UAlbany’s State Weather Risk Communication Center Featured in ‘Cloud Warriors’ Book

Nick Bassill points at a weather briefing on a projection screen inside UAlbany’s xCITE laboratory.
Nick Bassill, director of the State Weather Risk Communication Center Director, points at a weather briefing inside UAlbany’s xCITE laboratory.

By Mike Nolan

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 17, 2025) — The University at Albany’s State Weather Risk Communication Center is featured in a new book as one of the game-changers of weather forecasting. 

Authored by veteran journalist Tom Weber, “Cloud Warriors: Deadly Storms, Climate Chaos, and the Pioneers Creating a Revolution in Weather Forecasting,” brings readers inside the story of the people pushing boundaries of science and technology to build better weather forecasts.

In late 2023, Weber stopped by UAlbany’s ETEC research and development complex to visit the newly minted operations space for the State Weather Risk Communication Center.

A first-of-its-kind partnership between UAlbany and the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, the State Weather Risk Communication Center leverages the University’s expertise in atmospheric sciences to help state and local emergency managers prepare for and respond to severe weather. 

Through an annual $1.5 million investment by New York State, the State Weather Risk Communication Center provides rapid, tailored, real-time weather information to help state agencies, emergency managers, and other critical stakeholders, prepare for and respond to severe weather events. 

Weber recaps his visit to the State Weather Risk Communication Center in the conclusion of the book.

“As I near the end of my travels through the interconnected organizations and businesses of the weather-forecasting world, I find myself in Albany, New York… What I’m seeing — even though it’s still ramping up — is a new and focused effort to do better at doing something about the weather. This is an operations space for New York’s fledgling State Weather Risk Communication Center.”

Weber mentions that he needed to see the State Weather Risk Communication Center in person because it speaks to many of the themes of his book about the future of weather forecasting.

He was also intrigued by ETEC, home to UAlbany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity and its expansive Weather-Climate Enterprise, featuring the largest concentration of atmospheric, climate, and environmental scientists in New York State, and one of the largest in the nation.

“The University at Albany offers a logical home for this new effort. ETEC brings together an assortment of meteorology-related organizations, both academic and governmental, under one roof… Put it all together and you get a picture of how weather forecasting can integrate with the spectrum of official agencies that play a role in keeping the public safe.”

“Cloud Warriors” is available for purchase at thomaseweber.com