decision-makers at the Metropolitan Washington Area Council of Government and in the Federal Government, including the White House, Congressional staffers, and the Office of Personnel Management.