National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rainfall Continues in South Florida, Southern Rockies, and the Northern Plains

A stationary front will continue to bring heavy to excessive rainfall to South Florida into Saturday with localized and urban flooding possible. Heavy to excessive rainfall is forecast through Saturday over the southern Rockies into the northern Plains. Instances of flash flooding are possible, especially in higher terrain and burn scars. Read More >

Ajay Mehta


Ajay Mehta 
Director of the Office of Observations, National Weather Service

 

Ajay Mehta is the NWS Director of the Office of Observations. In this role, he oversees the collection of space, atmosphere, water, and climate observational data either owned or leveraged by the NWS. The Office of Observations serves as the primary office responsible for the development, acquisition, and management of systems and programs to meet NWS requirements. These platforms and sensors include: radars, wind profilers, buoys, surface based systems, and upper air systems. The Office also leads volunteer programs and commercial purchases of surface, maritime and aircraft based observations.

Ajay joins the NWS from NESDIS, where he served as the Director of the Office of Satellite Ground Services. In that role, he led ground sustainment efforts for operational satellite systems in low-Earth, geostationary, and deep-space orbits. He also led the transformation and transition of the organization's data ingest, processing, dissemination, and archive capabilities to the cloud.

His previous responsibilities include serving as Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Systems, where he provided oversight of NOAA's satellite acquisition programs by evaluating cost, schedule, and performance of its Earth and space weather satellite portfolio. He served as the Deputy Director for the Joint Polar Satellite System, an $18.9 billion program providing essential observations for the Nation's weather forecasting enterprise. He also served as the Deputy Director of the Office of Satellite and Product Operations, where he managed five Divisions comprising more than 300 civil servants and 250 contractors responsible for the command control of more than 17 civilian and military weather satellites, and the development and dissemination of more than 300 weather, climate and environmental products.

He has represented NOAA on various national and internal groups, including joint NOAA and NASA governance boards, representing NOAA on the U.S. National Ice Center Steering Committee, serving as the U.S. Representative to the Cospas-Sarsat Council, and leading delegations to UN meetings.

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