NHC at Christmas

[CrazyC83]

One thing I am wondering: does the NHC shut down completely at Christmas? Since it is outside hurricane season, I figured they would want to be able to spend it with their families...

Of course, if a surprise storm happened (although there has never been an active tropical cyclone on December 25), that would change things...

[Derek Ortt]

nope

TAFB still has to issue products

[Ed Mahmoud]

nope

TAFB still has to issue products

Do they have a holiday party? On site, or in a restaurant?

[HurricaneRobert]

Maybe they don't all celebrate Christmas.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Maybe they don't all celebrate Christmas.

That is why I asked about a holiday party, to cover Christmas and Chanukkah.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Maybe they don't all celebrate Christmas.

That is why I asked about a holiday party, to cover Christmas and Chanukkah.

Oh, you mean on December 25th as far as staffing?

[HurricaneRobert]

Yeah it was a response to the first post.

[CrazyC83]

nope

TAFB still has to issue products

Do they have a holiday party? On site, or in a restaurant?

Probably on site, since most other places are closed...

[HURAKAN]

FIU is closed on holidays. So I guess any partying would have to occur inside or in the restaurants along 107 Ave.

[CrazyC83]

FIU is closed on holidays. So I guess any partying would have to occur inside or in the restaurants along 107 Ave.

And of those, I would assume most are closed as well. Probably any partying took place in the NHC. At least they didn't have to deal with that grinch Pablo who could have wrecked their holidays like Zeta did...

[Frank2]

During my time there, we had a Christmas tree in the middle of the operational area (at the old NHC), and, some folks would bring something for all to eat, but, the day usually passed quietly (I seem to recall I was usually scheduled to work on Christmas Day).

However, on New Year's Eve, we'd always receive a nice deli platter from the ABC News/Nightline staff (through a South Miami deli restaurant) - to their credit, ABC always came through every year, I suppose as a way of thanking the staff for the many times the NHC Director was a guest on Ted Koppel's program, usually when a hurricane was threatening...

I recall that I was scheduled to work at the NHC on New Year's Eve on more than one year - which meant arriving at the office about 11:45 p.m. - so, just as "everyone" was out celebrating, I'd be driving to work - one of the few times I regretted working there (LOL)...

So, to answer the question, while the NHC (except for TAFB) is dark on Holidays, the co-located Miami WSFO is open, since that is a 24-hour operation...

As mentioned, the FIU campus is closed (most on-campus students having gone home for the holidays), but, the NHC is a bit outside the campus quad itself (though within its borders), so, the NHC staff pretty much is unto itself during holidays...

Just a side note - I found the worst thing about working the midnight shift at the NHC was the isolation - unless someone at the office knew someone who was working the same schedule, or, if someone at home couldn't sleep, no one could call anyone during the overnight hours, so, for all we knew, we might as well be at the South Pole or on the Moon, for all the isolation we often felt at 2 or 3 in the morning...

Often (or always), "lunch time" at 4 a.m. came and went unnoticed, since no one had any interest in eating or drinking anything - again, another mental isolation "feature" of working the overnight hours...

Some did better than others (I am not a night person, so...), but, we'd always be happy when sunrise approached, the long night awake having ended...

[Ed Mahmoud]

During my time there, we had a Christmas tree in the middle of the operational area (at the old NHC), and, some folks would bring something for all to eat, but, the day usually passed quietly (I seem to recall I was usually scheduled to work on Christmas Day).

However, on New Year's Eve, we'd always receive a nice deli platter from the ABC News/Nightline staff (through a South Miami deli restaurant) - to their credit, ABC always came through every year, I suppose as a way of thanking the staff for the many times the NHC Director was a guest on Ted Koppel's program, usually when a hurricane was threatening...

I recall that I was scheduled to work at the NHC on New Year's Eve on more than one year - which meant arriving at the office about 11:45 p.m., so, just as "everyone" was out celebrating, I'd be driving to work - one of the few times I regreted working there (LOL)...

So, to answer the question, while the NHC (except for TFAB) is closed on Holidays), the co-located Miami WSFO is open, since that is a 24/7 operation...

