When the National Weather Service Moves In: Success in Embedding Meteorologists at the County Level

The National Weather Service (NWS) is accelerating efforts to embed meteorologists directly with the decision-making partners who need them most. This presentation will demonstrate why this is so important with examples from Florida, Indiana, and Minnesota of embedding meteorologists at the County level. In Indiana, pilot projects to embed meteorologists part-time in Allen and Elkhart Counties have engaged non-traditional partners, including zoological parks, police drone units, and industrial facilities to build whole-community weather preparedness. In Florida, month-long demonstrations with Duval County/City of Jacksonville and Clay County evaluated the value of embedding meteorologists on a full-time basis during a prolonged cold weather event, fire concerns, and a major sporting event. Results included improved situational awareness, confidence, and communication in the decision process. And in Minnesota, the Duluth office is all-in with an established full-time presence of NWS Meteorologists at the St Louis County MN EOC since April 2025. Results have included support for dozens of Search and Rescue operations, Wildfire evacuations, floods, and large-scale planned events, truly becoming integrated into Emergency Management. This presentation will include stories of success, challenges encountered, and how different communities from rural to urban across the country can leverage this unique transformation of NWS operations to better serve decision makers.