|
NOAA's NWS Focus
August 04,
2003 |
|
| |
 |
|
|
Science and Operations Officer Jeff Tongue accompanied his
family to the World Special Olympics Summer Games in Dublin,
Ireland, in late June. Jeff's son, Scott, 15, earned Gold
and Silver medals for Team USA in equestrian events. The games
featured over 7,000 athletes from over 160 counties around
the world. From left to right are: Jeff's wife Annamarie;
son Ryan; Jackes, the horse Scott rode in competition; Scott;
and Jeff. Jeff Tongue works at the New York City Weather Forecast
Office.
|
|
|
|
| NOAA Joins Department
of Homeland Security Citizens Corps
NOAA is one of three new federal partners in the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) Citizen Corps.
The Citizen Corps, coordinated by DHS's Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), was created to enable Americans to participate, on a voluntary
basis, directly in homeland security efforts in their own communities.
The Citizens Corps is a community-based initiative to engage all citizens
in homeland security and community and family preparedness through public
education and outreach, training opportunities, and volunteer programs.
The affiliation with Citizen Corps is expected to help expand NOAA Weather
Radio coverage across the Nation, provide opportunities for volunteer
weather observers through the Cooperative Observing Program, increase
Storm Spotter training for citizens at local forecast stations, and promote
other weather-related volunteer activities.
NOAA will participate by assisting with public education forums on disaster
mitigation and preparedness, citizen training, and volunteer programs
to safeguard life and property.
Read the FEMA news
release.
Back
to Top |
|
| NOAA, NWS Leaders
Answer Questions at White House Online Forum
The NOAA Administrator and
NWS Deputy Director were guests of an online question and answer forum called
Ask the White House last week.
On July 30, 2003, Retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
and NOAA Administrator, offered his views on the Earth Observation Summit
and replied to questions relating to the summit, hurricanes, and NOAA's
mission. NWS Deputy Director John
Jones participated in another chat on August 1, 2003, and took questions
on hurricanes, tornadoes, emergency planning, careers in meteorology, and
the state of the science in meteorology.
Back
to Top |
|
| Official Hurricane
Records Revised
The NOAA Hurricane Research Division recently finished revising the Atlantic
basin hurricane
database (HURDAT) records for the second half of the 19th Century
and early 20th Century.
HURDAT is the official record of tropical storms and hurricanes for the
Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea, including those that
have made landfall in the United States. This information on tropical
cyclones is revised using an enhanced collection of historical meteorological
data in the context of today's scientific understanding of hurricanes
and analysis techniques.
The NOAA National Hurricane Center's Best Track Change Committee approved
more than 5,000 additions and alterations for the years 1851-1910.
Among the revisions:
The 1886 hurricane season has been analyzed as the busiest on record
for the continental United States, with seven hurricanes hitting the United
States.
The 1890s was one of the busiest decades on record for the Atlantic seaboard
of the United States. Four major hurricanes impacted the coast from Georgia
northward.
Read the complete NOAA news
story, which highlights the most significant revisions.
Back
to Top |
|
| Forecast Office Briefs
White House Homeland Security Council Staff
Members of the White House Homeland Security Council Staff and OMB representatives
handling Homeland Security budget issues visited the Sterling, VA, Weather
Forecast Office (WFO) on July 30, 2003, to learn more about the potential
role of NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) in homeland security. In addition to
a briefing on NWR, the WFO Sterling staff also showed the visitors the
National Digital Forecast Database, Advanced Weather Interactive Processing
System, and the modernized forecast process.
"The OMB people showed particular interest in the NWS performance
measures and how we used them to improve our forecasts and warnings,"
said WFO Sterling Meteorologist-In-Charge Jim Travers. NWS Headquarters
staff also attended to help answer national and policy questions.
Back
to Top |
|
| New Equipment Aids
With Fighting Wildfires
With the summer 2003 wildfire season heating up, NOAA Incident Meteorologists
(IMETs) are using some new equipment to improve their access to critical
forecasting data and provide better service to their customers.
The All-hazards Meteorological Response Systems (AMRS) has been implemented
nationally for the wildfire season. The equipment combines advanced computer
software and two-way satellite communications. AMRS provide NOAA meteorologists
high-speed access to state-of-the-art weather data when at a remote location
without relying on the use of phone lines.
"With the AMRS system, we can be up and functioning, less than an
hour after arrival, in the middle of a vacant field, if necessary,"
said NOAA IMET Tom Wright, based
at the Missoula, MT, Weather Forecast Office (WFO). Wright most recently
was supporting the Robert Fire near Columbia Falls, MT.
With another new tool, interactive weather data request and display software,
known as FX-NET, IMETs can now access mesoscale numerical models, NOAA
satellite imagery, specific wind speed and direction at various heights
from the nearby Doppler weather radars or remote sensors by using one
software program.
"The FX-NET software allows us to access nearly the same set of
data we can at the WFO," Wright said. "The FX-NET interface
is nearly identical to the AWIPS interface we use in the WFO. In fact,
I think there are some functions that actually work better."
Read more
about the mix of tools IMETS are using this wildfire season.
Back
to Top |
|
| NWS Activates AMBER
Alert in Kentucky Abduction: Young Woman Found Unharmed
Within two hours of activating the Kentucky AMBER Alert system, including
state-wide NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts, a 16-year-old girl was found
and her alleged abductors captured July 31, 2003.
State officials said the case was the first use of the AMBER Alert system
in Kentucky. The alert carried detailed descriptions of the two men who
were being sought, and soon afterward the abductors released the girl.
Read the Louisville Courier-Journal article here.
Back
to Top |
|
| What the Hail?!
The National Extremes Committee, led by the National
Climatic Data Center, certified a new record for the largest hailstone
ever collected and measured in the United States. On June 22, 2003, a
hailstone recovered in Aurora, NE, had a diameter of 7 inches and a circumference
of 18 3/4 inches. This hailstone was larger than the previous record large
hailstone that fell in Coffeyville, KS, in 1970 (5.7 inch diameter and
17.5 inch circumference). An accurate weight could not be determined for
the Aurora hailstone; so the Coffeyville hailstone of 1970 remains the
heaviest hailstone weighed and verified in the United States at 1.67 pounds.
Back
to Top |
|
| Radar Trainer Retires
One of our readers in Norman, OK, asked us to note the recent retirement
of a NOAA employee known to many forecasters. Don Burgess recently completed
his federal career as Chief of the Warning Research and Development Division
of the National Severe Storms Laboratory. But NWS employees may know Burgess
from his previous work at the Radar Operations Center, where he was in
charge of the training on the NEXRAD Doppler weather radar system when
it was new. Read the NOAA news release here.
Back
to Top |
|
| Employee Milestones
- Click
here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through July 31,
2003.
- Click
here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through July 31,
2003.
Back
to Top |
| Take
a look at other NWS news, as submitted for the NOAA
Weekly Report
|
Click
here to take a look at NOAA-wide employee news, as posted in the latest
issue of AccessNOAA
|
|
|
| Have news you'd like to spread using NOAA's NWS Focus?
Have feedback on how we can improve NOAA's NWS Focus and employee communications?
We want to hear from you! E-mail us at NWS.Focus@noaa.gov. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| Send
questions and comments to NWS.Communications.Office@noaa.gov or mail to:
National Weather
Service
Communications Office
ATTN: W/COM
1325 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3283
|
|
|
|
|
|