<Tr> <Td> Edward Rappaport </Td> <Td> 7003201700000000000 ♠ 2017--Present </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <P> Beginning in 1973, the National Meteorological Center duties (renamed the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center; renamed for a second time in 2013) gained advisory responsibility for tracking and publicizing inland tropical depressions . The World Meteorological Organization assumed control of the Atlantic hurricane naming list in 1977 . In 1978, the NHC's offices moved off the campus of the University of Miami across U.S. Highway 1 to the IRE Financial Building . Male names were added into the hurricane list beginning in the 1979 season . The hurricane warning offices remained active past 1983 . </P> <P> In 1984, the NHC was separated from the Miami Weather Service Forecast Office, which meant the meteorologist in charge at Miami was no longer in a position above the hurricane center director . By 1988, the NHC gained responsibility for eastern Pacific tropical cyclones as the former Eastern Pacific Hurricane Center in San Francisco was decommissioned . In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the WSR - 57 weather radar and the anemometer off the roof of NHC's / the Miami State Weather Forecast offices . The radar was replaced with a WSR - 88D NEXRAD system in April 1993 installed near Metro Zoo, near where Hurricane Andrew made landfall . </P> <P> In 1995, the NHC moved into a new hurricane - resistant facility on the campus of Florida International University, capable of withstanding 130 mph (210 km / h) winds . Its name was changed to the Tropical Prediction Center in 1995 . After the name change to TPC, the Hurricane Specialists were grouped as a separate NHC unit under the Tropical Prediction Center, separating themselves from the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch . On October 1, 2010, the Tropical Prediction Center was renamed the NHC, and the group formerly known as the NHC became known as the Hurricane Specialists Unit (HSU). </P>

Who appoints the director of the national hurricane center