Last time I was in Oklahoma City a couple of years ago, they were just breaking ground on the new "National Weather Center". The NWS in Norman is moving in right now, and looks like all of the agencies will be in the house soon. Here is a nie article on the new facility from Sean Murphy of the Norman Transcript:

National Weather Center set to open its doors

A nearly 40-year separation of University of Oklahoma meteorology students and federal weather forecasters will come to an end this summer with the opening of the National Weather Center.

Students and government scientists worked side-by-side in the early 1960s until a fire swept through a university research lab in April 1967, turning the wooden structure into a pile of rubble.

The university's School of Meteorology relocated to OUs main campus, separating the academics from federal weather researchers located on the north base, an old World War II-era Navy base on the cities north side.

The physical separation will end this summer when nearly one dozen weather-related entities; including several divisions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, begin moving into The National Weather Center.

The massive six-story facility located south of Norman's main campus is nearing completion, and school officials are to begin moving into the new facility within the next several weeks, said John Snow, dean of OUs College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences.

"When you're moving into a new house, you're always anxious," Snow said. "We're getting the last of the furniture installed and the contractor is doing the last of the finish work on the building."

The building itself is an impressive facility- a244,000 square-foot, $67.3 million structure that serves as the anchor tenant of OU's rapidly expanding research campus on the northeast corner of State Highway 9 and Jenkins Avenue.

Visitors to the center are greeted first with a cavernous atrium accentuated with natural light pouring through a glass ceiling on the fifth floor. Three glass elevators run up the middle atrium, which also features a monumental stairway. Soft maple paneling complements the steel and glass fixtures throughout the building.

"It’s very visually open, even though it's as big as it is," said Michael Moorman, director of OU's Architecture and Engineering office. "When you go to and from your work area, you'll be fully aware of what other people are doing. That's to get people talking with each other, sharing ideas and working hand in hand."

Offices and classrooms feature state-of-the-art technology, including a 250-seat auditorium-style classroom on the first floor with power outlets at every seat and a built-in projector housed in the ceiling. Weather-related literary collections all will be housed in a library on the fourth floor.

A sixth-floor rooftop observatory will house and antenna farm for monitoring the weather and includes anchors for weather instruments. A separate enclosed observation tower above the sixth floor offers a view for miles to the south and east of the city, and a mast extending above the building will support microwave antennas that bring data and information into the building. But scientists and researchers who will work inside the new building are most excited about the synergy expected to develop from having all the different weather disciplines in the same facility.

"We collaborate with lots of the university professors and it's going to improve those collaborations," said Doug Forsyth, NOAA's program manager for the National Weather Center and chief of radar research for the National Severe Storms Laboratory. "We think the building is going to lend itself to improved communications, synergy and improving warnings and watches for the nations."

Some of the five different entities that make up NOAA's operations in Norman are scattered across the city and its sprawling north base. The prominent weather radar towers that dot the north base will remain, along with a segment of NOAA's Radar Operations Center, but the rest of the federal researchers and employees will be moving to the new building, Forsyth said.

Perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of combining OU's weather-related academic units with the federal entities will be the students, Snow said.

"Imagine taking OU's journalism school and setting it on top of the New York Times building," Snow said. &q
uot;That's the type of environment we're going to have.

"It's going to give them a tremendous educational opportunity."

Chris Godfrey, a meteorology student from Gardiner, Maine, who is studying the interaction between the land surface and the lower atmosphere as part of his doctorate work, said he's particularly excited about having the opportunity to meet regularly with some of the top weather forecasters in the world.

"I'm looking forward to the ease with which we can all collaborate in the new building," Godfrey said. "The common areas will allow these collaborations and partnerships to really flourish, I think."

Ultimately, Snow said he expects those partnerships and collaborations to be the highlight of the new facility.

"Despite all our technological wizardry, the best science is still done over a cup of coffee."

See the web site of the new facility here:

http://www.weatherparty.com/story.php?title=National-Weather-Center-About-To-Open

And there is plenty of heat to talk about. Look at these highs today:

ALABAMA AND REGIONAL
91 in Jasper (early thunderstorms)
94 in Vinemont
98 at Birmingham, Helena, Shelby County Airport
99 in Albertville, Anniston, Pinson, Ralph, Piedmont
100 in Muscle Shoals, Decatur, McCalla
101 in Northport, Tuscaloosa, Memphis
102 in Black Creek, Cordova, Greenwood, Miss.
103 in DeSoto State Park

ACROSS THE BAKED PLAINS
102 in Lamar, Colo.
103 in Wichita
104 in Fort Smith, Ark.
105 in Dodge City, Tulsa, Oklahoma City
106 in Topeka, Lawrence, Kans.
107 in Coffeeville, Kans., Lawton, Okla.
108 in Hill City and Salina, Kans.
109 in Manhattan, Kans.
110 in Stillwater, Okla. (home of Oklahoma State University)

EXAMPLE OF A BAKED EARTH
This afternoon, the soil temperature at the standard 4-inch depth reached 93 degrees at Parsons, Kans. That is what I call a hot ground.

ALABAMA RAINFALL THIS AFTERNOON
2.04 inches at Mobile Airport
0.87 at Montgomery Dannelly Field
0.32 at Anniston Airport
0.44 at Logan martin
1.80 at Cordova (Walker County)
0.52 at McCalla (SW Jefferson County)
0.74 at Helena

Hottest in the entire USA today was 117 in Death Valley

In the Mobile area, two houses were set afire by lightning this afternoon east of Mobile Airport.

After an afternoon of thunderstorms across North and Central Alabama...things have calmed considerably this evening.

A few storms continue over West Alabama including Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin and Lamar Counties.

They are not very strong.

The rest of North Central Alabama is quiet. Weakening showers are over Perry, Sumter and Marengo Counties.

