Seeding The Weather

National Weather Center Nears Opening, Norman Asks For Seed Fund to Nurture More Development

Dean Anderson

What began almost a year a go as a topic in a chamber of commerce committee meeting could end up making Norman the weather capital of the world.

The city already boasts more than 800 weather-related jobs and soon will welcome the opening of the $67 million National Weather Center in Spring 2006.

However, many Norman Chamber of Commerce leaders believe this is just the beginning and have ratified a plan to approach the state’s Commerce Department to seek seed money to establish an enterprise fund to attract more from the industry to Norman.

“The thing is, the big companies that will come to town don’t need help whatsoever. But the smaller companies [need help]…” said Jonathan Leavey, Norman Chamber President. “We were trying to figure out a way to grow Oklahoma companies.”

Leavey added the chamber hasn’t formulated a set amount of money for which it will ask the Commerce department for the seed fund. However, he and others from the committee plan to soon broach the subject with sate Commerce Secretary Kathy Taylor and discuss what might bee a realistic amount.

One year ago, that process began with the formation of a weather committee comprised of 45 people that met once a month to talk weather. He banking industry was included on the committee, as were representatives of the various private weather entities in Norman and city council members.

“It’s really not so much as to fund R and D as it’s to help them initially with having an office and really just having a place,” Leavey said of the seed fund. “It’s not to help them wherever they are.”

Kelvin Droegemeir, the University of Oklahoma Regents professor of meteorology who also holds the endowed Weathernews chair, said Norman business people have quickly become educated about what’s at stake.

“They’re learning that weather is huge economics,” Droegemeir said. “It’s huge on society, but it’ also potential economic development for Oklahoma. The fact that the council voted unanimously is due to the fact we’ve had very good dialogue.”

The draw of the new weather center will be undeniable, Leavey said.

“That ends up becoming, if you will, the focal point. It’s almost [tantamount to ] build, and they will come. Norman arguably is the weather capital of the United States, possibly the world. By having the National Weather Center getting ready to be fully functional this next spring, let’s face it, it’s literally putting our money where our mouth is.

“We’ve got all these wonderful, brilliant weather scientist from multiple disciplines…the synergy for all this is extremely exciting. This is our industry and this is the industry that frankly will be good for Oklahoma.”

Funding weather industry is also a way to retain more graduates, Leavey said. And more weather jobs will create more weather-related jobs.

Droegemeier said there may be larger clusters of weather companies in other communities, but Norman has a unique combination of government, weather, private industry and the academic sector.

“We have a major government presence, the biggest meteorology program in the country, but we also have a private sector we are trying to synergize, he said.

While many point to the National Weather Service, currently located on the old north Naval base section of town, as the premier weather provider, Droegemeir noted 80 percent of the weather data in the United States comes from the private sector.

And that’s why it’s beneficial companies such as Weathernews, a global provider of weather information to companies in the private sector and to government, opened its U.S Operations Center in Norman a year ago.

Droegemeier says the interest in meteorology at the University level peaked in 2003. Faculty call it the “Twister” phenomenon, partly based on the movie that portrayed Oklahoma tornadoes.

For instance, in 1984, the total number of OU weather students from the undergraduate to the doctoral level was 125. In 2003, that number had peaked to 450, creating a logistics nightmare.

“We’re hanging them on hooks, for sure,” Droegemeier said of the space challenges.

That should ease slightly when the School of Meteorology moves into the new weather facility next spring. The school will occupy an additional 30,000 square feet of space on the building’s fifth floor. And, Droegemeier said, the bustle of meteorological business in Norman only helps his students.

“It’s going to put our students in the midst of the cutting edge research,” he said. “We’ll be sending students out that are some of the best equipped in the world. Whether it’s operations, research, academia, they should be awfully darn marketable.”