National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Weather Outbreak and Flash Flooding in the South

A severe weather outbreak is ongoing across the deep to mid South states. Numerous significant tornadoes, some of which may be long-track and potentially violent, should continue into this evening. Severe thunderstorms will continue to spread across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, the Florida Panhandle, and Georgia into tonight. Flash flooding is also ongoing in these areas. Read More >

Beckie Koonge


Beckie Koonge 
Assistant Chief Information Officer, National Weather Service

Beckie Koonge is the NWS Assistant Chief Information Officer. In her role, she is responsible for the policy oversight, analysis, planning, and execution of information technology (IT) within NWS.

Beckie joined NWS and the Office of the ACIO in 2010 and has performed a variety of roles, including her recent stint as Acting ACIO. Prior to joining NWS, she was a senior lead for Information Security Analysis for the Treasury's Office of Fiscal Service for nearly 20 years.

Beckie has extensive IT experience in policy development and implementation, compliance, cybersecurity oversight, and coordinating and conducting assessments of a wide variety of IT systems across the federal government, from critical financial systems processing trillions of dollars to systems that provide time sensitive forecasts, alerts, or warnings of impending weather events. Beyond her technical expertise, Beckie is gifted at building rapport and trust across the organization, even when addressing complex challenges, and couples this with her programmatic skills to enhance IT customer service.

Beckie holds a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's degree in political science, both from West Virginia University. She is married with one son and three stepdaughters and enjoys cooking; attending theater, plays and concerts; traveling; and spending time with her family and friends.