National Weather Service Twin Cities Forecast Office

The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen, Minnesota is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with at least one meteorologist and one hydro-meteorological technician. The personnel provide forecasts for users across Minnesota, portions of Wisconsin and the nation. Of major interest is the 7-day forecast that allows businesses, farmers, and commerce to plan activities which are weather sensitive.

Indirectly, everyone in the United States is our customer:

• citizens
• business and industry, including private meteorologists
• media
• user groups, such as the aviation, agricultural, transportation, marine and recreational communities
• academia
• local, state and federal governments

Several times each day forecasts are prepared and disseminated for use by the general public,  broadcast media, water resources and the aviation industry.  Seasonal forecasts are provided for  fire weather interests, river and flood stage interests, and recreational aviators.  The state-of-the-art  Doppler Radar and computer workstations give forecasters the tools to deliver timely information during critical weather. The forecast office staff consists of 13 meteorologists, 4 hydro-meteorological  technicians, 1 meteorologist intern, 3 electronics technicians, a service hydrologist, an information technology expert, a facilities technician, and an administrative assistant.

Jointly located with the Chanhassen Forecast Office, the North Center River Forecast Center  provides technical services to multiple forecast offices.  These services include river forecasts,  outlooks and advisories which are relayed directly to the public via the individual forecast offices.   Most of the work done at the NCRFC is based on evaluating observed data from precipitation and  river gauges, and analyzing computer models that simulate river conditions to produce a river forecast. 

The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center is also collocated with the  Chanhassen Forecast Office.  The NOHRSC is the NWS center of expertise in satellite and  airborne remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) used to support the NWS  operational hydrology program.

The National Weather Service is an agency under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is a part of the Department of Commerce. The NWS has a total staff over  4,500 skilled employees which accomplish our mission with the assistance of high-speed  computer networks, an orbiting fleet of weather satellites in space, and ground-based radar systems.

Our office complex is located in the Chanhassen Business Center in the southwest Twin Cities  suburb of Chanhassen, about 25 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis, and 17 miles  west-southwest of the Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport.