Ex-National Hurricane Center chief to lead National Weather Service
By Marianne Mizera, Accuweather.com
A veteran meteorologist who helped lead Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and oversaw the National Hurricane Center during an onslaught of record-breaking storm activity in 2020 will take the helm of the National Weather Service.
Ken Graham, the four-year director of the National Hurricane Center, will begin his tenure as NWS director effective immediately, the agency announced Tuesday.
"Ken has the scientific integrity, trusted leadership and communication prowess," Rick Spinrad, head of the NWS's parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in announcing Graham's appointment during a press conference in Washington.
"I have full confidence that [Graham] will help create a more weather-and-climate-ready nation amid more extreme weather fueled by our changing climate."
Graham, a 27-year weather veteran, succeeds winter storm expert Louis Uccellini, who retired Jan. 1 after leading the NWS for eight years.
The NWS noted that Graham brings "a vast amount of operational field experience" to the administrative role.
Ken Graham was named the 17th director of the National Weather Service on Tuesday.
Graham, a native of Phoenix, worked his way up through the ranks at NWS, starting as an intern meteorologist in 1994 at the New Orleans/Baton Rouge weather forecast office, where he eventually became the meteorologist in charge, a role he assumed for 10 years.
Later, as the systems operational chief at the NWS office in Fort Worth, Texas, he led recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Graham also has headed NWS offices in Silver Spring, Md., Birmingham, Ala., and Corpus Christi, Texas. He also was a television meteorologist in Mississippi.
His last two years, in particular, as national hurricane director have been daunting, with powerful storms.
"I hate to say the word routine, but they became so frequent that we just sprung back into action," Graham said in a May interview. "Almost 28 years in the weather service, I've seen a lot of damage. A lot of people lose everything, a lot of loss of life."
Weather, climate and water disasters cause about 650 deaths a year and about $15 billion in damage annually, according to NOAA.
Graham told AccuWeather on Tuesday that some of his main priorities will include making weather information more accessible to vulnerable populations and addressing climate change in an urgent, honest manner.
"It's me giving a briefing, not of 20 slides and science. It's about the trust. I can spend 3 minutes talking about 'This is going to be rough. Here's what the impacts are going to be. Here's the timing, here's when it's going to be here, here's when everyone's going to be out,'" he said.
The weather service has about 4,900 employees and 144 offices.
Graham is a "fantastic choice" to lead the agency, Neil Jacobs, who served as NOAA's acting administrator under former President Donald Trump, told The Washington Post. "From working as a forecaster in the field to advancing [the Hurricane Center's] mission over multiple challenging seasons, Ken has the perfect balance of leadership skills, operational experience, and support of the Emergency Management community."
In a statement Tuesday, Graham said he was "humbled" and "honored" for the opportunity.
During Graham's tenure as hurricane center chief, there have been more named Atlantic storms, 101, than in any other four-year period since 1851, according to Colorado State University records.
Graham also navigated the hurricane center during the political storm that became known as SharpieGate during Trump's time in office. The episode involved a controversial map that the former president used to show Alabama incorrectly in the path of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
At an infamous Oval Office briefing, Trump held up the map -- an official NOAA hurricane trajectory chart -- that had been altered with a black Sharpie marker, apparently to support his false claim that the hurricane would extend to Alabama.
NOAA, facing political pressure from White House, released an unsigned statement backing the president and contradicting the forecast by the Weather Service office in Birmingham that the storm posed no danger. The backlash reached the National Hurricane Center, which received numerous angry emails from the public. In response, Graham pleaded with NWS leaders to craft a response signaling that federal officials' scientific warnings would not be compromised.
Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, has been named acting director of the NHC until a permanent administrator is appointed, according to NWS officials.
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