Local weather office relocates to campus

The weather service moved its office from its former location near the airport, 7010 S. Plumer Ave., to the Environmental and Natural Resources building, 520 N. Park Ave.

"We're probably 80 percent in. Most of the equipment is operational," said Clifford Collins, meteorologist with the weather service's Tucson office.

Collins said there is still some unpacking of boxes and "hooking up" to do, but the new office is up and running.

"We are all set up. We started doing the forecast again yesterday evening around 4 p.m.," he said.

The new office is more conducive to forecasting because it has more space for the approximately 20 employees and is less noisy, Collins said.

"As far as the area goes, we are about three times as large as the old one," he said. "The other building got rather noisy at times, here it is more quiet - a little easier to concentrate on doing forecasts and stuff."

He also said that despite the move, the temperature readings will still be taken at the Airport.

The weather service's Phoenix office covered for the Tucson office Tuesday between 7 a.m. and about 4 p.m., Collins said.

Bill Estle, lead forecaster for the weather service's Phoenix office, said there were no problems Monday covering for the Tucson office.

"We had plenty of people. We did issue a heavy snow warning for Northern Greenlee County for the Tucson office," Estle said.

The Tucson office covers an area of comparable size to the Phoenix office, Estle said. He added that covering for another office is not a common occurrence.

"We do have backup contingencies in place. You never know when an office will need to be evacuated," he said.