What HMTs Do

   This is a tour of what hydrometeorological technicians (HMTs) do at the Miami Weather Forecast Office.  These activies, with local variations, are typical of HMTs across the National Weather Service.

   A typical day for our first operations shift begins at 5:00 a.m. during Eastern Standard Time (EST), or 6:00 a.m. during Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  This shift is relieved by the second operations shift that runs from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. during EST, and from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. during EDT.  There is no third or midnight shift for HMTs in our office, except during severe weather caused by cold fronts in the winter or severe thunderstorms and tropical storms in the summer.  But normally there is only one person in operations at all times, which means that we get a lot of help from the forecasters in answering the telephones if we are busy with some of our duties, as you will have the chance to find out below.

  There are five HMTs in our office.  When extra people are scheduled on a work day, they take care of the focal point duties that have been individually assigned by our Data Acquisition Program Manager, or DAPM, who is our first line supervisor.  As you can see from the formal title of our supervisor, our job consists of exactly that:  Meteorological data acquisition for the National Weather Service.  This data is of great importance to our own forecasting and warning program, and for various applications in the commercial and scientific communities of our nation and the world through the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

  The focal point duties assigned to each HMT correspond to the main programs supported by data acquisition:  Surface Observations, Upper Air Observations and Cooperative Observer Program Management (CPM).  There is also one separate category of weather data dissemination, wich is the NOAA Weather Radio. 

   There can also be additional duties related to the administrative support of the office, like building and maintaing the content of these Web pages, for example, or supporting the mission of the Weather Service by participating in career days at local school systems, and recruiting and training sessions in cooperation with the SKYWARN program. This entails the preparation of materials for distribution and media presentations. There can also be participation in the agency's public relations efforts at booths set up during local boat shows and fairs.

  Follow the links and we will show more details about our duties, and actual meteorological data that may be useful for your own education or your child's homework.

  Let us begin by introducting you to our staff.