For the last two weeks, Franklin Facts has been visiting the local office of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, NJ, and we'd like to thank the folks here for opening their doors to us.

There are ten meteorologists here whose primary duty is forecasting day-to-day weather. In addition, every Forecast Office has a meteorologist-in-charge, or MIC. At Mount Holly, that's Gary Szatkowski. There's also a Science Operations Officer - SOO for short - who leads the training and science programs. Here, that's Al Cope. And Joe Miketta is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist, the primary contact for the media, emergency management, and state and local government agencies.

National Weather Service employees are public servants, supported by federal tax dollars. Overall, the Weather Service costs each American about a nickel a week. I hope this series has helped show you why I think it's well worth it.