President Bush Praises Team NOAA

On September 8, 2004, President Bush visited the National Hurricane Center/Tropical Prediction Center, met most of the staff on hand, and held a media briefing during a tour of hurricane damage in Florida from Hurricanes Frances and Charley.

"A short time ago, I visited the relief efforts at Port St. Lucie, and I've just toured the National Hurricane Center," said the President. "The people I met today are committed and they are compassionate. They're doing a fantastic job, and I appreciate their dedicated service to our country."

The President, FEMA Director Mike Brown, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Red Cross Chief Executive Officer Marti Evans met with NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) Director Max Mayfield for 15 minutes prior to his walk through the center to observe operations and meet the staff.

According to a NOAA staff report from the Center, the President was introduced to nearly every staff member and stopped to have the White House photographer take pictures with groups of four or five staff at a time. When Mayfield and the President walked into the hurricane operations area and started the staff introductions, they stopped and had the first picture taken in front of the U.S. Weather Research Project joint hurricane test bed poster and discussed the concept of transferring research into operations more efficiently.

Mayfield told the President that "the battle against the hurricane is won outside the hurricane season." He said this is foreshadowed to some extent by the Presidential proclamation that he has given us the last four years to mark Hurricane Preparedness Week.

Mayfield described the Nation's hurricane program as "a real team effort and said it involves a tremendous effort from NOAA and our partners, starting with observations." Mayfield cited the NOAA satellites, the NOAA and U.S. Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft, the surface observations by NOAA buoys, and the NOAA weather balloons that are launched twice a day as observation sources. In the case of Hurricane Frances, Mayfield told the President that NOAA was launching weather balloons in the Southeast United States four times a day, which supplemented observations by the NOAA G-IV jet.

Mayfield showed the President a model of the G-IV jet, and told him of NOAA's pride in the aircraft and its capabilities. He added that the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center and the Hurricane Research Division gave of themselves tremendously to fly afternoon and evening, refuel, and then take right back off again. He relayed how this really was beneficial in Frances.

The President also held a GPS dropwindsonde while Mayfield explained how it sends back data and how it is fed into the models. Mayfield mentioned the tremendous amount of data the sonde collects, and that when it is fed into the computer models it helps to produce a more consistent forecast.

"Some of the unsung heroes are the people who have dedicated their careers to developing and improving computer models," Max told the President. On a computer screen Mayfield showed the President the NOAA Global Forecast System, the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) model, and the Navy NOGAPS model. He told the President that the models have three different forecasts and how the hurricane specialists use those different models to come up with a consistent forecast.

Max then told the President about the different NOAA partnerships. He discussed the World Meteorological Organization's Hurricane Committee of 24 member countries in the Atlantic region, and he gave an example of coordination for Hurricane Ivan. He said the NHC has already coordinated with the Lesser Antilles, Jamaica, Venezuela, Colombia, and the Netherlands Antilles.

Mayfield described the second partnership through the hurricane hotline telephone calls between the NOAA Weather Forecast Offices, the NOAA tornado forecasters in Norman, OK, and the precipitation and marine forecasters at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, as well as the Defense Department, Navy, U.S. Air Force Weather Agency, and NASA. He said the federal meteorological community is very well coordinated right before the public advisory is issued. Mayfield also mentioned the Hurricane Liaison Team of federal and state emergency management agencies. He talked about elements of activating the liaison team with Frances and Ivan. He mentioned how helpful it was to brief FEMA headquarters and regions and the state emergency management agencies by video conference.

Mayfield also described the solid partnership with the state of Florida. "They deserve credit for the way they operate in coordinating a call between the NHC and all their counties and the NOAA Weather Forecast Offices just 15 minutes after NHC releases its advisories. This leads to a very consistent message to the public," said Mayfield.

Mayfield also gave the President an operational briefing on Hurricanes Frances and Ivan, and led the President in a walk through of the operations centers and showed the President an example of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center forecast of Frances for the next few days. He also showed the Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes model for potential major hurricanes going into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read more of the President's comments on the White House web page by clicking here.

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NOAA All-Hazards Weather Radio Gains New Spanish-Language Spokesperson and Transmitter in California

"I am pleased to be able to work with the Hispanic community to bring home the life-saving message of NOAA Weather Radio," Moncayo said. "The Spanish-language Weather Radio in the Coachella Valley will help bring critical warning messages directly and immediately to our community."

The sponsor of the NOAA Weather Radio station is the Coachella Valley Water District. The district will also donate $5,000 for purchase of NOAA Weather Radios by the Hispanic community.

