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The National Weather Service (NWS) office in La Crosse, Wisconsin, will be hosting a public open house from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7.

This will be a fun, free, rain or shine event for the whole family with the theme, “Unleash Your Inner Meteorologist!” In addition to guided office tours to showcase NWS forecast and warning services and equipment, the event will also feature plenty of outdoor activities and games for all ages.

Additionally, there will be several raffles throughout the day for weather-related prizes. Several NWS partner agencies and groups will also be present to demonstrate their unique work and equipment for keeping the public safe.

Visitors can get an up close look at fire trucks, sheriff squad and incident command vehicles, a highway snow plow, and other unique rigs. WAFER Food Pantry will also be collecting voluntary non-perishable food donations to support the greater La Crosse community.

“We are so excited to be planning this open house event to promote weather safety and the life-saving work that the National Weather Service and our partner agencies do each day in our local communities,” said Mike Kurz, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at NWS La Crosse. “We want our open house visitors to meet our dedicated NWS staff and see first hand how we create the forecast and issue severe weather warnings for their community.”

Directions to NWS La Crosse and further open house details can be found at

weather.gov/arx/openhouse24.