NWA History

NWA History Tidbits:

• NWA Incorporated December 15, 1975
• 1976 — First Officers
  • Jerry LaRue — President
  • Tony Tancreto — President-elect
  • Joe Vazzo — Secretary/Treasurer
• March 1976 — First military NWA officer — Vice President CDR Joseph Ford
• March 1976 — First private sector NWA officer – Councilor Peter Leavett – NE Weather Svc
• June 1976 — National Weather Digest defined
• June 1976 — Local chapter concept adopted
• August 1976 — Membership 644...this was before any publications or meetings. Strong grass roots recruitment
• September 1976 — First issue of NWA Newsletter published
• November 1976 — First National Weather Digest published. Fran Holt, Editor
  • First article "Operational Diagnostic Applications of Isentropic Analysis" by Louis Uccellini
• December 1976 — First Annual Meeting at Andrews AFB. Two day event with 65 in attendance. Two speakers were Sol Hirsch and Fran Holt.
• January 1977 — Tony Tancreto president, NWA had 850 members
• February 1977 — NWA had 30 committees!
• March 1977 — "Acting Executive Director" — Jerry LaRue
• July 1977 — 1100 members
• November 1977 — Second annual meeting at Hanscom AFB, MA
• June 1978 — First NWA testimony before Congress regarding "NWS Act of 1977"
• October 1978 — First joint NWA/AMS meeting. "Weather Forecasting and Analysis" at Silver Spring, MD
• January 1979 — First list of NWA award winners published in the Newsletter
• January 1980 — NWA office established on Stamp Road, Marlow Heights, MD
• June 1980 — Jerry LaRue retires. Randy Racer named Acting Executive Director
• July 1981 — NWA takes position decrying Pres. Regan’s planned 5% cut of NWS
• October 1981 — Sol Hirsch named Executive Director
• March 1983 — Newsletter reprinted a letter to the editor to a Beaumont, TX newspaper from a "retired hurricane chaser". Included following statement: "If you are inland, you are safe from hurricanes." (!!)
• December 1984 — 75 attended Annual Meeting in Atlanta
• December 1985 — 70 attended Annual Meeting in Kansas City
• January 1986 — D.J. Kava wrote letter to Newsletter asking if NWA, which was 10 years old, had grown old and soft.
• December 1986 — 79 attended Annual Meeting in Cocoa Beach
• December 1987 — 64 attended Annual Meeting in Houston
• May 13, 1988 — President Ken Crawford sent a letter to all members encouraging increased support for NWA
• December 1988 — 114 attended Annual Meeting in Denver (almost double previous attendance)
• December 1989 — 117 attended Annual Meeting in Norman
• December 1989 — More formal policies for the Digest were instituted. Newsletter format expanded to provide more variety of information
• September 1990 — First employment listing in Newsletter. Listing included information for federal positions and Accu-Weather
• January 1992 — Strengthened Broadcast Seal guidelines instituted. Included re-certification requirements.
• November 1992 — 200 attended Annual Meeting in St. Louis
• January 1993 — Kevin Lavin named Executive Director
• February 1994 — 2100 members
• November 1994 — 253 at Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City
• Early 1995 — member David Pace wrote articles in successive Newsletters instructing members in obtaining many weather information products from the Internet using e-mail
• April 1995 — member C. William "Bill" Tazewell begins development of NWA Aviation Meteorology Committee Home Page using his personal Internet Provider Service. Committee chair, Dave Knapp and some other committee members assisted in finding or writing articles to post on that page. Gary Ellrod from NOAA/NESDIS began his page of weather satellite URLs and linked it to the aviation committee's Web site which helped the site see a marked increase in the number of hits.
• December 1995 — Bill Tazewell added a Home Page on the World Wide Web for the NWA
• November 19, 1996 — New design and format for NWA Home Page implemented
• January 1997 — 2400 members
• May 1997 — 2500 members
• May 16, 1997 — NWA obtains domain name of "nwas.org"
• May 16, 2000 — First NWA Electronic Journal of Operational Meteorology article published.
  • "An F3 tornado in Heidelberg, South Africa on 21 October 1999" by Estelle de Coning et al.
• October 2000 — 2690 members
• September 30, 2007 — Web site redesign implemented
• October 2008 — 525 registered attendees at Annual Meeting in Louisville, a new record
• October 2011 — 625 attendees at Annual Meeting in Birmingham, a new record
• October 2012 — 425 attendees at Annual Meeting in Madison
• The final National Weather Digest was the December 2012 issue, published in May 2013.
• January 1, 2013 — Inauguration date of Journal of Operational Meteorology
• October 2013 — 452 attendees at Annual Meeting in Charleston
• June 19, 2014 — Raleigh office closes and two new employees coming on board at new Norman office
• October 2014 — 530 attendees at Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City (574 if counting exhibitors and office staff)
• NWA Officers and Councilors since 1975

Thanks to Steve Harned, Charter Member and 25th Annual Meeting Coordinator, for compiling snapshots of NWA History.