Keeping Oklahomans Safe: Rick Smith With The National Weather Service Talks To ENN

Living in a severe-weather-prone place and having storm anxiety can be a scary experience. It can also lead to a fascinating and fulfilling career in meteorology.

Rick Smith grew up in the Memphis area, across the state line in northwestern Mississippi. Growing up, he encountered a lot of storms. For as long as he can remember, he has been fascinated by storms. He was interested in them during the daytime, but once it turned night, he became scared. He also visited his local National Weather Service office often. 

“I would visit the Weather Service Office any time I could, to the point where I was afraid they were annoyed with me,” he said.

This passion and persistence paid off. Smith now is the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norman. 

He started his journey with the NWS as an amateur radio operator. Amateur radio operators were the storm spotters for the Memphis NWS Office. While he was going to college in Memphis, they had a student-trainee volunteer program at NWS that he was a part of. He then began as an entry-level meteorologist at NWS in Memphis. After that, he went to Tulsa for about a year as a general forecaster. 

He knew that he wanted to become a warning coordination meteorologist, so he headed down to Fort Worth to the regional headquarters of the NWS for three years. In Fort Worth, his job was an administrative position rather than a forecasting position, which gave him insight into how the NWS operates. To his surprise, in Jan. 2002 he was selected for his dream job as the warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS in Norman.

Every local NWS office has a warning coordination meteorologist. This person is responsible for handling public outreach, preparedness and education. 

Smith leads a team that works closely with the media and manages relationships with emergency managers, schools, tribal nations and television stations.  

“The reason we're here is to issue warnings and provide weather information to help protect life and property. …We're not doing that every single day, but when we are, we know it's making a difference,” he said.

Social media is a useful tool. Not only does it allow the NWS to spread information farther and faster than before, but it also allows them to get more information on what people are seeing and experiencing. However, the other side of social media isn’t as helpful. Smith says that people, especially in Oklahoma, are passionate about the weather and have a lot of opinions. Many people joke that it must be nice for meteorologists to get paid for being right only part of the time. 

“The whole industry really does an amazing job, considering what we're trying to do. I mean, we're forecasting the future. We're predicting the future," he said.

In Jan. 2023, someone contacted the NWS in Norman wanting to use their office for a model of the “NWS New York Office” in the 2024 movie “Twisters." They were visited about four or five times by production designers to make everything as realistic as possible. He also had the opportunity to give a two-hour tornado class for a lot of the main cast. He taught them about what storms look like, their structure, safety rules and some of the tornado culture in Oklahoma. He said they were very into their roles and were interested to learn more. 

Aspiring meteorologists have lots of resources that the previous generation of forecasters didn't. There's online access to weather models and radar data, both of which a person could use to teach him- or herself the basics of meteorology. 

Smith also suggested visiting the local NWS office, asking to sit with a forecaster and attending storm-spotting classes. 

In meteorology, there is a lot of science and math involved, which can push away aspiring meteorologists. 

Smith said he was terrible at math but really wanted to become a meteorologist. 

“I always tell people, if I can do it, anybody can do it,” he said.