Journeyman Forecaster Kristin Hurley. Photo by Jessica Stroupe, Meteorologist Intern, WFO Birmingham, AL.

By Ron Trumbla NWS Southern Region Public Affairs Officer While planning a trip to Indiana with her brother and three children, a Birmingham, AL, woman called the Birmingham Weather Forecast Office (WFO) to check the weather along her route. That was May 27, 2004, and it would be the first of three phone calls she would make to Journeyman Forecaster Kristin Hurley. Hurley said the drive north would pose no problem, but cautioned her about the potential for severe weather during her return trip on May 30. Three days later, a severe storm system lashed more than a dozen states from Minnesota to Alabama and west to

Oklahoma and Texas. The NWS recorded nearly 900 storm reports that day, including tornadoes, high winds, and hail. Some of the heaviest tornadic activity occurred in Indiana and Kentucky and it was that outbreak that prompted the second phone call. Hurley said the woman called on her cell phone while traveling south on Interstate 65, just north of Louisville, KY. She said there were dark clouds ahead.

A quick check of the Louisville WFO information showed a Tornado Warning had been issued for Jefferson County (Louisville). "I told her she needed to pull off the road and take cover immediately," said Hurley. "I told her, 'This is right on top of you! Pull off right now and find a safe place!'" The family took her advice and found shelter in a car wash.

When Hurley received the third phone call, she said, "The woman was crying and saying 'Oh my God! Oh my God!' and said she saw what appeared to be a tornado about a quarter of a mile ahead and added, 'I can see birds getting sucked into the storm along with trash and debris. You saved my life and my brother's and my children's lives!'" In the excitement of the moment, Hurley never got the woman's name.

Downplaying her role in the incident, Hurley insists she was just doing her job. But, somewhere in Birmingham, there are five grateful people who would beg to differ.

However, NWS Southern Region Director Bill Proenza agrees with Hurley. "She was just doing her job, and doing it very well," he said. "Kristin Hurley's job and the job of everyone else in the National Weather Service is to help save lives. She is a prime example of the kind of dedicated employees who strive to provide the best possible service to our citizens."

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Owlie SkyWarn has got his mojo back.

Previous Owlie materials were out of date, and Owlie needed a fresh look, said Ron Gird, Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services (OCWWS) Outreach Program Manager.

"The American Red Cross, joined with our original partner, FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], in creating this new version," said Greg Mandt, OCWWS Director. "They provided safety information and will help distribute the publication through their local community offices"

Graphic artists Rick Leach and Luis Rodriguez of the NWS Communications Office Multimedia Branch drew by hand a range of poses for Owlie and give Owlie a new image for a new generation of kids.

The just-released new version of the Owlie SkyWarn booklet offers the new, crisp graphics, up-to-date statistics and examples, and a new easier-to-use format. A longtime favorite NWS publication geared toward Kindergarten to 6th grade teachers and students, the new and improved Owlie can be used either as one large booklet covering five major weather hazards or as separate sections, each with quizzes and games for teachers who prefer to focus on one or two hazards areas. The new format will allow a teacher in North Dakota to download the Winter Weather section but skip Hurricanes while a classroom in Kansas can focus on just Tornadoes and Lightning to meet classroom goals. The five sections in Owlie are:

• Hurricanes
• Lightning
• Tornadoes
• Floods and Flash Floods
• Winter Storms

For younger children, the product offers pages for students to color. Older kids can try the easy games and quizzes. Owlie comes in an 8 ½ -inch x 11-inch format to allow teachers to easily reproduce pages. Limited copies of the booklet will be available at no charge from the National Logistics Supply Center and from local NWS offices. By late July, the revised products will be online as one product or in five separate sections at www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures.shtml.

For bulk copies, send your request to The National Logistics Supply Center and reference NOAA/PA 200451. Questions? Contact Melody.Magnus@noaa.gov or Donna.Ayres@noaa.gov.

