The Lake Placid Olympic Museum is set to open a new exhibit, Foretelling the Future – The National Weather Service at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, on December 18th for the winter season.

In 1980, there was a small team of meteorologists working to give accurate and timely weather warnings and forecasts to ensure a safe and successful Olympic Winter Games for Lake Placid. The new exhibit will take a look at how the National Weather Service Olympic Support Unit’s weather forecasts and warnings impacted the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

The exhibit features the meteorologists who worked during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games: Jack May, Steve Harned, Gordon Tait, Doc Taylor, and intern John Kelley. Visitors can go on location and report a weather forecast, make weather observations by viewing live weather radar data and other information from NOAA compiled from the Atmospheric Science Research Center at Whiteface Mountain, explore the impacts of weather on the Games, see weather equipment used during the Olympics, and photographs from the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

The exhibit is a partnership between the National Ocean Service’s Coast Survey Development Laboratory, the National Weather Service’s Weather Forecast Office in Burlington, Vermont, and the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. The project is funded by NOAA Heritage Program and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum is located at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. For more information, call (518) 302-5326 or email museum@orda.org.

Photo of the meteorologists from 1980. From left to right: Jack May, Steve Harned, Gordon Tait, Doc Taylor, provided.