Our Office

The NWS New York NY weather forecast office and WSR-88D Doppler Radar.

About Us

The National Weather Service (NWS) is a government agency which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which falls under the United States Department of Commerce (DoC).

Located on the grounds of Brookhaven National Laboratory on eastern Long Island, the NWS New York NY is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to provide timely and accurate forecasts and warning services. The meteorologists, technicians, and administrative staff work hard to maintain the equipment, radars, weather radios, and observation programs necessary to achieve this.

Our Mission

The National Weather Service (NWS) provides weather, water and climate data, forecasts, warnings, and impact-based decision support services for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy. NWS data and products form a national information database and infrastructure which can be used by other governmental agencies, the private sector, the public, and the global community.

Our office provides timely, accurate warnings and forecasts for the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State region. We maintain local climate records and are leaders in science research, training, and outreach.

The NWS New York NY county warning area (CWA) encompasses northeast New Jersey, southern Connecticut, Long Island, and southeast New York, including the New York City metropolitan area. Our office serves the largest population by field forecast office in the country. Office responsibilities include watch/warning operations; public, aviation, and marine forecasts; climatological record-keeping, and decision support services for our local, state, and federal core partners.

Office Panorama.jpg

Meteorologists-in-Charge Charles Knudsen and Ernest Christie at the newly opened office in Rockefeller Center, New York City, January 1961.

Dates	Location
Oct. 25, 1870 to May 29, 1871	Board of Underwriting Building 49 Wall Street NY, NY
May 29, 1871 to Mar. 15, 1895	Equitable Life Insurance Building 120 Broadway NY, NY
Mar. 15, 1895 to Oct. 16, 1898	Manhattan Life Insurance Building 66 Broadway NY, NY
Oct. 16, 1898 to Apr. 30 , 1911	American Surety Building 100 Broadway NY, NY
May 1, 1911 to Dec. 27, 1960	Whitehall Building 17 Battery Place NY, NY
Dec. 28, 1960 to Oct. 24, 1993	RCA/GE Building 30 Rockefeller Center NY, NY Mezzanine Level
Oct. 25, 1993 to Present	Brookhaven National Laboratory 175 Brookhaven Ave, Building NWS #1 Upton, NY (Long Island)

Weather Service History

On February 9, 1870 President Ulysses S. Grant signed a joined resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to establish a national weather service. This resolution required the Secretary of War "to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent and at other points in the States and Territories...and for giving notice on the northern (Great) Lakes and on the seacoast by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms."

Dates	Agency Name
1870 to 1891	War Department Signal Service U.S. Army
1892 to June 1940	Department of Agricultural Weather Bureau
July 1940 to September 1970	Department of Commerce Weather Bureau
October 1970 to Present	Department of Commerce National Weather Service

Top of Page | Home Page

NWS New York NY Office Tours

All tours are conducted by a meteorologist who will go through the basics of how the National Weather Service operates and how forecasts are compiled and disseminated to the public. Participants will then be able to tour the operations area where current forecasting is taking place.