NWS, which is now part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has operated a weather forecasting service in the city under various federal agencies since 1870.
The previous NWS office was based at Key West International Airport, which is on the island's southern shore across the street from the Atlantic Ocean.
When hurricanes blew into town, the roof leaked, water blew in beneath the doors, and forecasters sometimes felt they were risking their lives to do their jobs.
For a while federal officials talked seriously about closing the Key West office and using the NWS station in Miami to forecast weather for the lower Florida Keys.
But local leaders, residents, and emergency management officials protested loudly.
Mariners working the busy Gulf shipping lanes have relied on weather information from forecasters in Key West for more than a century.
Also, maintaining an office for local forecasters is critical, advocates say, for providing up-to-the-second information when Keys residents have to evacuate because of a hurricane.
The Keys have only one highway linking the islands to the mainland, and moving tens of thousands of residents and tourists to safety as a storm approaches is a tricky task that requires precise timing.
Billy Wagner is the emergency management director for Florida's Monroe County, which includes the Keys.
"When we have to respond to a major hurricane and have to start evacuation and phase it out, [local NWS forecasters] play a part in guiding us and preventing people from being trapped on the highway," he said.
"Dramatic" Difference
Federal officials dropped plans to close the office, and NWS instead obtained a parcel of land from the U.S. Navy and hired a pair of architectural firms to design a new building.
The staff moved into their new offices in October 2005—just before Hurricane Wilma roared past the Keys offshore and put much of the region underwater with its storm surge (watch related video: "The Path of Wilma's Wrath").
The difference in the new building during Wilma was dramatic, some staff reported.
"The weather wasn't in the building," Rizzo said. "We didn't have rain leaking in through the roof or around the doors. There's more space."
The 5.2-million-U.S.-dollar office is designed to be self-sufficient if a hurricane takes out the city's electricity and water supply.
A thousand-gallon (3,800-liter) tank holds drinking water, and a 13,000-gallon (49,000-liter) cistern beneath the building collects rainwater and condensation from the air conditioning unit.
Water from the cistern is used year-round to flush toilets and water the grass on the 1.9-acre (0.8-hectare) lot.
The building's design was a joint project of the architectural firms Guidry Beazley Architects of Lafayette, Louisiana, and Eskew+Dumez+Ripple of New Orleans.
"Given all the safety issues, we wanted to make a building they could occupy and work in 24 hours a day and enjoy working there," said architect Charles Beazley.
The office's outward appearance borrows elements from the neighboring historic district and Key West's nautical heritage.
Some parts of the exterior are made of cedar paneling, which eventually will turn gray from weathering and echo the appearance of many of the city's historic residences.
The entrance includes a flagpole that emulates a ship's mast and a soaring roof that calls to mind a ship's prow.
"The way the roof is sloped out to the front is a reference to wind and to ships," Beazley said.
Willie Drye is the author of Storm of the Century: The Labor Day hurricane of 1935, published by National Geographic.
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