National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

www.noaa.gov

National Press Contacts

The top few NOAA officials, including NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubshenco, an environmental scientist and marine ecologist, are in D.C. Most other NOAA operations are in Maryland, primarily Silver Spring.

NOAA Public Affairs Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Scott Smullen, deputy director
202-482-6090 (w)
202-494-6515 (cell)
scott.smullen@noaa.gov

Anatta - climate change, global warming
303-497-6288
anatta@noaa.gov

Location

National Weather Service

The service routinely updates forecasts on a variety of hazards, such as hurricanes.

The National Hurricane Center is in Miami. If you have some travel money, you also could hitch a ride on a hurricane hunter out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Fla., with some advance notice. Call the Aircraft Operations Center for reservations, 813-828-3310, ext. 3072.

The World Weather Building in Camp Springs, Md., is where scientists work on long-term forecasts. It houses the gadgets that help them track the birth of potential hurricanes off the west coast of Africa. The hurricane center takes over tracking at a stage just before tropical depression. 301-713-0622.

On the web
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
*under Information Center, there are stats on weather-related fatalities and property damage and a Historical Weather page link to find specific events in cities and regions over periods of years (shows event types, fatalities, injuries and other information.

Contacts:

National Weather Service headquarters: forecasts, severe weather warnings
Public Affairs
Christopher Vaccaro, team leader
301-713-0622 ext 150
christopher.vaccaro@noaa.gov

Susan Buchanan, public affairs specialist
301-713-0622 ext 110
susan.buchanan@noaa.gov

Linda Joy, public affairs specialist
301-713-0622 ext 127
linda.joy@noaa.gov

Other Contacts

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center
(severe storms, tornadoes, fire weather outlooks, storm chasing)
Keli Tarp, public affairs specialist
405-325-6933
keli.tarp@noaa.gov

NOAA's National Weather Service Eastern Region,
(flooding, flash flooding or fresh water flooding from tropical cyclones)
Marci Katcher
631-244-0149
marci.katcher@noaa.gov

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction
(drought, climate prediction, El Niño & La Niña)
301-763-0622

National Marine Fisheries Service

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/

NMFS regulates federal commercial and recreational fisheries through a complex system of species-by-species seasons and quotas. It sets rules protecting endangered or threatened fish and marine mammals. NMFS often gets tangled with other agencies, such as the Army Corps of Engineers on wetlands restoration and dredging.

NMFS implements rules for eight regional fisheries councils:

Regional Councils

Gulf of Mexico: http://www.gulfcouncil.org/
New England: http://www.nefmc.org/
Mid-Atlantic: http://www.mafmc.org/mid-atlantic/mafmc.htm
Caribbean: http://www.caribbeanfmc.com/
Pacific: http://www.pcouncil.org/
North Pacific: http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/
Western Pacific: http://wpcouncil.org

Contacts:

Fisheries management, habitat protection, protected species
Connie Barclay, team leader
301-713-2370
connie.barclay@noaa.gov

Monica Allen, public affairs specialist
monica.allen@noaa.gov

Alaska Region (Juneau, Alaska)
Sheela McClean, public affairs specialist
907-586-7032
sheela.mclean@noaa.gov

Northeast Fisheries Science Center (Woods Hole, Mass.)
Teri Frady, public affairs specialist
508-495-2239
teri.frady@noaa.gov

Northwest Fisheries (Seattle, Wash.)
Brian Gorman, public affairs specialist
206-526-6613
brian.gorman@noaa.gov

Southeast Fisheries (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
Kim Amendola, public affairs specialist
727-551-5707
kim.amendola@noaa.gov

NOAA Fisheries Office for Law Enforcement (Silver Spring, Md.)
Stuart Cory, public affairs specialist
301-427-2300
stuart.cory@noaa.gov

National Environmental Satellite, Data & Information Service
John Leslie, public affairs specialist
301-713-2087
john.leslie@noaa.gov

This is generally academic with little foreseeable use except:

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/about/ncdcspotlight.html
 

• If you click on Climate Research under the Climate Info tab on the left of the home page that will get you to climate by year. Going to the Climate of 2008, for example, gets you data on the temperature difference by month compared to normal.
• This is the branch that uses satellites to help rescue sailors in trouble. If wildfires or other disasters strike your coverage area, you can check to see if a NOAA satellite caught a picture of it.
• If you're working on a story and need to confirm or recreate the weather conditions in a particular area at a certain time, call the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., the largest repository of climate data in the world, 828-271-4800.

Does this agency's information need updating? programs@nationalpress.org