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Current Forecast Staff

NWAC Contact Information

Kenny Kramer
Director / Avalanche Meteorologist



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After long time director Mark Moore's retirement in 2012, Kenny has taken the reigns of NWAC in 2013. Kenny grew up in San Diego pursuing the usual interests of that environment, namely surfing! His interests expanded to aviation and while still in high school he obtained a Private Pilot license. He completed his early meteorology course work at San Diego State University and decided to follow that field as a carreer. He graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences. Shortly after graduating he was commissioned in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and soon found himself at Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, New York learning all that was needed to operate a large NOAA research ship. Kenny served for nearly six years as a NOAA Corps officer with duties as a deck officer on two fisheries research vessels that operated in Alaskan and Hawaiian waters, as well as an assignment as a Marine Forecaster at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Seattle. Following his time in the NOAA Corps, Kenny opted for a "higher" life, and moved his working environment to the mountains! Since 1990 he has been an avalanche meteorologist with the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center.

Garth Ferber
Avalanche Meteorologist

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My parents met on a Seattle Mountaineers outing to the Minarets of the Sierras in California in 1956. I was born in 1959, raised in West Seattle, and graduated from high school in 1977. In the late 1970's I had never heard about avalanches. I had my first experience with an avalanche in the spring of 1978, when I triggered a shallow avalanche high on the south side of Granite Mountain near Snoqualmie Pass. My younger sister watched horrified as I began to be carried down the mountainside; luckily I was able to dig in my heels and the avalanche descended without me. I did not think about avalanches again for a long time until I began back-country skiing in the late 1980's. I earned Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 1986 and 1990 respectively, and went to work for the Seattle National Weather Service in 1990. Among my most memorable experiences are the past 20 years of hiking, back country skiing and climbing that I have had in the mountain ranges of western North America and the European Alps. I took my first avalanche class from Gary Brill in the mid 1980's and was hired by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center in 1993.

Dennis D'Amico
Avalanche Meteorologist


 

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I grew up in Long Island, NY skiing in the Northeast with my family. After graduating from Cornell University in 2002 with a B.S. in Atmospheric Science, I immediately headed to higher ground at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire.  I first experimented with backcountry skiing in the Northeast the following winter while working at Jay Peak Ski resort in Vermont. In 2003, I moved to Toronto to work as meteorologist for The Weather Network. I spent much of my time off traveling to Utah to backcountry ski with friends and began to explore the snow sciences, including taking my first Level 2 avalanche course in the La Sal Mtns of Utah. More recently, I completed the National Avalanche School Field session at Crystal Mtn in Feb. '12.  In 2006, I finally fulfilled my goal of moving to the West when I took a job with the National Weather Service in Seattle. I worked with the NWS Seattle office for 6 years, learning about Pacific Northwest weather and the patterns that usually bless us with a deep snowpack by winter’s end. With the NWS, I had the opportunity to professionally interact with NWAC on mountain weather and avalanche forecasts both in and outside of the office. I am very excited to combine my long time interests in the snow sciences with my professional career as a forecaster for NWAC.

Past Forecast Staff

Mark Moore
Founding Director / Avalanche Meteorologist


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Mark was director, mountain meteorologist and avalanche forecaster with the NWAC from its inception in 1975/76 thru December of 2012. Mark forecast weather and avalanches since helping create the Center with colleagues Rich Marriott (now a television meteorologist in Seattle), Bud Reanier (a National Weather Service forecaster), and Dr. Ed LaChapelle in 1976. Mark also managed the development, installation and maintenance of a comprehensive network of remote mountain weather stations to support the Center's weather and avalanche forecasting operation. His lifelong interest in snow and avalanches began as a professional ski patroller in California's Sierra Nevada in the early 1970's, where he migrated after a B.S. in aerospace engineering from UC San Diego and a short but interesting stint as a nuclear engineer. Finding the field exciting, but discovering many unanswered questions about snowpack and avalanches and the weather that produced them, Mark returned to school where he received a Master's Degree in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. During the past 30+ years in the avalanche field, Mark has authored, co-authored and presented a variety of papers and scientific reports on weather, snowpack, avalanches, instrumentation and related topics. He was also an instructor for weather and avalanche schools from Alaska to Colorado, and is a consultant for snow, fire-weather, instrumentation and avalanche interests during the "off-season". He is now looking at the snowpack and weather through a new set of eyes, and trying to enjoy the beauty of the mountains as well as its danger.
Knox Williams
Avalanche Meteorologist (2005-06) and CAIC Director (1983-2005)
 