Thursday looks like it will be a lot like today, and Friday may be even wetter with likely showers and storms.

Thunderstorms are weakening late this afternoon across North and Central Alabama.

Activity has virtually ended north of I-20.

An exception is a storm just north of I-20 in Calhoun County that is already collapsing.

A few storms are over eastern Mississippi. Some of them are migrating into Franklin County in Northwest Alabama.

Other weakening storms are over South Central Alabama.

The temperature at the Birmingham Airport peaked at 98. The thunderstorm around 3 p.m. dropped the mercury to 83F.

A big cluster of thunderstorms over NE Shelby County rapidly increased in strength.

Lori Barlow, 3340 Skywatcher, working in Vincent, reports it is "dark as night" and "looks like a hurricane." Winds are very strong.

She reports "tons of lightning" and extremely heavy rain.

Other strong storms extended westward to near Centreville, in Bibb County and across North Hale County.

Movement generally southward.

Thanks to our boss, ABC 33/40 General Manager Mike Murphy for these shots of storm damage on the shore of Lay Lake at the southern tip of Shelby County. These trees were blown down by a wet microburst from a thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon....

Guess we can sign up Mike as a new member of our Skywatchers!

Most of the stronger ones are now south of Birmingham. They extend from Shelby and Bibb Counties in clusters all the way down into the SW part of the state.

At the ABC 33/40 Weather office, Riverchase, 0.62 of an inch of rain.

Some of the stronger storms at 3:40 p.m. were at the NE tip of Shelby County near Leeds, over Bibb County near Centreville, along the Greene-Sumter County line and over Marengo, Clarke, Conecuh and Pike Counties in South Alabama.

General movement is toward the south, but some of them were moving very little while some had no distinct movement. The stronger thunderstorms were producing downpours of rain, extremely dangerous lightning and wind gusts over 40 mph.

The Wednesday afternoon map discussion video is on the web, and available by iTunes:

http://www.jamesspann.com/

Due to popular demand, we are now rendering the map video in the old .wmv file format again. So, you have three options: QuickTime, Windows Media, and the iTunes format. I probably won't be able to change the links on all the web pages until tonight, so here are the direct links:

QuickTime: http://www.jamesspann.com/radio/weathervideo/spann.mov
Windows Media: http://video.wjla.com/abc3340/spann.wmv

And, of course for iTunes, just search and subscribe within the program.

This should make everyone happy....

BIG STORMS: Early this morning we expected to see a nice increase in the number of showers and storms today, and by golly we have a very active radar. As I write this, a big storm is moving in on downtown Birmingham. Our SKYCAM site atop the Daniel Building on 20th Street has recorded a peak wind gust of 40 mph, with very heavy rain just to the northwest. Any of the storms around the state this afternoon can produce strong winds, lots of lightning, and very heavy rain. We welcome the rain, but watch for that lightning. And, wet microbursts are a very real possibility. Had some pretty serious damage yesterday on the shore of Lay Lake; I will post some pictures shortly here on the blog (or watch the video).

TOMORROW/FRIDAY: Both days should feature scattered to numerous showers and storms during the afternoon and evening hours. Between now and Friday many Alabama communities have a great chance of getting over one inch of rain, and some spots could see up to three inches during the three day period. Temperatures will continue to trend downward; highs will be close to 90 tomorrow and Friday. Where storms form early in the day, some places might not reach 90. A very nice change.

THE WEEKEND: A surface front should be near the Alabama/Tennessee border Saturday, so scattered showers and storms will remain possible. The 12Z run is holding the front up over North Alabama Sunday, but we will continue to scale back the chance of showers and storms Sunday and Monday as some drier air could creep in here from the north.

NEXT WEEK: The old front will dissipate, and it looks like most of next week will feature your typical summer pattern with highs rising back into the mid 90s.

TROPICS: Sure looks like we now have a tropical depression moving through the Windward Islands... convection continues to increase around a central dense overcast. There is a chance this system will become tropical storm Debby during the next day or so, but the models turn the system northward before reaching the Bahamas in response to the eastern U.S. trough forming, which means there is a good chance this one might not impact the U.S. mainland at all. It certainly doesn't look like a storm that will have a chance of reaching the Gulf of Mexico.

Wow... rain is now falling here at ABC 33/40 and we have cooled down to 75 degrees (rain total 0.33" now). Love it! I need to get back to radar duty... I will have the next map discussion video ready by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow...

Some big thunderstorms were roaming the Alabama countryside at midafternoon. Some of them are producing strong winds, very heavy rain and more than their share of lightning.

At 3 o'clock, some of the stronger thunderstorms were in an irregular line from Pickens County in West-Central Alabama, around Carrollton and Aliceville eastward across the Tuscaloosa area to South Jefferson County.
Earlier these thunderstorms produced 40 mph wind gusts at the downtown ABC 33/40 skycam location.

Further south, other strong storms were over the central and SW part of the state. The National Weather Service posted a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for Perry County until 3:15.

Any of these stronger thunderstorms could produce a sudden downburst that could cause some very localized damage. It happens quickly, so it is difficult to always have a warning.

Other thunderstorms were more widely separated over the east-central part of the state and also from Cullman County northward. Most of the thunderstorms are moving south, but others are just wandering around like they are lost.

There seems to be a more definitive line of storms across the north-central part of the state from Pickens County eastward to Jefferson and Shelby.

Rather numerous thunderstorms from Pickens County, in West Alabama, eastward across Tuscaloosa and Jefferson County.

All moving southward and producing much lightning and locally heavy rain.

In Jefferson County, most of the thunderstorms were from downtown Birmingham own into the southern part of the county.

Wind gusts to 40 mph at the 3340 Skycam site in downtown Birmingham.

More complete information a bit later...