On February 15, 2023, Liz Leitman became the first woman at the Storm Prediction Center to ever issue a Watch. The SPC is the national office responsible for issuing Tornado and Severe Thunderstorm Watches during active weather. “The SPC is kind of like the nerve center of severe thunderstorms and that’s really where my passion lies - severe weather and severe weather communications. Being at the Storm Prediction Center was always my goal and kind of my dream job,” Leitman said.
She has been fascinated by storms since she was a child and is now part of a team responsible for covering severe thunderstorm hazards for the lower 48 states, but the dream didn't happen overnight. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, Leitman took a job with the National Weather Service in Billings, Montana, before receiving a promotion that brought her to Louisville for about a year and a half. During her time working as a forecaster in a local NWS office, her duties mainly included forecasting and issuing warnings. Remember, SPC issues the Watch, then local NWS offices issue the Warnings.
She was here in Louisville during 2008 and 2009 which means the Hurricane Ike wind storm (she's the one who issued the High Wind Warning that day), downtown flash flooding that affected the university and Churchill Downs, and the 2009 Ohio Valley ice storm during which she was working a midnight shift, the most grueling hours that exist in the National Weather Service. “I’ve never experienced any other ice storm like that before” Leitman said as she reflected on the incredibly active weather she saw while here. That time in Louisville helped prepare her for the next big step in her career - the Storm Prediction Center. Having been there for a few years now, Leitman is starting lead forecaster training. In fact, February 15th, the day she issued the Watch that will go in the record books, was her first lead forecaster training shift.
As a Meteorologist at the SPC, Leitman's main responsibilities include writing and drawing the convective outlooks you see us use on TV and writing Mesoscale Convective Discussions. Those outlooks look 8 days into the future (one of Leitman's recent outlooks is shown below) while the MDs highlight a small area where weather is becoming a threat right now. But on this day on this training shift, she would be responsible for issuing a Watch if one was needed.
“There was some anxiousness going into that day, but I was just really excited to have that opportunity.” She knew coming into work that day being the first woman to issue a Watch was a possibility. There was already a risk area highlighted in the outlook for the day, the SPC's way of saying they are concerned about strong storms developing in a particular area. The next step would be a Watch which she says seemed likely. She started looking through the data, drew up her first guess at where the Watch needed to go and jumped on a call with the local NWS offices who would be affected. Even though this was a training shift, Leitman said the full-time lead forecaster working the shift with her gave her the full responsibility and just made himself available for help and answer questions if needed. After the call with local NWS offices, Leitman remembers the other SPC meteorologists started to gather around her desk. "Anytime anyone gets to issue their first Watch, it’s exciting because for most of us it’s a career goal.” Then it was time. “Once I hit the 'send' button and the Watch was out, I just kinda threw my hands in the air and was like 'yes' and everybody just celebrated together.” After that her shift was nearly over; 15 minutes later she was walking to her car and made a quick Twitter post to share her excitement. "I was like 'my friends and family are gonna think this is really cool.' I did not expect it to blow up like it did (...) it's been a little overwhelming and unexpected.”
I did it!! My first watch issuance @NWSSPC and the first convective watch issued by a woman! 🎉🙌🏼💃🏻 pic.twitter.com/Ee8yXDevtw
— Elizabeth Leitman (@WxLiz) February 15, 2023
That tweet has been seen by more than half a million people, and her story has been picked up by Fox Weather, the New York Times, and Leitman's own high school, just to name a few. She's done dozens of interviews in the intervening weeks, and shared a funny moment with her family. The elephant in the room amidst all this celebration, though, is why did it take til 2023 for a woman to issue one of these Watches? The SPC issues around 1000 Watches every year, on average. In its first iteration, the SPC started in 1952 as the Weather Bureau Severe Weather Unit. It was renamed in 1953 then became in the National Severe Storms Forecast Center, the modern version of this office, in 1966. It wasn't until 1995 that the office was renamed to be the Storm Prediction Center. So in the roughly 70 year history of this office, no woman has had the responsibility Liz Leitman had on February 15th. “In the history of the Storm Prediction Center I believe there have been 5 female forecasters. We currently have 2, myself and one of our Mesocale assistants. But no one has reached the position I’m in to be able to train on the lead desk.” She says the reason for that is multi-faceted. "The lead forecaster has sole responsibility to issue Watches. There are only 5 lead forecasters. So on any given shift there’s one person who has that responsibility. And SPC is kind of a career position. We don’t have a lot of turnover here, so once you’re in that position you stay in it for a long time. Most of our leads have 15-25 years of experience. So in the history of SPC, we’ve only had 36 lead forecasters." None of those have been women. She went on to say, "Historically meteorology has been a male dominated field. I think we’ve made a lot of progress (…) even since I started my career in 2006, there are way more women in meteorology today than there was then, and that’s been really encouraging to see." Leitman concluded by saying of women in meteorology “we’re here and we’re making progress.”
That progress, and even showing up, is not always easy. Leitman shared this story to encourage other minorities within her industry. “When I was first entering college, I had a male advisor tell me they didn’t think I would be successful as a meteorologist and that I needed to change my major.” Keep in mind she’s known she wanted to work around severe weather since she was a child. “I was very determined and persistent and I already knew at that point what I wanted so I did it anyway.” That's what she want she wants to share with the world and with her industry during this moment in the spotlight. “Don’t let anyone determine your path for you. Believe in yourself. You know what you’re capable of. You know what you want. Have that determination and persistence and blaze your own trail.”
When asked why she's so willing to speak so openly about her success and the hurdles she has worked through to get to those point, Leitman said “Representation really matters. It’s really important for (minorities) to see people who look like them, who represent them in those positions that they’re interested in and that they’re passionate about so it makes that dream become more accessible (...) I’m thrilled to be able to kind of represent women in meteorology and broadly women in STEM.
