Severe Thunderstorms and Excessive Rainfall in the Central U.S.; Heat Building in the Western U.S.

A cold front pressing east across the central U.S. will be the focus for areas of strong to severe thunderstorms and excessive rainfall through this weekend. Strong to severe thunderstorms my bring damaging winds, hail, and a few tornadoes while excessive rainfall may lead to areas of flooding. Heat will build across the western U.S. with heat-related watches, warnings, and advisories issued. Read More >

Courtney Draggon
Performing the duties of the Director of the Office of Facilities

The Office of Facilities manages the NWS portfolio of real property with a broad array of professionals through strategic planning, budgeting, and tracking and utilizes a comprehensive life-cycle approach that includes condition evaluation, prioritization, design, construction execution, utilization evaluation, maintenance and disposal. Facility Condition Assessments (FCAs) are harnessed to identify and communicate structural facility funding gaps, identify critical safety deficiencies, formulate annual budgets, prioritize replacements, optimize life cycle costs, keep the NWS workforce safe and maintain compliance with Federal law, state and local building codes. The Office develops policies and standards for facilities modernization and maintenance, safety and environmental compliance, prepares and defends budgets, maintains records and performs analyses. The Office formulates and manages major facilities projects affecting WFOs, RFCs, National Centers and Headquarters - lease and Tenant Improvement (TI) management; physical security; energy and sustainability; managing the construction of new facilities; as well as the retrofit, expansion and relocation of existing facilities. The Office plans for and ensures disposal project execution for vacated real properties. The Office is responsible for establishing national level safety and environmental compliance programs, policies and procedures. The Office manages facilities activities through collaboration and coordination with the regions and field offices. The Office is also the focal point within the Facilities budget portfolio for portfolio and budget planning, milestone integration and provision of internal controls.

+Facilities Project Management Division

+Facilities Management Division

Mark Burkes

The Division manages NWS Office of Facilities Policies, the strategic planning and execution for NWS’ portfolio of real property and the NWS-wide Facility Condition Assessment (FCA), Deferred Maintenance (DM), Safety, Environmental, Sustainability, Energy and Physical Security programs. The Division formulates facility requirements, annual budgets, performs real property Business Case Analyses (BCA’s) and manages real property leasing actions including Weather Forecast Office (WFO) relocations, new leases, Tenant Improvements (TI), regional and field system replacements. The Division executes the strategic facilities vision of the NWS in support of critical operational initiatives to facilitate Weather Ready Nation (WRN) Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS) by optimizing space utilization while collocating with core partners including Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), universities, Federal, State and local stakeholders. The Division manages the FCA program and prioritizes annual budgeting and replacement of critical systems through the management of the DM program. The Division formulates and manages major facilities projects affecting WFOs, RFCs, and manages the execution of WFO construction and retrofit of existing facilities. The Division manages the national Safety & Environmental programs and formulates and conducts NWS-tailored training to ensure the safety and readiness of the NWS workforce. The Division manages the Sustainability and Energy programs to ensure and maintain operational resilience, energy efficiency and reduced operating costs. The Division also manages the national Physical Security program and prioritizes remedial actions and budgets, plans and oversees the execution of physical security improvements.

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