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NOAA's NWS Focus
February
19 , 2003 |
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Program
Encourages Employees to "Ask Why"
The National Weather
Service kicked off a program February 13, 2003, that managers
hope will generate a lot of employee questions. Called "Ask
Why," this six-month pilot program encourages everyone to
elevate questions about what we do and why we do it.
"Our employees who are closest to our day to day activities
are in the best position to ask why performing a work activity
is necessary," explained Chief Financial Officer Ted David
who developed this program with Southern Region Director
Bill Proenza.
"We want to give all employees, both inside and outside
the beltway, a vehicle to provide insights on all aspects
of our activities and operations. Through 'Ask Why' we hope
to improve our products and services as well as the efficiency
and effectiveness of our operations," said David.
To start the "Ask Why" process, employees fill out a web-based
form and provide the form to their supervisors. If the
supervisor can not resolve the question, the supervisor
will elevate the form to the next level of supervision.
The form will continue moving up the management chain until
the question is answered. "'We've always done it that way'
is not an acceptable answer for employee questions. We expect
managers to elevate questions until they are answered,"
explained David. Financial Management Center contacts will
prepare quarterly reports of all questions and answers from
their offices. These reports will help share questions and
responses across the agency.
"Our goal is to respond to all questions within three
weeks," David said. He added, "This program is not a substitute
for other efforts to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Rather it is an attempt to encourage and harness the knowledge
of our employees who are engaged in meeting customer and
partner needs on how we might do things better."
The "Ask Why" program will be evaluated in six months
to determine if the program achieves its objective of providing
NWS staff with a method to get questions addressed quickly
and if changes are needed to improve the process.
For more detailed information about this program and instructions
for processing a question, visit the Employee/Best
Practices web site.
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Working
Together to Save Lives
WFOs Draw on Collaborative Research To Provide More Accurate
Snowfall Forecasts
Collaborative research
efforts with the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany
yielded significant improvements in service by NWS staff providing
forecasts and warnings for a major winter storm Christmas
Day 2002 in upstate New York.
On December 25, 2002, a major winter storm hit the northeast
United States. Many areas recorded accumulations of one
to three feet of snow, and nearly 40 inches was reported
in upstate New York. A significant portion of the Christmas
Day snowfall came from an intense area within the snowstorm
which had snowfall rates up to five inches per hour. Based
on the research, forecasters were able to provide at least
six additional hours lead time to customers and partners,
according to a recent report by Eastern Region Scientific
Services Division (SSD).
Funded by NOAA's Collaborative Science Technology and
Research (CSTAR) program, the research focused on improving
the analysis and forecasting of smaller-scale areas within
storms that can produce very heavy snow. The results of
the project were presented to various Weather Forecast Offices
(WFOs) over the last several months through conference presentations,
tele-training sessions, a Weather Event Simulator simulation,
and various web pages.
Experimental graphical snowfall
forecast images posted to the WFO Binghamton web page
provided detailed and accurate snowfall forecasts to customers.
"The graphical snowfall forecasts were a big hit among various
customer groups including emergency management, road crews,
the media and the general public," said Dave Nicosia, Warning
Coordination Meteorologist, NWS Binghamton, NY. "This project
is an excellent example of how collaborative research with
universities is paying off with better forecasts and services
to our customers and partners."
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New Forecast
Process at the WFO
Editors' Note: The NWS is counting down
towards national implementation of the Interactive Forecast
Preparation System (IFPS). This is the second article in
a series of NOAA's NWS Focus stories on topics relating
to IFPS and the National Digital Forecast Database.
by Jeffrey Hovis
Science Operations Officer, Charleston, WV, and,
I. Ross Dickman
AWIPS Program Manager and IFPS Project Manager, Eastern
Region Headquarters
"Working together" takes on greater meaning as NWS Weather
Forecast Offices (WFOs) adapt their staffs and skills to
the new Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS).
"Teamwork is now a fundamental requirement for success
in this new forecast process," said Donato Cacciapaglia,
Hydrometeorological Technician (HMT) at WFO Blacksburg,
VA. "Being an effective member of the team has become very
important. For example, HMTs and interns are valuable assets
to each office and their skills may be called upon to make
the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) process run
as efficient as possible."
