The National Weather Service in Duluth and the St. Louis County Emergency Management division have worked closely together for years, and a new arrangement will make their collaboration easier for both parties.

There is now an embedded meteorologist working out of the St. Louis County Emergency Operations Center Monday through Friday, 7 am to 4 pm, with hours adjusted as needed. Five NWS-Duluth meteorologists will take turns working the shift as part of their normal rotation.

“At no cost, our meteorologists embedded with St. Louis County are going to provide better support for everything that the county is doing, whether it’s search and rescue coming to coordinate, whether it’s a wildfire evacuation, there are flooding evacuations,” said Warning Coordination Meteorologist Joe Moore. “The National Weather Service meteorologist embedded here will be able to provide that direct eye-to-eye weather support so that decisions can be made faster, that questions are answered quickly, and that ultimately we’re providing better service to the residents of the region.” 

Meteorologist Ketzel Levens is the first to work the new shift at the EOC and is looking forward to the opportunity.

“I think there’s going to be a really amazing, efficient, positive feedback loop that kind of develops from this partnership where we can both be right there when they need weather support. And from that, we’re going to be able to get more on-the-ground reports,” explained Levens. “We’re going to be able to get immediate feedback on our forecasts, which is going to make our warnings our forecasts better and just go right into that cycle of improving our support.”

 The National Weather Service regularly works with emergency managers and partners, but this is the first time in Minnesota or Wisconsin that meteorologists will work full-time at a county EOC.

“The neat thing is that this is a growing area for the National Weather Service as we become a more flexible agency capable of being able to provide weather support where and when and however our partners might need that,” said Meteorologist in Charge Laren Reynolds. “I think over time we’re going to learn from each other to understand specifically what they need.”

Nationwide, NWS-Duluth has received the second-most requests in the country for spot forecasting requests to help with search and rescue. Most of these requests come from the St. Louis County Rescue Squad.

St. Louis County Emergency Management Coordinator Josh Brinkman says last year was a “defining year” in the relationship between SLC and NWS. There were embedded meteorologists in the command truck at the airport supporting the Duluth Air Show when a search and rescue effort began in the Boundary Waters.

“They were supporting not only the Air Show for us but also search and rescue up near the Canadian border,” said Brinkman. “So just having them in person at that time, that was a real proof of concept of this works and we need this.”

The additional support from NWS will include the county as a whole with a variety of departments that rely on them for daily operations.

“A big, big player in that world is the Public Works Department. Especially when it’s snowing, trying to figure out their staffing levels and what kind of big projects they’re going, how is the weather going to impact that?” said Brinkman.

The two organizations will also be able to learn more from each other along the way.

“I think this is going to be a really interesting opportunity for us to see what actions are taken, what kind of lives and property are saved from the warnings that we’re giving, from the briefings that we’re putting out there, what kind of planning can be done better, what kind of ongoing projects can be done more efficiently and accomplished in a better manner because the weather support was right there when they needed it,” said Levens.