The National Weather Service is comprised of a national headquarters and six regional offices. The National Headquarters is located in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is responsible for overall management of the organization.
The Regional Offices serve as administrative and operational support centers for the local forecast offices they serve in various sections of the U.S. They are located in Anchorage, AK, Bohemia, NY, Fort Worth, TX, Honolulu, HI, Kansas City, MO, and Salt Lake City, UT.
Map of NWS National and Regional Office
While there are some minor differences between regions, they support field offices with:
- A Meteorological and Hydrological support section providing field offices high level services and support in the areas of aviation meteorology, weather support for wildfires, marine weather, public forecasts, hydrological forecasts, watches, and warnings, as well as hazardous weather preparedness.
- Scientific services which supports the field offices in areas of professional development, operational research, and scientific publications to ensure scientific principles are applied effectively to improve forecast accuracy and minimize loss of life and property.
- Systems operations which is responsible for the regional level management of systems operation, support, implementation and Configuration Management activities within four broad areas:
- Management of Remote Sensing and Manual Data Acquisition Programs
- Communications, Dissemination and Information Processing Systems
- Systems Maintenance
- Facilities Engineering and Maintenance
- Management and Budget support to manage each region's budget and provide administrative support for the field offices.