National Weather Service Norman, Oklahoma

(The former location at the Overholser Opera House was eventually demolished in 1964; the Myriad Convention Center was later built on the property, where it remains to this day, having since been repurposed as the film production facility Prairie Surf Studios.)

The offices at the Culbertson Building was closed four years later on January 16, 1906, with the operations moving once again, this time to a newly constructed weather observatory located at 1923 Classen Boulevard in northwest Oklahoma City.

Under NOAA operational guidelines for such situations, responsibility over the issuance of forecasts – both routine and short-term – and weather alert products can be transferred to the National Weather Service office in Tulsa in the event of an outage (such as a computer system failure or building-wide power disruption) or an emergency necessitating the enactment of evacuation procedures for NWS and guidance center personnel (such as an approaching strong tornadic circulation or tornado on the ground) that affects the Norman campus.

One notable instance in which such a situation occurred was on June 8, 1974, when a gas line rupture caused by an F3 tornado that touched down just southwest of the former Will Rogers Airport office – the first of 22 that hit Oklahoma and of five that affected the Oklahoma City area on that date, taking an 8.9-mile [14.3 km] northeastward track across the city – forced NWS officials to evacuate the building until the line was repaired; this resulted in NWS officials requesting to NBC affiliate WKY-TV's [channel 4, now KFOR-TV] chief meteorologist at the time, Jim Williams, to temporarily assume responsibility for issuing warnings on the unfolding outbreak until the office could resume operations.

During the first week of May 1999, a major tornado outbreak affected portions of the Central and Southeastern United States, with the most severe activity impacting much of Oklahoma – especially locations within the Norman County Warning Area – on the late-afternoon and evening of May 3.

The Norman office's subpage within the main Weather.gov website includes a main page that contains a variety of information, including, but not limited to, pages featuring current conditions and extended point forecasts for cities served by the office, which can also be accessed through a point map that features active watches, warnings and advisories for the western two-thirds of Oklahoma and western north Texas; an updated roundup of weather observations throughout the County Warning Area at the current hour; information about past and present events involving the Norman forecast area; and, generally, a text-based Hazardous Weather Outlook.

[2] The NWS Norman office also operates social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter to provide short-term forecasts and weather alert information.

These include landing pages containing a log of observation data collected over the past three days at individual sites in region, with updated information generally being added at constant intervals that vary depending on each location.

[20] On occasion, it also shares important or otherwise relevant links to other sites, as part of an attempt to keep people aware of upcoming weather conditions, particularly those of potential hazard to travel, life or property.

Former office of NWS Norman located near Max Westheimer Airport , where it was based from 1987 to 2006.
The forecasting and warning area for the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma
Radar base reflectivity of the first supercell thunderstorm to form during the May 3, 1999 tornado outbreak; at the time of this imagery, the supercell – which carries the distinct, "classic" appearance, including a prominent hook echo – had produced a violent tornado near Bridge Creek as it was approaching Moore . The tornado did not dissipate until 7:48 p.m. Central Time that evening as it was moving through southeastern Oklahoma City .
An example of the forecast map displayed on the NWS Norman website's main page.
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