The National Hurricane Center (NHC) produces analyses, forecasts and warnings of tropical cyclones and other weather and related water hazards over the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific Oceans and adjacent land. The relevance of this information for public safety and other applications, however, depends heavily on NHC's ability to communicate it effectively. This talk provides an overview of NHC and discusses its approach to communicating "actionable" science. The state of the science and research plans for hurricane forecast operations forms the final part of the presentation.

Dr. Rappaport is in his 31^st year at the National Hurricane Center (the NHC), where he's served as a forecaster, researcher and administrator. He has been NHC's deputy director since 2000, a period that includes seven years as its acting director. Dr. Rappaport helps develop NHC's long-term strategies and defines and coordinates much of the organization's annual planning and day-to-day execution of work and budget. Dr. Rappaport is the operational chair of the Steering Committee of the United States Weather Research Program Joint Hurricane Testbed and the operational lead for the NOAA Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project. He also provides hurricane update briefings to the media, emergency managers and other officials. Dr. Rappaport has published extensively. Among his commendations are the National Weather Service's (NWS) national award for leadership and recognition for "extraordinary devotion to duty" as overnight forecaster during Hurricane Andrew's landfall in Miami. Most recently, he has been acknowledged for conceiving and championing the establishment of storm surge watches and warnings by the NWS.

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