NWS 2023-2033 Strategic Plan

This new National Weather Service Strategic Plan can be
described with one word: You! It’s simple: you — the NWS
workforce and our partners in the weather community — are at
the core of our mission of saving lives, protecting property, and
enhancing the national economy.
Only through your skills, talent, dedication, and determination
can we as a team — inclusive of all roles and responsibilities —
provide outstanding services to our partners and to the public
as part of our ongoing efforts to achieve a more Weather-Ready
and Climate-Ready Nation.
Facing increasing dangers and risk associated with weather,
water, and climate events, the needs of the public and our
partners never sit still — and neither will the NWS. This Strategic
Plan is intended to be an actionable document and serve as
our path to transform into a more nimble, flexible, and mobile
agency that is eye to eye with decision makers. This is an NWS
that provides decision support services when, how, and where
they are needed.
While this Strategic Plan is more streamlined than in the past, it runs deep on actions that will
transform the agency under the three key themes of our People, our Infrastructure, and our Future and
deep in activities that will advance the way in which the NWS works with partners.
Time and time again, our partners and stakeholders say that our services are critical in their ability to
make sound life-saving and economic-sensitive decisions. The NWS is needed now more than ever, and
that need is projected to grow. That is an incredible feeling that comes with tremendous responsibility,
and I know we are up to the challenge.
The NWS cannot do this alone either. It is through our partners in emergency management and
across the spectrum of the weather and research community that we can ensure every citizen is
equitably receiving and responding to the vital forecast information that we provide. Partnerships and
communication between the NWS, the emergency management community, the private sector, and
amplifying voices in local communities are incredibly important for completing the “critical last mile” —
to ensure NWS forecasts and information produce the life-saving actions that are intended.
I am excited for us to take this journey together as one NWS. In doing so, let’s ensure we have each
other’s backs and be rest assured that I will always have yours!
Now, let’s go!

Ken Graham
Director, NOAA’s National Weather Service

NWS MISSION, VISION &
CORE PRINCIPLES
VISION
A Weather-Ready Nation: Society is prepared
for and responds to weather, water, and climatedependent events.
MISSION
Provide weather, water and climate data, forecasts,
warnings, and impact-based decision support
services for the protection of life and property and
enhancement of the national economy.
CORE PRINCIPLES
• Our people drive our success;
we are dedicated to our science-based service to the Nation.
• We provide the best forecasts possible,
connecting them to decisions that reduce impacts.
• We cannot do it alone;
teamwork and partnerships are essential for success.
• We strive for excellence,
continuously improving our science and engineering for mission performance.

GOAL 1
People As Top Priority—Always!
Ensure employees work in an inclusive,
empowering, safe, and flexible environment that
enables us to best serve our mission to save
lives, protect property, and enhance the national
economy.
1.1 Implement a comprehensive workforce training and development plan
to advance both scientific and workplace skill sets, promote career path
opportunities, and meet current and future mission needs.
1.2 Recruit and Retain a diverse and highly skilled workforce with improved
recruitment and retention of the best available talent, representative of the
diverse communities we serve.
1.3 Strengthen leadership skills of the entire NWS staff to allow a mindset to lead
people and manage change in a results-driven environment that promotes
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility as core to success.
1.4 Increase workplace flexibility to enable greater work-life balance and better
serve our customers.

GOAL 2
Improve our Infrastructure to be
Resilient and Reliable
Ensure access to technology and tools that enable
NWS personnel to provide weather, water, and
climate services to decision makers anytime,
anywhere.
2.1 Modernize and simplify weather.gov (including all NWS web properties) to
improve its value, stability, and user experience.
2.2 Improve NWS IT Infrastructure, IT Governance, and implement Cloud-based
solutions leveraging NOAA and industry-based products and services.
2.3 Develop and Deploy AWIPS in the Cloud that meets the needs of all our
operations staff and facilitates having robust tools when deployed during a
high impact event or COOP emergency.
2.4 Begin development of the next generation U.S. observing systems, including
weather and water automated observations, climate observations, and radar,
to ensure the quality and timeliness of storm warnings for communities
through collaboration with our Enterprise partners.
2.5 Build and Operate the world’s best community-based and cross-platform
numerical Earth modeling system, with advanced ensemble prediction
capabilities at all timescales, through collaboration with our Enterprise
partners, enabling increased seamless actionable warning and forecast
accuracy in extended time frames.

GOAL 3
Transform our Agency to meet
current and future needs of
society
Ensure the National Weather Service remains
indispensable and a global leader in equitable
weather, water, and climate services to build a
Weather-Ready and Climate-Ready Nation.
3.1 Enable and Empower NWS personnel to provide weather, water, and climate
services to decision makers anytime and anywhere (eye to eye objective).
3.2 Adapt the NWS operating model and staffing strategies to better align
resources with shifting partner needs, workplace flexibility, and increased
demand for Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) at every level.
3.3 Build expertise and tools to increase our capacity to understand, interpret,
and communicate risk-based/probabilistic information to drive
probabilistic IDSS.
3.4 Accelerate transition from product and service development to deployment
with rapid prototyping, operations proving grounds, and testbeds.
3.5 Streamline agency governance and change management processes to
accelerate decision-making, enable organizational adaptability, maximize
investment value, and link strategy to execution.

3.6 Deliver actionable inland and coastal water resource and inundation
information across all time scales to address the growing risk of flooding,
drought, and low water flow as well as immediate and long-range water
management and planning.
3.7 Reduce or Eliminate low-priority, low-use, and obsolete products and services
to enable resources to be reallocated to new, innovative, sustainable, and
high-impact products and services.
3.8 Understand and Apply the best social, behavioral, and economic sciences
to clearly communicate information with communities in multiple languages
and deliver equitable service for those historically underserved and socially
vulnerable to attain the desired response to high impact events.
3.9 Expand public-private industry partnerships that fast-track weather Enterprise
innovations and technology, strengthen relationships, promote equitable
service, leverage outreach to vulnerable communities, and share best
practices to focus on continuous improvements.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Weather Service