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Twin Cities Forecast: Raining Pennies From Heaven

Left to Right: Bob Clatterbuck, TSA, Labor Scheduling; James McQuirter, NWS Lead Forecaster, Chanhassen; Stephen Devereux, Habitat for Humanity; Andy Miller NWS, NCRFC Fundraising; Diane Langer, FAA, Employee Chairman; D.J. Jensen, Community Solutions, CFC liaison

By Andy Miller NWS Computer Specialist, Chanhassen, MN The forecast for Mahdi Ali Hasson, his wife Kadra, and their one-year-old son Mustafa of Saint Paul, MN, is bright as construction nears completion on the Hassons' new Habitat for Humanity home. Employees of the NWS facility located in Chanhassen, MN, have done their part, not only as site workers donating annual leave to help build the home, but as a sponsoring agency which raised nearly $2,000 toward support services needed to feed the site workers and pay for other incidental costs associated with the home construction. The Chanhassen facility includes three collocated

NWS offices in the NWS Central Region; the Weather Forecast Office (WFO) the North Central River Forecast Center (NCRFC) and the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center. All three offices supported the Habitat for Humanity project.

On June 25, 2004, the NWS team presented Habitat for Humanity with a check for $1,989.40, exceeding its Agency pledge by nearly 99 percent. To raise the funds, the NWS team hosted a golf tournament. Erin Murphy of the Federal Employees Credit Union (FECU) and Andy Miller of the NWS arranged for a wide variety of prizes and give-aways prompting participants to ask about continuing the event annually.

"The Weather Service made up four of the 18 registered foursomes in the tournament. That's almost 25 percent of the entire participation -- a respectable showing by anyone's measure," said Dan Luna, NCRFC Hydrologist-In-Charge. Employees used personal leave in order to participate, all for a noble cause.

WFO Chanhassen Meteorologist-In-Charge Craig Edwards, prominent for his leadership in sponsoring the Habitat program with the Twin Cities Federal Executive Board and the Chanhassen NWS offices, summed up the leadership goals of the Habitat for Humanity undertaking.

"We were looking to show the community what Federal workers were willing and able to do," Edwards said. "Too often Federal employees are stereotyped in a negative context, and this program was a challenge. We want the community to think of the local Fed's as people next door, and people that care. We challenged the Federal workers to raise money and build a house by their volunteer efforts."

"On every level," Craig continued, "It was a success beyond our expectations."

Luna decided to lead by example and committed a week of his vacation to be a house builder. Luna was joined by several members of his staff with similar donations. Reflecting on his decision, Luna observed; "You know, an ounce of action is worth 10 pounds of good intentions, and I wanted my colleagues to know that getting a job done means action."

Speaking of his experience putting hammer to nail, lead forecaster James "Mac" McQuirter may have spoken for all the volunteers.

"When I was done, and my week was over, I wanted to go back again, and maybe I will," McQuirter said. "I feel like I'm part of that home. It really helped to have Mahdi there working with us. During the week we came to know him, and his family, and I have to tell you that I feel like we made a real contribution to his family, and family is what it's all about."

Other Federal Agencies participating in the project include the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Army, the Veteran's Administration, Department of Homeland Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, and others. At any time the job site would consist of workers from several agencies.

Gerry Deiotte, NWS Central Region Radar Specialist, was particularly pleased by the inter-agency cooperation. "All that isolation mentality is bull----." Deiotte added, "Here you got guys and gals from all over working on one thing. That's teamwork." Deiotte is famous locally for his concise appraisals and succinct expressions.

The Dedication Ceremony for the block of houses built on Ravoux Street in Saint Paul is scheduled for October of 2004, when all five houses are scheduled to be complete.

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Aviation Branch Offers Outreach and Verification in Weather to Fly Newsletter

A new quarterly aviation newsletter for NWS employees is aimed at sharing ideas and best practices, with a focus on local aviation outreach and verification. According to Mike Graf of the Aviation Services Branch, NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, the goal of the newsletter Weather to Fly is to share best-practices at WFOs and relevant guidance from region and NWSH levels. Articles will be written mostly by field staff, with some articles coming from Regions and NWS Headquarters. "We see ideas generated from the field covering topics

ranging from local outreach and verification to better techniques and more effective philosophies," Graf said. "Unfortunately, these ideas often get lost in the shuffle as staff move on or other events come to the forefront."

