Jason Beaman is the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Mobile. The Baldwin County native has been at the Mobile office since 2009.

The National Weather Service in Mobile has a new meteorologist in charge, well, sort of.

Jason Beaman is new to the job but not new to the Mobile office -- he’s been there for nearly 13 years.

Beaman took over the top job at the office in late April after veteran Meteorologist in Charge Jeffrey Medlin retired after a long career with the weather service.

Each National Weather Service office in the country has a meteorologist in charge. That person oversees the entire office’s operations and personnel.

Beaman had been the warning coordination meteorologist in Mobile since 2015 and is a native of south Baldwin County, so he very much knows the area he’s in charge of monitoring.

“I’m very familiar with the area and the communities that we serve, our weather history, the storms have impacted us in the past and most importantly, having lived here and worked here for as long as I have, really being able to build relationships with a lot of people,” Beaman said.

“Relationships are paramount of what we do, building trust. When we’re working with all our partners, having those relationships and that local knowledge and understanding is such a benefit. And I’m blessed to have that, and that’s never lost on me how blessed and fortunate I am to do what I do where I grew up.”

Beaman knew he wanted to work at the weather service since he was a kid. Blame the erratic Hurricane Elena in 1985. Beaman and his family lived in Gulf Shores at the time and had to evacuate their home -- twice.

“We evacuated, and then we came back home, and we had to go again,” he said. “We had evacuated to a state park in the central part of the state and were staying in a cabin, and a tornado hit the state park and some cabins -- probably a quarter mile away from where we were. As a very young kid that got me wondering about what was happening, and I wanted to learn more. And once I realized that I could be a meteorologist for a living, I was kind of hooked from that point forward.”

That’s where the National Weather Service came into play.

Beaman got his first taste of working for the weather service when he volunteered there. He then got a student meteorologist position there while he was in college at the University of South Alabama. He went on to work at the weather service offices in Memphis, Tenn., and Raleigh, N.C., before returning to Mobile as a lead forecaster in 2009.

“When I learned more about the National Weather Service ... that really gave me insight about what I could do,” he said. “Wanting to help people and do the science.”

That’s still Beaman’s main focus today and will be going forward as he leads the Mobile branch of the weather service.

“It’s about protecting people, and to do that effectively you have to build trust,” he said. “The people that came before me in this position, my predecessor Jeff Medlin, have done fantastic things in that area and that’s something that’s going to be a big focus. And we’re also going to be an office that continues to focus on the science, and how do we get better at forecasting because that’s truly how we help people is having that good solid understanding of the science, learning new things, staying on top of new tools and new research, and trying to put it all together. So from the science to the service that’s got to be complementary of each other, and that’s what our focus will be.”

Beaman said he’s grateful to have a great team to work with at the Mobile office.

“I’m just really honored and humbled to be in this position. It wasn’t on my career bingo card,” he said with a laugh, “but it was an amazing opportunity and I’m just thankful for the opportunity to lead a fantastic office. We have a great team that has a lot of experience and has the public’s interest at heart each and every day they come to work. So many people helped me to get to this point and I’m very blessed and thankful for their support and help along the way.”

Beaman said he’s looking forward to many more years watching the weather for south Alabama.

“I will be really happy to lead this office for many more years to come,” he said.

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