Bill Read

William L. Read has served the United States Navy and the National Weather Service during his career. His weather service career began in 1977, and he has worked in Sterling, Virginia, Fort Worth, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, Silver Spring, Maryland, Houston, Texas, and Miami, Florida over the years. Bill was appointed as the Deputy Director of the National Hurricane Center From August 2007 until he was selected for the position of director on January 25, 2008 [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080125_read.html NOAA Selects Bill Read as New National Hurricane Center Director] Retrieved on 2008-1-25.] .

Career

Bill served in the U.S. Navy, where he served as an on-board meteorologist with the Hurricane Hunters. He began his weather service career in 1977 with the National Weather Service test and evaluation division in Sterling, Virginia. He served as a forecaster in the Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas offices before becoming the severe thunderstorm and flash flood program leader at the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read was appointed to direct the Houston/Galveston weather forecast office in 1992 and led it through the National Weather Service modernization and restructuring program of the mid 1990s. He was also part of the Hurricane Liaison Team at the National Hurricane Center in Miami when Hurricane Isabel came ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in September 2003. Bill Read is now the director of its Tropical Prediction Center, which includes the National Hurricane Center and two other divisions, in Miami, Florida. Read previously served as the center’s acting deputy director between August 2007 and January 2008. [NOAA. [http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080125_read.html NOAA Selects Bill Read as New National Hurricane Center Director.] Retrieved on 2008-05-31.]

Awards

Bill received the National Hurricane Conference Public Education Award in Spring 2004 for hurricane preparedness efforts. Under his leadership, the Houston/Galveston forecast office conducted an annual Houston/Galveston Hurricane Workshop, which was considered the largest meeting of its kind in the United States. [NOAA. [http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2004/apr04/noaa04-r228.html NWS METEOROLOGIST BILL READ RECEIVES NATIONAL HURRICANE CONFERENCE PUBLIC EDUCATION AWARD.] Retrieved on 2008-05-31.]

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