NDFD implementation requires the forecast staff to approach
operations differently at the WFO.
Since the NDFD has multiple owners, each preparing a part of
the database, forecasters are producing a piece of the NWS
product, but not the entire product. Providing high resolution,
meteorologically-consistent weather information is not possible
without an increased level of forecast collaboration, and
tools to prepare, depict and disseminate this information.
At Charleston, WV, the HMTs help facilitate the forecast
process. Paul Gilkerson says, "The HMT now helps the forecaster
group the zones for the NOAA Weather Radio. They are also
responsible for updates to the forecast between 11 am and
4 pm. As a result, the HMT is more aware of the weather
conditions across the county warning area and works closely
with the forecaster. The HMT helps update the forecaster
on current conditions and watchs for severe weather and/or
flooding situations. We have become more involved in the
first period forecast, like in the old days of the WSOs
[Weather Service Offices]."
Successful management of resources is essential in developing,
providing and maintaining a consistent and always updated
database. In response to this new requirement, on-shift
allocation of resources is becoming time driven, based on
the problem of the day, rather than product driven or by
pre-existing checklists and schedules. For example, a short-term
forecaster may be responsible for updates to short-term
grids. The time period the short-term forecaster is responsible
for is determined by the Senior Forecaster. In the past,
most offices simply divided responsibility between an Aviation
and Public forecaster, based on a checklist.
Since WFOs have begun to move away from scheduled forecast
updates and maintain a forecast database that is always
current, customers can pull data whenever they want it.
When it is time to update the standard forecast products,
forecasters simply extract the required information from
the grids that are currently available. This provides time
to work on the meteorology of the day, and update the grids
only when required. If a new model comes in and the forecaster
believes that the grids need updating, the forecaster updates
the grids and issues a new forecast.
Keeping grids up to date involves time constraints and
requires office managers to think differently how to get
the job done. Besides updating the grids and issuing the
forecasts based on the grids, the forecast team is still
responsible for issuing aviation and river forecasts as
well as various weather watches, advisories and warnings.
During times of adverse weather, all of these responsibilities
can result in more people becoming involved in the forecast
process.
Senior Forecasters, in particular, are beginning to assume
more leadership and management at the WFO and use all on-duty
resources. "In rapid short-term weather changes, I may split
the database differently than usual and assign the longer-term
grids to another forecaster," said Steve Nogueira, Senior
Forecaster at WFO Blacksburg, VA.
To make the operations more efficient, some NDFD demonstration
offices have changed the hours of the forecast shifts they
work. Overlapping shifts has improved the capability of
the demonstration offices to maintain an always-current
database, examine the model data, and make the updates without
having to rush to make any deadlines. Forecasters work together
to transition across shift change times and have resources
to keep the grids current.
In the NDFD prototype areas, surrounding forecast offices
maintain the seamless set of grids by collaborating before
they make changes to the forecasts. As shift supervisor,
the Senior Forecaster is responsible for the WFO's contribution
to a seamless NDFD. The Senior Forecaster may not be the
person issuing the grids, but is responsible for the content
of the grids, just as the senior forecaster was responsible
for the content of our "text" forecasts in the past. The
Senior Forecaster resolves discrepancies in gridded forecasts
between WFOs through coordination and collaboration with
the affected offices and with the National Centers for Environmental
Prediction Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC).
To do this, offices confer by telephone, or use software
to collaborate changes. As a result of the collaboration,
HPC forecasters make adjustments to their forecasts. The
WFOs, in turn, use HPC's expertise to make modifications
to their forecasts. In the past, offices collaborated when
hazardous weather was going to impact the forecast area.
Since the new forecast process deals with an entire hydrometeorological
database, routine elements such as clouds, temperatures
and winds must now be discussed in the everyday forecast
package.
An NDFD/IFPS
Vision training session outlines how the WFO and its
people fit into the NDFD big picture.
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Meteorology
and Education Website Gets New Face
A new user-friendly
design to the Meteorology and Education "MetEd" website gives
people faster access to training materials and related information.