As mentioned, the FIU campus is closed (most on-campus students having gone home for the holidays), but, the NHC is a bit outside the campus itself (though within it's borders), so, the NHC staff pretty much is unto itself during holidays...

Just a side note - I found the worst thing about working the midnight shift at the NHC was the isolation - unless someone at the office knew someone who was working the same schedule, or, if someone at home couldn't sleep, no one could call anyone during the overnight hours, so, for all we knew, we might as well be at the South Pole or on the Moon, for all the isolation we often felt at 2 or 3 in the morning...

Often (or always), "lunch time" at 4 a.m. came and went unnoticed, since no one had any interest in eating or drinking anything - again, another mental isolation "feature" of working the overnight hours...

Some did better than others (I am not a night person, so...), but, we'd always be happy when sunrise approached, the long night awake having ended...

When I was on tour (pronounced "tower" in the oilfield) in the MWD logging cabin in the Gulf of Mexico midnight to six, I got pretty proficient at playing "Minesweeper" on the cabin PC...

[Frank2]

We didn't have that available on the old NWS AFOS system (LOL), but, since the routine NWS work schedule is very, well, scheduled (2:02 we have to send this, 2:10 we'd have to do that, 2:20 we'd have to enter something else), outside of severe weather events (including Freeze warnings), we'd have some free time to ourselves, but, I usually ended up listening to the all-night Jazz program (which sometimes worked against me, if the music made me sleepy)...

It sounds like you know the isolation at those times - as you know, it really can feel, well, isolating...

LOL

P.S. The strict time schedule sounds goofy, but, if we missed a product transmission window, TWC or someone else (usually a newspaper) would call, asking, "Where's our Selected Cities Summary?", or something similar (those here might recall the SCS on the TWC WeatherStar 3000 scroll in the evening hours - if we missed that window, they'd usually call from Atlanta within minutes...), so, that was reason enough for me to stay awake (LOL)...

Actually, what usually kept us busy (during the days of microwave transmission) were the nocturnal weather changes - nighttime inversions were especially dreaded during the passage of Winter or Springtime high pressure systems, since it usually meant a partial or complete loss of signal in the early morning hours, and, this would usually put a halt to our tranmission send or receive schedule, so, there was really nothing that could be done to correct the problem, except to wait for the sun to stir up the atmosphere enough to end the ducting effect...

Merry Christmas to all here...

[MGC]

I've pulled a many graveyard shift in my career with the feds. I am on call so sometimes the night can get quiet long. I try to pass the time doing research on my PC. Sometimes sunrise seemed to never get here. Since I transfered to the evening shift (I'm at work now), the night seems to pass more quickly. Do the forecasters rotate or is the new guy stuck on graveyards till on opening on another shift comes up? That is what happend with me.....MGC

[Derek Ortt]

they rotate. One week some are on overnight (which pays more from what I have been told; thus, the veterans at times want to work that shift) while others are on day

[Frank2]

Derek's correct - many do like the differential pay, but, sometimes the money is only part of the issue...

The hardest part was rotating from days to midnights, which usually meant waking up at 6:30 or 7 a.m. - but not going back to sleep until 9 or 9:30 a.m. the next day...

I was always greatful when it came to work days - the mids were tough and the evenings (swing shift) were okay, but, I always missed out on my favorite programs (we didn't own a VCR at that time), and, days were usually better for family reasons...

[senorpepr]

I can sympathize as well. Our shop is open 24-hours everyday... including Christmas. Christmas usually isn't too bad--all the bosses are gone and a lot of the forecasters bring in food for all to share. As for mids (overnight shift), we rotate shifts every three months. The military forecasters don't get differential pay, but the civilian forecasters do--but many will say that the extra pay doesn't make mids any better and would rather lose the pay NOT to work mids.

Many think a person would get used to mids working three-month rotations...but you don't. It's hard to keep a descent sleeping schedule. If you sleep during the evening before work, you miss out on family time--if the family even lets you sleep. If you sleep during the morning after work, construction, traffic, sunlight, or other daylight distractions keep you from getting a descent rest. Plus, don't forget about appointments during your sleeptime!

...and my favorite (blah), when everyone else is excited about the end of Daylight Saving Time ("Fall Back"). While they all get an extra hour of sleep, I get an extra hour of work!