Kenneth Graham is an American

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

and the director of the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

. Graham previously was the director of the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the IERS Reference Meridian, Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian ...

from 2018 to 2022. Prior to that, he was the lead meteorologist for the

office in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

Early life and education

Graham received a

Bachelor degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years (d ...

Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric science is the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study ...

at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and attended

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

, where he earned a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

Geosciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

Career

Graham began his career as a television meteorologist for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and an agricultural meteorologist for Mississippi Network Radio. Graham joined the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA) in 1994, working as a

broadcast meteorologist Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture, ...

Columbus, Mississippi Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi, Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the ...

. He then moved around to different offices in the southern United States, eventually he headed the systems operations division of the NWS Southern Region in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

, where he led the agency to make important repairs in

after

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

. Following Hurricane Katrina, Graham moved to

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, becoming chief of meteorological services and briefing congressional committees. Graham also participated in recovery efforts in Louisiana and Texas after hurricanes

Gustav Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...

and Ike; he moved back to become meteorologist in charge (MIC) of the NWS office in New Orleans soon before those hurricanes hit. During the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

disaster in 2010, Graham, as MIC, spearheaded the cooperative intergovernmental engagement effort and issued more than 4,300 spot forecasts for areas affected by the spill. Graham was selected by NOAA to be the new director of the National Hurricane Center in early 2018. He began the role on April 1 that year. Graham was named the Director of the National Weather Service on June 7, 2022. As Director, Ken is leading efforts to transform the NWS into a more nimble, flexible, and mobile agency that works eye-to-eye with critical decision-makers, thus building an NWS that provides decision support services when, how, and where they’re needed to create a more Weather-Ready and Climate-Ready Nation. Underpinning part of this Transformation are the NWS Priorities & Action Strategies for the Future - more fondly known as “Ken’s 10” - which are designed to ensure that the NWS remains an indispensable, global leader in providing equitable weather, water, and climate services to decision-makers anytime, anywhere.

Awards and honors

In 2005, he won a Bronze medal from the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...

due to his office's actions during

. In 2008, while Meteorologist In Charge of the NWS office in Baton Rouge, Graham and his office received the Department of Commerce Bronze medal for innovative services during hurricanes

and Ike. Graham also won the National Weather Association’s Operational Meteorology Award for his office's response to the Deepwater Horizon spill and was included as one of the recipients of the Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award for Decision Support Service that was presented to NOAA. Ken received the National Weather Museum’s Weather Hero Award for 2010. In addition, Graham was given the

Louisiana Governor The governor of Louisiana (; ) is the chief executive of the U.S. state government of Louisiana. The governor also serves as the commander in chief of the Louisiana National Guard. Republican Jeff Landry has held the office since January 8, 202 ...

's Emergency Service Award in 2014, Weatherperson of the Year in 2022, and the Robert and Joanne Simpson Hurricane Award in 2023. Graham is a member of the American Meteorological Society, National Weather Association, and the International Association of Emergency Managers. He is also a licensed amateur radio operator. Graham spoke at the Natural Disaster Expo that took place at the

Miami Beach Convention Center The Miami Beach Convention Center (originally the Miami Beach Exhibition Hall) is a convention center located in Miami Beach, Florida. Originally opened in 1958, the venue was renovated from 2015 to 2020 for $640 million. The re-imagined and enha ...

in February 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Ken Living people National Weather Service people Television meteorologists from Arizona Television personalities from Phoenix, Arizona University of Arizona alumni Mississippi State University alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)