The website, operated
by the NWS/Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology,
Education and Training (COMET), is now organized by meteorology
topics and resources. Each topic page catalogues the self-paced
learning materials and case studies available for that topic,
along with detailed product descriptions. In addition, the
interface provides one-stop shopping for information about
COMET residence courses, the Outreach Program, and many
other resources.
"The redesigned MetEd site will improve accessibility
of hydrometeorology training for all COMET sponsors, including
NWS forecast staff," said Eli Jacks, Acting Chief of the
Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services Training
Division.
One of the new features offered by the Website is the
Communities section which provides links to special interest
Web pages developed by the COMET Program. These include
resources for those interested in National Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellites System (NPOESS) products,
forecasting in northern latitudes, and other subjects that
can be useful to NWS forecasters.
Materials recently added on the MetEd site include:
. A new
Weather Event Simulator case, the Southern Illinois Supercells
(21 April 2002)
. A Webcast lecture by Gary Lackmann on
Freezing and Melting, Precipitation Type, and Numerical
Weather Prediction
.
Feature Identification Exercises: Clouds, Snow, and Ice
Using MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)
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Alaskan
Employee Scores Public Service Hat Trick With Award
Richard W. Courtney,
Meteorological Technician at the Kodiak, AK, Weather Service
Office (WSO) is the 2002 winner of the Alaska Marine and Public
Service Award. Courtney has won the regional Alaska Marine
and Public Service Award for the past three years and received
the Isaac Cline award in 2001 for his work in marine forecasting.
"Rich is well known in the marine community for going
the extra mile to help his customers," said Alaska Region
Director Richard Przywarty. "His outstanding work helps
increase the safety of mariners who are involved in the
delivery of products to towns and villages throughout Alaska.
Rich's commitment ensures that WSO Kodiak continues to provide
exemplary service and support to the Alaska fleet."
Courtney recruited 30 new vessels for the
Voluntary Observing Ships (VOS) program and had 83 ship
visits in 2002. His latest recruit was the Seabulk Arctic
in December. Kodiak helped transmit 5,186 ship observations
(known as BBXX observations in the marine community) in
2002, the most in Alaska. Kodiak also had the most Marine
Briefings in 2002 with 9,473.
Courtney received a letter recently from the Governor,
Frank Murkowski, at the urging of one of the marine customers
who appreciate his work so much. The
letter acknowledges Courtney's dedication and hard work
in support of the NWS marine program at WSO Kodiak.
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Environmental
Modeling Center Shares in Partnership Award
Working together
with public and academic partners, the Environmental Modeling
Center (EMC) was among a group which earned an excellence
in partnering award for work on the Coastal Marine Demonstration
Project (CMDP). EMC is based at National Centers for Environmental
Prediction (NCEP) headquarters in Camp Springs, MD.
CMDP was a two-year partnership between universities,
corporations, and government agencies to evaluate the usefulness
of detailed coastal atmospheric and oceanographic analysis
and forecast products for mariners in coastal areas.
EMC's Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch participated
in the demonstration project by providing high resolution
marine atmospheric and oceanographic guidance products to
forecasters, pilots, and commercial and military mariners
including three dimensional fields of ocean currents, temperatures
and salinities from NCEP's East Coast Regional Ocean Forecast
System (EC-ROFS).
"The ocean currents and water information is critical
to saving time and fuel in ship operations, particularly
for estimating times of arrival at and departure from ports,"
according to D.B. Rao, Chief, Marine Modeling & Analysis
Branch, EMC. "Information on ocean temperatures and currents
plays a critical role in search and rescue operations and
in operations dealing with containment of toxic material
spills."
As a result of the positive user feedback from this project,
NWS implemented the EC-ROFS as the first operational three-dimensional
numerical ocean prediction system serving the needs of the
civil sector in the United States.
Rao, accompanied Leonard Walstad of the University of
Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the leader
of the project to accept the award presented by the National
Ocean Research Leadership Council at the White House Conference
Center in January. Rao and Frank Aikman of NOAA''s National
Ocean Service subsequently visited the office of Maryland
Sen. Paul Sarbanes and met with one of his staff to discuss
the Coastal Marine Demonstration Project and the award.
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National Weather
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Communications Office
ATTN: W/COM
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