The centerpiece of the weather data processing, display, and communication system at any National Weather Service Forecast Office is known as AWIPS, which stands for Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System.

AWIPS is a computer system that integrates weather and hydrologic observations, satellite and radar data, and computer forecast information, enabling a meteorologist to rapidly prepare and issue forecasts and warnings. There are five AWIPS workstations in the Mount Holly office, each with three monitors. A forecaster using an AWIPS workstation might display a radar image overlaying a satellite picture on one monitor, compare the forecasts from three different computer models on the second, and view pressure and temperature observations on the third.

AWIPS was installed in the late 1990s, and quickly became the Weather Service's most popular tool. After all, meteorologists are data junkies, and nothing assimilates, integrates, and displays weather data faster and more reliably than AWIPS.