Why local outreach and verification? These two areas can be a challenge for a local office to get its arms around, in part, due to insufficient resources and training, Graf said.

Articles in the first edition include:

• Forecasting Thunderstorms in Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts
• Aviation Forecasting is Changing the NWS Local Forecasting Frontier
• New Stats on Demand; Review of Aviation GPRA Goals

To read or download Weather to Fly, go to http://www.noaa.gov/os/aviation/wtf-sum04.pdf.

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Summer Edition of Aware Released

The summer edition of Aware is now available. Aware is the quarterly newsletter for emergency managers, State and Local Government staff and other partners involved in hazards management, produced by the NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services.

The summer edition features 12 pages covering topics such as new NOAA Weather Radio Event Codes, marine and hydrology programs, outreach and education, severe weather updates, StormReady, tsunamis, and a new "Writer's Corner" offering writing tips, according to Editor Melody Magnus. This edition also features a special tribute to Aware's recently retired editor of more than 20 years, Linda Kremkau. Aware is available online and can be printed in color or black and white. For copies, go to www.weather.gov/om/aware.pdf.

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Tech Talk:
NWS Satellite Broadcast Network Expanding to Deliver Higher Resolution Data

By Philip G. Cragg
NWS Office of Science & Technology, Systems Engineering Center

The NWS is modernizing the Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) to meet the challenge of expanding products by adding improved hardware, software, and communications technologies to the network.

Advancements in numerical forecast modeling, satellite images and radar data contribute to an evolving suite of forecast products vital to NWS forecasters and our partners. Data dissemination requirements needed to accommodate this growing suite of products could increase by more than 20-fold by 2010. This expanding product suite must be made available to end-users in a timely and reliable manner. The NWS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) uses a Satellite Broadcasting Network (referred to as the SBN or NOAAPort) to deliver these products to NWS field sites and partners.

The centerpiece of the SBN expansion is a new technology known as Digital Video Broadcast - Satellite (DVB-S), which will ultimately enable the SBN to transmit all new weather products over a single satellite link or channel. DVB-S is an open standard which means system components are available commercially from a variety of vendors. In addition to DVB-S, another important component of the SBN expansion has been the increased use of advanced compression technologies. Compression reduces the need for transmission bandwidth by as much as 5 to 1, allowing five times more information to be transmitted for the same cost.

The first phase of the SBN expansion, completed in August 2003, introduced lossless imagery compression, enabling consolidation of GOES East and West satellite imagery suites onto a single SBN channel. The second phase, underway since the summer of 2003, outfitted SBN send and receive sites with DVB-S technology- upgrading the SBN channel freed up by Phase I.

A major milestone was reached on June 29, 2004, when compressed, high-resolution National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Eta model products were added to the DVB-S SBN channel suite in a test mode. This important addition to the SBN suite provides SBN/NOAAPort users with valuable NCEP short-term model forecast products, in the 0 - 3.5 days range, at the native Eta model horizontal resolution of 12 kilometers, over the continental United States. Forecasters will soon have these important model products automatically provided to them for use in the preparation of their short-term forecast products. The addition of high-resolution Alaska Region Eta model products is planned for later this summer. Assuming all performance tests are positive, these data will be used operationally at NWS forecast offices later this summer.

In the longer term, the insertion of DVB-S technology and compression techniques positions NWS for further SBN enhancements. Plans are in place to finalize transition to a single scalable DVB-S channel in 2005 accompanied by an increase in total effective bandwidth by 100 percent.

These accomplishments are a culmination of efforts by NWS field sites, NCEP, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the Office of Operational Systems, the Office of Science and Technology, NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, and numerous support contractors. The SBN expansion and our ability to provide 12 km Eta model data to users are examples of how the NWS is responding to the current and future needs of field forecasters and our industry partners with newer technologies that improve performance at a lower cost.

For more information contact Philip Cragg at Phil.Cragg@noaa.gov.

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NWS Snapshots

Click here for a look a photos we've received from around the NWS.

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