Uccellini, Louis

Louis grew up in Bethpage and a graduate from the Bethpage School system. He earned his bachelors and master's degrees in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin.

He has been the National Weather Service's Director of Meteorology since 1994. He oversees 372 federal employees and 300 contractors based in nine weather centers across the nation. This includes the Storm Prediction Center in Norman Okla., and the Tropical Prediction Center and National Hurricane Center both in Miami. Louis began his federal career in 1978 as a research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres in Greenbelt. He stayed there until 1989, when he joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as chief of its Meteorological Operations Division in Camp Springs.

He wrote a book with colleague Paul Kocin on Northeast snowstorms, "Snowstorms Along the Northeastern Coast of the United States, 1955-85". In 1993, he was recognized with a Department of Commerce Gold Medal for forecasting the "Storm of the Century" which hit in mid-March of that year. That storm dumped unprecedented amounts of snow from Alabama to Maine, killing 270 people. Louis claims it was the first time in the history of the weather service that a snowstorm was predicted five days in advance.

Information from THE HOWARD COUNTY TIMES March 11, 1999.

From growing up in Bethpage to a White House briefing Dr.Uccellini, Director of National Centers for Environmental Prediction, addressed the up and coming hurricane season.

From his early days, as a boy growing up in Bethpage, of tracking local weather by following the weather maps in the NEW YORK TIMES and staying up late to watch Tex Antoine give the weather on TV, and reading books all with an interest to try to understand and learn about weather and the storms we endure.

Dr. Uccellini has received awards for the many positions he held over the years, the responsibilities he assumed, his research, and operational achievement. Many of his journals and chapters in books have been published, and he is the author of books on severe weather. He co-authored the book, SNOWSTORMS ALONG THE NORTHEASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES: 1955 - 1985 and he wrote a two volume book NORTHEAST SNOWSTORMS. His predictions of extreme storms, before they were even formed, and tracking of them has been remarkable.

His doctorate in meteorolgy is from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Information filed with CENTRAL PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER - September 9, 2007. Ahead of the Storm