Winter Weather Experiment Expands to More NWS Offices and Regions

The Office of Climate, Weather, and Water Services (OCWWS) and the Corporate Board's Science and Technology Committee have approved plans to expand the number of NWS Regions and offices participating in the Winter Weather Experiment (WWE) for this winter season.

The experiment, now in its third season, expands participation from 31 Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) to a total of 75 offices, and now includes WFOs from all four NWS continental United States regionsas well as NCEP's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC).

Teleconference collaboration calls of about 15 minutes at set times will continue to enable participants impacted by a winter weather event to "get on the same page" early in the forecast process. Participating offices and the HPC have reduced the duration of the collaboration call over the course of the first two experiments.

HPC Science and Operations Officer Peter Manousos said the WWE collaborative process provides both participating WFOs and the HPC the opportunity to influence each other's products prior to release. The enhanced internal exchange of information ultimately leads to a better final product for the NWS to supply to its users.

Evaluations of results and feedback from participants in previous WWEs indicated general improvements in the WFOs issuing a coherent suite of winter weather watches and warnings. Manousos said the majority of offices in last year's WWE experienced an increase in both accuracy and lead time of winter weather watches and warnings. These findings aided in the decision to continue and expand the experiment this season.

"The previous two WWEs have been a good test of the HPC's new collaborative role to facilitate a fully-coordinated short- and medium-range forecast product suite," Manousos said. "A lot of what we learned has helped answer questions critical to a successful NWS transition into the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) era. Additionally, we have been relying heavily upon NCEP's operational and short-range ensemble model output to support the experiment. This will continue with this year's WWE."

Manousos said doubling the number of participating WFOs for this year's WWE should yield opportunities to determine how best to conduct collaboration for either one event covering numerous WFOs, or multiple events covering separate regions of the WWE area. With more time zones covered, keeping the collaboration manageable should challenge all participants.

"This expanded WWE should help the NWS strengthen the collaborative process as we move into the era of collaboration and build the NDFD." said Manousos. "We hope to answer some questions about the collaborative process and identify ways to work efficiently and effectively, then share those answers with everyone."

To view the WWE III presentation given to the Science and Technology Committee, click here. The presentation shows the participating WFOs.

Natural Hazards Injury, Loss, and Fatality Statistics for 2002 Now Online

By Brenton MacAloney
Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services

NWS has released the final fatality, injury, and damage estimates statistics for 2002.

Unfortunately, weather took a sharp toll in 2002: there were 540 weather-related fatalities, a significant increase from 464 in 2001, but below the 10-year average (1993-2002) of 634. As in the previous four years, extreme heat ranked as the number one weather-related killer in the United States with 167 deaths (31 percent). In 2002, tornadoes caused the second highest number of fatalities with 55 (10 percent), followed by tropical storms/hurricanes, 51 (9 percent), and lightning, 51 (9 percent).

Weather-related injuries rose moderately in 2002 to 3,090, from 2,718 in 2001. Tornadoes and heat caused the greatest number of injuries with 968 (31 percent) and 378 (12 percent), respectively. The single most disastrous event of 2002 was Tropical Storm Chataan, which claimed 47 lives in Micronesia (in WFO Guam's area of coverage) and caused devastating mudslides.

July was the deadliest month with 181 fatalities, 138 of which were from excessive heat. In 2002, Guam recorded the highest number of deaths with 55; Maryland had 54, and Illinois, 52. Topping the injuries list was Missouri with 405, California with 362, and Guam, 360. The 10-year average for heat-related deaths is 235; for cold, 26. The 30-year average (1973-2002) for floods is 110; lightning, 69; tornadoes, 66; and hurricanes, 14.

In 2002, severe weather caused $5.7 billion in damages. Tropical storms and hurricanes resulted in nearly $1.4 billion in property and crop losses and tornadoes had $802 million. Louisiana suffered damages of $832 million from two tropical cyclones – Hurricane Lili in October and Tropical Storm Isidore in September. Nebraska was hit with $633 million from drought and Guam with nearly $492 million from tropical cyclones.

For details go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml.

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Ohio Students Participate in Severe Weather Awareness Poster Contest

NWS offices in Ohio recently partnered with Ohio Emergency Management Agency, the Ohio Insurance Institute, the Ohio Department of Education, and the Ohio Emergency Management Association to sponsor a Severe Weather Safety Poster Contest.

The annual Weather Safety poster contest provided elementary and middle school students with the opportunity to learn life-saving information in school. The contest also serves as preparation for Ohio's Winter Safety Awareness Week. This year, Governor Bob Taft has designated November 16-22, 2003, as Winter Safety Awareness Week in Ohio.

For the poster contest, the state is divided into nine regions and students first complete within their region and then the regional winners move to the statewide competition.

Eight of the winning posters were also posted on the Ohio Emergency Management Agency home page.

This year's winning 2003 State Overall Severe Weather Awareness Poster was created by MaKenzie Davidson, 3rd Grade, Salt Creek Elementary, Pickaway County, OH. Her winning poster design appears in this year's Ohio Winter Safety Awareness Week brochure.

WFO Wilmington, OH, Meteorologist-In-Charge (MIC) Kenneth Haydu presented the overall winner with a trophy and certificate in front of her peers.

"In order to create the posters, the students have to think through the safety messages and how to convey them," said Haydu. "From the results, we can see they've gained a good understanding of severe weather safety."

"We have some budding artists here, and we're hoping that we've also encouraged the students to consider a career in meteorology."

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Springfield Goes "Trick or Treating" For Charity

Staff from the Springfield, MO, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) did their own trick or treating around Halloween this year, going door-to-door in costume to collect canned goods to benefit the Ozarks Food Harvest, an organization that provides food to families in need throughout southwest Missouri. A local television crew followed the trick-or-treating staffers and did a story about the office's charity food drive.

"Initially, people were surprised to see adults trick or treating but once residents understood that the oversized trick or treaters were looking for food for charity, and not candy, they were more than happy to donate food," said Gino Izzi, Forecaster, WFO Springfield. "The response from the homes was overwhelming positive, with many expressing their appreciation. One of the neighborhoods visited was struck by a tornado on May 4, 2003, and many there also expressed their thanks to the excellent job the National Weather Service accomplished in issuing prompt, life-saving warnings during that destructive tornado outbreak earlier this year."

On October 25, 2003, the office also held an open house, where staffers presented the nearly 550 visitors with numerous displays and demonstrations of past weather events, local climatology, the new National Digital Forecast Database, as well as radar imagery from the May 4, 2003 tornado outbreak. Visitors to the open house were asked to bring a canned food item for the food drive.

Izzi described the food drive as a "huge success" with nearly 1,000 items collected. Plans are already underway to expand the food collecting efforts next year, and staff members from the Springfield WFO say they would be happy to compete with other National Weather Service offices next year in this endeavor.

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Tools for Collaboration: NWS List Server Update

Time certainly flies. It was more than two years ago that NOAA's NWS Focus first published an article on the NWS List Server. The Server is web-based software that enables employees to set up or join e-mail distribution lists on any work-related topic.

Please note that the list server continues its services, but the URL has changed to:

http://infolist.nws.noaa.gov/read/login.

See articles in the May 25, 2001, and October 16, 2002, issues of NOAA's NWS Focus for background on the NWS List Server. If you need additional information, Please contact Fran Curnow.

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