ECU Honors College Alumnus to work with National Weather Service | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post, Morgan Tilton, is a contributor to ECU News Services.

    This fall, East Carolina University Honors College alumnus Thomas Vaughn '15 will join the National Weather Service in Wichita, Kansas as one of 31 new hires by the federal agency that is responsible for providing weather, water and climate data, forecasts and warnings across the country.

    Vaughn, who has nearly completed his master's degree in meteorology from Florida State University, said he had his choice of going to the NWS offices in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Michigan. Vaughn ultimately chose Wichita.

    "I picked Wichita because I knew I would get a lot of severe weather experience there," Vaughn said. "I knew Wichita would be more beneficial in the long run to my career because they have severe weather all the time, and I'll get to experience all four seasons."

    Vaughn was one of 31 hired out of 850 applicants. After not being referred to the final pool of applicants the first time he applied, Vaughn said he was relieved to have his choice of four stations this time.



    "It is pretty competitive to get into and I knew I would have better chance to get in with a masters, so that is why I went to Florida State," he said. "This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time."

    While the official title for Vaughn's position is meteorologist intern, it is the entry level staff position for the NWS. In his first couple years, Vaughn said he will be learning how to complete NWS forecasts, train on the NWS computer systems and radar, launch weather balloons and help manage his office's social media accounts.

    Vaughn hopes to move through the ranks of the NWS and eventually make it back to the NWS station in Honolulu, Hawaii where he completed a summer internship while at ECU. Other "dream" stations for Vaughn include Guam, or one of the stations in Florida.

    "I'd say my dream job would be to be the meteorologist in charge at one of those stations, but that is a long time away," he said, laughing.

    For now, Vaughn is focusing on defending his master's thesis on historical rainfall variability in the Sahel and Guinea coasts of Africa before moving to Kansas in September.


Vaughn gives a weather briefing at the Florida Division of Emergency Management.