317 Project: The people behind the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis
The 317 Project tells stories of life in all of Indianapolis’ vibrant neighborhoods – 317 words at a time. Have a tip for a story in one of Indianapolis’ neighborhoods? Let us know at 317project@indystar.com.
There was no hazardous weather that day. In fact, it was a cloudless and unseasonably balmy November morning. But the meteorologists in the National Weather Service office in Indianapolis were hard at work.
Cody Moore was training an artificial intelligence program to better translate weather advisories in Spanish. That means he's constantly checking and correcting the translations generated by the program to "teach" the machine.
Next to him, senior meteorologist Jason Puma was testing the alarm signal that the federal agency's radio station sends out whenever there's hazardous weather. With a single click, Puma sent a test alert to anyone in Central Indiana who's using the radio service.
Behind them, Matt Eckhoff and Andrew White were working on their forecasts.
The 24/7 operation is housed in a modest building in the Ameriplex neighborhood, a sparsely populated and mostly industrial area south of the airport. Inside, workstations are equipped with five monitors showing, among others, real-time satellite images of any part of the country. Outside, electronic systems analyst Ben Read climbed up the 100-foot radar tower and went inside the massive soccer ball-like dome to take pictures for another office that's having radar issues.
The operation relies on a team of about two dozen employees, including 13 meteorologists, to provide weather and climate data, forecasts and warnings to 39 counties in Central Indiana. They also have side projects, like the one Moore is working on, to make information more accessible to marginalized communities.
"No matter who you are or where you're from, you deserve to have weather information that you can understand," said Ted Funk, the meteorologist in charge.
It can be a grueling job, especially on extreme-weather days when the public's need for accurate information upon which to make life-changing decisions is critical.
"We love our job," said Samuel Lashley, the warning coordination meteorologist. "For most of us, this is all we ever wanted to do."
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Inside the National Weather Service Office in Indianapolis