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Forecast Office Honors Cooperative Observers

Wilson said Cooperative Observer Appreciation Day was organized so that we could "show them they're appreciated."

WFO Jackson Meteorologist-In-Charge Alan Gerard added, "The cooperative observers provide a tremendous service to the public by providing climate records and real-time weather information. We enjoyed the opportunity to honor them with this day."

Support for the event extended beyond the office. Food and drinks were donated by local Subway and Coca-Cola franchises. Door prizes were donated by Aramark, Inc., Mississippi State University, and Reecom in Atlanta, GA.

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Graduate Scientist Says Aloha to Pacific Region Headquarters

Carlis spent most of last fall at the Honolulu Weather Forecast Office (WFO) training at the marine desk with operational forecasters and researching flash flood events that have affected the islands in recent years. During that time he also worked with Yi-Leng Chen at the University of Hawaii. Towards the end of his internship, Carlis took an introductory course in tropical meteorology from Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chip Guard of the Guam Weather Forecast Office. For the spring semester, Carlis returned to Howard University to complete his coursework and qualifying exams.

The GSP has two primary objectives. First, to offer candidates with college degrees in math, science, economics, law, social science, and engineering who have been accepted into a graduate program in a NOAA-related science, entry-level employment and hands-on research and work experience at NOAA. Second, the program seeks to improve NOAA's outreach and recruitment efforts of under-represented individuals in the scientific mission-related occupational fields.

Carlis moved to Hawaii permanently in July 2004 and began working with Bill Ward, the new Scientific Services Meteorologist at Pacific Region Headquarters (PRH). His early tasks included setting up simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model over the Hawaiian Islands on systems at PRH. Currently he is completing a summertime validation study of the model over the Island of Maui looking for similar patterns in model winds, temperature, and quantitative precipitation versus observational data. Other interests include tests in the model's initial conditions by ingestion of more observational data sets, scatterometer winds from Quickscat, and WRF modeling over the West Pacific including the Marianas Islands. Carlis will also continue to work on his dissertation research analyses and the writing of his research project.Upon completion of his academic requirements, Carlis will be employed at PRH as a Physical Scientist.

Asked how he got involved in the program, Carlis said, "When I was first introduced to the program, I thought that it was a great opportunity for me to get into NOAA because I had been hearing so much about the agency. I had finished my research at NASA Goddard and was really looking for research support; then the Graduate Scientist Program came along. After getting offered the position I found out the job would be in Hawaii, and that cemented the deal for me. All I needed to know was where do I sign! Since coming here, I've really felt comfortable about the decision that I made for me and my family. The research is interesting and important to the advancement of numerical modeling in the Pacific."

"Pacific Region is very fortunate to have DaNa working on tough numerical modeling challenges that have faced the region for years," said Ken Waters, Regional Scientist. "His upbeat enthusiasm and pleasant personality embodies the spirit of Aloha."

One of Carlis' goals is to help increase Kindergarten through 12th grade interest in meteorology because he feels that there are many avenues to contribute to this field. He also hopes to contribute to NOAA's effort to increase diversity by reaching out to young minorities interested in obtaining degrees to consider pursuing careers in Atmospheric Science.

"My goal is to make a contribution to the people of Hawaii and be involved in the community," Carlis said. "I hope that I can lead more minorities into the field because I feel there will be many opportunities available in the future."

The NWS extends a warm aloha to DaNa Carlis!

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Cost Management Question of the Month

There were no correct responses to the August question of the month.

The August cost management question of the month was:

During the second quarter, which financial management center (FMC) spent the least on systems operations and maintenance? Please state the FMC and the amount.

September's cost management question of the month is:

Which of the following Cost Objects is defined as follows?

"All activities necessary to comply with internal, local, state, and federal environmental laws, rules, and regulations. For additional information on compliance reference the NWS Environmental Management Manual (NWSM-50-1116) Examples include: responding to environmental incidents; restoring and decontaminating sites; conducting environmental assessments; environmental compliance training; and participating in waste and pollution prevention and recycling."

Choose one answer.

A) 5.8
B) 4.1
C) 6.2
D) 6.4
E) None of the Above

The following link provides a clue and contains the answer. Please refer to the FY 2004 NWSH Implementation Guide. Link: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/cfo/comptroller/cost_management.htm.

E-mail your answer to Natalie.Robinson@noaa.gov no later than September 29, 2004. The first correct answer received wins a NWS shirt.

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NWS Snapshots

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

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