The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Bill Read has been named the new director of the NOAA's Tropical Prediction Center, which includes the National Hurricane Center and two other divisions, in Miami.

Mr. Read has served as the center's acting deputy director since August 2007.

Prior to joining NOAA's National Weather Service, Mr. Read served in the U.S. Navy, where his duties included an assignment as an on-board meteorologist with the Hurricane Hunters.

He began his career in 1977 with the National Weather Service Test and Evaluation division in Sterling, Va.; developed his forecasting skills in Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas; and served as severe thunderstorm and flash flood program leader at the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

Mr. Read and his team were at theforefront in July 2003 as Hurricane Claudette made landfall on the Texas coast. He also was 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 and raced northeast in September 2003.

Mr. Read was appointed to direct theHouston/Galveston weather forecast office of NOAA's National Weather Service in 1992 and led it through the National Weather Service Modernization and Restructuring Program in the mid-1990s.

Special Reports /

Read Named To Head NOAA Hurricane Unit

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