Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 9, 1993 TAG: 9307090221
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The federal facility, expected to open next July, will employ 24 people and have an annual budget of $1 million.
"We're delighted," said Joe Meredith, director of the Corporate Research Center. "It helps to further realize the vision we've had at the Corporate Research Center."
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, held a news conference Thursday to announce the new weather center.
"I am pleased to announce another step forward in the economic development of the New River Valley," he said.
The new office, however, will eventually end the National Weather Service's presence in Roanoke.
Harry McIntosh, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Roanoke, said the Roanoke office will remain open "several more years" until Weather Service officials feel confident the Blacksburg operation can serve the entire area.
The Roanoke office now has nine workers and McIntosh said some staff members could move to Blacksburg in the spring of 1995.
The Corporate Research Center will construct a new building - its sixth - to house the National Weather Service. The office will be similar to 116 facilities built nationwide as part of the weather service's $4 million modernization and restructuring plan.
The Blacksburg weather center will collect data from a new Doppler weather radar unit to be constructed on Coles Knob in Floyd County and from weather balloons launched from a new facility at Virginia Tech's airport.
Doppler radar units are expected to help meteorologists by providing earlier warning signs of severe weather like flash floods and tornadoes. Each Doppler unit can collect weather data for a 125-mile radius.
A test Doppler radar station in Melbourne, Fla., was used to chart Hurricane Andrew's course and intensity and was able to pinpoint which areas needed evacuating.
Other communities competed for the new office, McIntosh said, but the Corporate Research Center was picked because the weather service liked the idea of working close to a university.
The center will be the first federal tenants at Tech's research center, which is home to 20 private companies and eight university-related research agencies.
McIntosh said the globe-like Doppler unit sitting atop a raised platform will stand out from Floyd County's landscape near Check.
"People in Floyd County will notice," he said. "Coles Knob may not become famous, but it will get pretty well known."
by CNB