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NWS 3
Thu Jul 15, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Today, we conclude our talk with David
L. Johnson, Director of the National Weather Service, who oversees the day-to-day
operations of 5,000 weather specialists.
BY: I come from a classroom teaching background so I see weather education as
vitally important. How do you feel about that and do you have any ideas as to how to go
about that?
DJ: Well, we’ve got an outreach program trying to do exactly that. But I think that lights a
fire in the young peoples’ minds. And something that, as science continues to mature
and you can sit there and say, "Boy, there’s a great opportunity to do good things and
make a difference that will blossom and fan that fire into a blaze." I’ve seen a lot of
people that are really excited about getting into the weather – and we could use them.
BY: Everyone seems to be talking about partnerships. Anything that you have in mind
to strengthen the partnerships between the private sector, the academic community
and the National Weather Service?
DJ: In a perfect world you could write a check and get all that in your organization but, to
be honest, we can’t afford it. So I need to leverage the smart people in other
organizations and they need to leverage smart people in the National Weather Service
to accomplish mutual objectives. And there’s a good opportunity to interplay and
leverage each other’s capabilities and get that synergy that we’re all looking for in
government – especially – and to give the taxpayer the value for the resources
expended.
Thanks to David Johnson for his time. The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru
of America and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
David Johnson
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/johnson_bio.php
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