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Knox received his Master's Degree in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University in 1970, and then worked with the U.S. Forest Service Mountain Snow and Avalanche Research Project in Fort Collins, Colorado, for 13 years. He was the manager of the USFS Westwide Avalanche Network during that time, and became a forecaster in the USFS Colorado Avalanche Warning Program. In 1983, he helped found the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (a division of the Colorado Geological Survey) and was CAIC Director from 1983 through the 2004/05 season. After retiring from the CAIC and passing along the directorship reign to Dr. Ethan Greene, the NWAC and its cooperators and users were fortunate to have Knox as a forecaster during the 2005/06 season.  Knox has written two volumes of The Snowy Torrents, co-authored The Avalanche Book, and written a bunch of other papers and articles. He has instructed in every National Avalanche School since 1971 and is a past director of the school. Knox is also a past president of the American Avalanche Association.
Sue Ferguson
Avalanche Meteorologist (1986-1992), Research meteorologist  and Airfire Team leader (1992-2005)
 

 

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Sue Ann Ferguson, affectionately known at the NWAC as Dr. Sue or “Sue from the U”, lettered in skiing at the University of Oregon, received a BS in physics from the University of Massachusetts, and PhD. in Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington.  Her working career included forecasting avalanches and fire weather in Alaska, a stint in Utah as Program Manager of the UAFC from 1984-86, and a very important time as avalanche meteorologist at the NWAC from 1986-1992. Sue was most recently team leader of the USDA Forest Service, Atmosphere and Fire Interactions Research and Engineering (AirFire) team at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory in Seattle.  Her playing career included the U of O ski team, U Mass rowing team, the ICE-7 intramural team at UW (champions in softball, track, football, and rowing!) and the Seattle Women’s Field Hockey Club.  Her love of sports and the outdoors kept her active all of her life.  In addition to academic contributions in snow science, mountain weather, global climate change, and fire weather, she published instructional books on glaciers and avalanches, The Avalanche Review newspaper, and several satirical cartoons in various newspapers, as well as performing minor parts in a few plays. Behind all of her accomplishments was a most wonderful, sharing and caring person, and all of those who knew her miss Sue greatly after her untimely death from cancer in December of 2005.

Rich Marriott
Avalanche Meteorologist (1976-1986), KING-5 TV meteorologist (1987-present)

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 Rich has long been interested in weather and avalanche science,  receiving a B.S in physics and M.S. in meteorology from UCLA and from the University of Washington. While at the UW, Marriott worked summers as station manager for the Blue Glacier Research Project in the Olympic Mountains, carrying out research in glaciology, climatology, and meteorology. This position also involved assisting in search and rescue and educational programs for Olympic National Park. Rich was instrumental in development of the Avalanche Center, was one of its co-founders as a graduate student under Dr. Ed LaChapelle, and served as co-director of the Center from its inception in 1976 through 1986. After an early "retirement" from the NWAC, Rich has spent the last 20+ years in the media spotlight as as an outstanding weather forecaster for KING-TV in Seattle. Fortunately he has maintained an interest and involvement in the avalanche community as secretary of the International Snow Science Workshop Steering Committee and as a board member of the Friends of the Avalanche Center.
Pam Hayes
Avalanche Meteorologist (1982-86 & intermittent 1987-2002 )

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Pam Hayes first worked at the avalanche center in 1980, helping with the transition from teletype machines to computers, and became a full time forecaster in '82. After a brief break in the mid-80's, she returned to forecasting and worked intermittently with the NWAC until 2002. Pam came to avalanche and mountain weather forecasting following a lifelong interest in the mountains and in science, along with an avid interest in sailing. During one of her intermittent “breaks” from forecasting, Pam and her family sailed a 26 ft cutter from Seattle to New Zealand via San Francisco, Hawaii, and the south Pacific. On this adventure she was called upon to put her small scale forecasting expertise to work by issuing marine forecasts for other sailors in the area via regular radio updates, and in the southern Hemisphere no less. In any case, after receiving a Masters degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in the mid-80's, Pam combined forecasting with research in developing meso-scale precipitation models. Since leaving forecasting in 2002, Pam has maintained involvement with the Avalanche Center by helping implement a snow stability model, and through presentations at the biannual International Snow Science Workshop.
   
NWAC Contact Information:
   
NWAC Mailing Address: Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center

7600 Sandpoint Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115-6349
   
NWAC Email: NWAC@nwac.us
   
Message Phone: 206-526-4666
   

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