Bill Read

Read studied at Texas A&M, getting his B.Sc. in 1971.{{cite web|url=https://idrt.tamug.edu/bill-read-71-76-is-being-honored-with-the-michel-t-halbouty-geosciences-medal/|title=Bill Read '71 '76 IS Being Honored with the Michel T. Halbouty Geosciences Medal. |work=TAMU College of Geo Sciences News |publisher=Texas A&M University|date=2020-12-18|access-date=2024-03-08}} He then served four years in the U.S. Navy at different bases and as an on-board meteorologist with the Hurricane hunters.{{cite web|url=https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/qa/201205_bill_read.php|title=Q & A with NHC - Bill Read|author=Dennis Feltgen |publisher=NOAA|access-date=2024-03-08}} Returning for to Texas A&M, he obtained his M.Sc. in meteorology in 1976. He joined the National Weather Service in 1977 at the test and evaluation division in Sterling, Virginia. He then served as a forecaster in the Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas offices before becoming the severe thunderstorm and flash flood program leader at the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.{{cite conference |url=https://ams.confex.com/ams/43BC3WxWarn/webprogram/Paper276648.html |title=William L. Read|conference=43rd Conference on Broadcast Meteorology |publisher=AMS|date=June 10, 2015 |access-date=February 24, 2022}}{{cite web|publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |url=http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080125_read.html |title=NOAA Selects Bill Read as New National Hurricane Center Director |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509041009/http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080125_read.html|archive-date=May 9, 2017|url-status=dead}}

Read was appointed to direct the Houston/Galveston weather forecast office in 1992 and led it through the National Weather Service modernization and restructuring program of the mid-1990s. He was also part of the Hurricane Liaison Team at the National Hurricane Center in Miami when Hurricane Isabel came ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in September 2003.

Read became Deputy Director of the Tropical Prediction Center (TPC), which includes the National Hurricane Center and two other divisions, in Miami, Florida, in August 2007 until he was selected for the position of director in January 2008 and served until June 4, 2012 when relieved by Richard Knabb. After retirement, Read worked as a hurricane specialist to television networks, professor, and at the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas for Texas A&M at their Galveston Campus studying increased rainfall rates and hurricane behavior.

Read received the National Hurricane Conference Public Education Award in Spring 2004 for hurricane preparedness efforts. Under his leadership, the Houston/Galveston forecast office conducted an annual Houston/Galveston Hurricane Workshop, which was considered the largest meeting of its kind in the United States.{{cite web |publisher=NOAA |url=http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2004/apr04/noaa04-r228.html |title=NWS Meteorologist Bill Read receives National Hurricane Conference Public Education Award. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917152406/http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2004/apr04/noaa04-r228.html |archive-date=September 17, 2008|url-status=dead}}

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{{succession box| title=Director of the National Hurricane Center| before=Edward N. Rappaport| start= 2007| after= Richard Knabb | years=2008 }}

{{succession box| title=Deputy Director of the NHC (acting)|before=Edward N. Rappaport|after=Edward N. Rappaport |years=2007-2008 }}

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Category:American meteorologists

Category:Living people

Category:Texas A&M University alumni

Category:National Weather Service people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)