2003 New Year Message: The Future is Now
by Jack Kelly, NWS Director

2003 will be marked by important changes. By the end of the year, we will have implemented the Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS) and our partners and customers will be using the National Digital Forecast Database. NOAA will soon release a new Strategic Plan and a new NWS Strategic Plan will follow on its heels. In the coming weeks, an independent National Academy of Sciences committee will release its report on partnerships in the provision of weather and climate services. This study should help clarify appropriate roles of government, private sector, and the academic and research communities for providing weather and climate services. One thing will remain constant this year - our commitment to customers and partners and remaining the best weather service in the world.

To thrive in our changing, fast-paced and technology-driven world, we must constantly ensure our work processes and services are relevant and meet varied and evolving user needs. Traditionally, our service approach has been schedule-driven, product-oriented, and two-tiered. National Centers produce "national" level products and local forecast offices produce "local" products. We use words to link forecasters and citizens. We must ask ourselves questions - Do we issue information that is understandable and useful to our partners and customers? Does our data translate into information that is useful for our most important customer - the American public? Have we documented our changing products and services, given all of our partners and customers a meaningful opportunity to comment on the change, and responded appropriately to their comments?

Technology and scientific advances now enable us to employ an improved forecast process to meet the emerging demands of our customers. This process will be interactive, collaborative and information oriented, and will require the skill of the entire NWS workforce. IFPS depends on the strength of our forecast team to produce local and national products, the technical teams to keep the systems running and data flowing, and management and administrative teams to support both of these processes. Collaboration gives everyone joint ownership of forecasts rather than someone having ownership of individual words. We are entering an era where boundaries between products blend together to bring out the best in services.

By the close of 2003, each local office will use IFPS technology to produce consistent, current, high quality, and easily accessible forecast databases for its area of responsibility. Nationally, NDFD technology and collaborative efforts between offices and centers will harmonize locally-produced databases and create a national digital forecast database for use by both the public and private and academic sectors. The new process will enable us to adapt more quickly to new and changing user needs and will create many opportunities for partnering between the NWS and the private sector. Users of our data and forecasts will always get the most current information, rather than information that may be hours old.

In addition to changing our forecast process, I'd like for 2003 to be the year that we give equal weight to both parts of our mission: forecasts (be they weather, water or climate) and warnings and data (observations). NWS data forms the foundation for all weather forecasts in the United States and we rely on our partners to help us deliver that data and information to the public. However, we cannot count on the American public to always get its weather forecasts directly from us. This is why it is paramount that we provide our customers good, consistent data. In the technology-driven world, NWS data are as important as our life-saving warnings. I realize change is hard, but we must not remain tied to the past. Science and technology give us the capability to provide better and more useful and consistent information, and do it in varied formats. We have accomplished much over the course of our long history and I am counting on you to again seize the initiative and move us forward.

Web-Based River Forecast System Training Lesson Benefits Forecasters, International Community

The newest addition to the NWS Training Center (NWSTC) web site is the web-based lesson "Introduction to the NWS River Forecast System (NWSRFS)."

The Training Center developed the presentation with support from NWS International Activities. The lesson provides an overview of the NWSRFS for international use, and provides a background for NWS forecasters on how to use this hydrological tool. The presentation can be found at: http://www.nwstc.noaa.gov/HYDRO/RFS/NWSRFS.html.

Hurricane Video Earns National Award

A recently released NOAA/NWS video production, "Hurricanes: Prepare for Nature's Fury" has earned a CINE Golden Eagle Award.  CINE is an annual national film/video competition. "The 24-minute video is geared for all audiences and can be used as part of educational presentations or as a stand alone resource" said Scott Kiser, NOAA Hurricane Program Manager, NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services. "It should help us raise awareness of the various hazards associated with hurricanes and the need for timely storm preparation." The video explains how tropical cyclones form and behave and how the NWS classifies them. Featuring accounts of memorable storms, the various hazards associated with hurricanes are illustrated, including: high winds, storm surge, tornadoes, and inland flooding. The video also includes step-by-step tips to help people be prepared for hurricanes and lists web resources for more detailed information.

"This is a prestigious award and we can all be proud to have won," said Bob Schwartz of the NOAA Video Studio. Kiser and Schwartz produced the video with support from many people representing the Tropical Prediction Center, Hurricane Research Division of NOAA Research, the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, and NASA.

The CINE Golden Eagle Film and Video Competitions, held each spring and fall, involve hundreds of volunteer media and content specialists who judge entries in several moving-image genres. The CINE Golden Eagle acknowledges high-quality professional production in a variety of content categories.

Kiser said copies of the video were sent to every NOAA line office, all NWS weather forecast offices, river forecast centers, center weather service units, and weather service offices, and some Federal Emergency Management Agency offices. Additional copies are available for the cost of reproduction from Video Transfer, Inc., 301-881-0270.

Catch-up Law Increases Thrift Savings Contribution Limits for Federal Workers Over 50

In 2003, federal workers aged 50 or over will be able to contribute more money to their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts to help build a larger savings during their remaining federal careers. TSP is expected to set a date for implementing this program in the near future.

Public Law 107-304, signed by President Bush November 27, 2002, allows workers over age 50 to make contributions of up to $2,000 beyond existing maximum allowable TSP contribution limits in 2003. The law covers employees in the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS).

The TSP has the role of establishing when the new provisions of this law can be implemented. Details on when and how eligible employees can begin making the additional TSP contributions are not available yet, but according to an item on the TSP website, TSP plans to implement the catch-up program in mid-2003. TSP says the new contribution program "will be implemented via payroll deductions and will require employing agencies to make some changes in their personnel and payroll systems before it can go into effect."

Once the process is established by TSP, employees over 50 will be able to gradually increase the catch-up amounts in succeeding years. In 2003, employees age 50 or over may contribute as much as $2,000 more per year to their TSP accounts. In 2004, the catch-up limit increases to $3,000 more per year, then $4,000 in 2005, and $5,000 in 2006 and beyond.

The final version of the public law is not yet available on the web, but the House and Senate bills are online at http://thomas.loc.gov/ by searching for H.R. 3340.

Watch NOAA's NWS Focus for updates on this issue.

Tornado Safety Message Taught in Video Teleconference

On December 5, 2002, forecaster Brian Montgomery of the NWS Detroit/Pontiac Weather Forecast Office (WFO), discussed severe weather and tornadoes in an interactive video teleconference with more than 500 Michigan students and teachers.

Montgomery worked with Jim Wenzloff of the Macomb County Intermediate School District (ISD) to set up the video teleconference with several schools throughout Macomb County. The students were expected to read the book “Night of the Twisters” before the teleconference. Then Montgomery and Wenzloff conducted four video teleconferencing sessions to discuss severe weather and tornado safety and related subjects from the book.

“The response from the students, teachers and Macomb County ISD has been extremely positive,” said WFO Detroit/Pontiac Warning Coordination Meteorologist Rich Pollman. Montgomery plans to host another program with the Macomb County ISD in March.

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Also On the Web...2003 Federal Pay Tables Available

The Office of Personnel Management has published the 2003 Federal salary and locality pay tables on the OPM website.

Employee Milestones

• Click here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through December 31, 2002.
• Click here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through December 31, 2002.