National Weather Service (NWS) Director Jack Kelly provided the following notification this week to employees:
"We are developing and will implement a national set of baseline proficiency standards for our operational job series and positions at Weather Forecast Offices, River Forecast Centers, Central Weather Service Units and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Service Centers. These standards will help ensure a consistent level of operational products and data. They will be developed and tested in partnership with the NWS Employees Organization and the field over the next two years. Regions and local offices will have flexibility to develop standards unique to their areas. Once established, baseline proficiency standards will link one-to-one to specific training. The standards measure abilities and skills in job proficiency. Evaluation criteria will be objectively based, using checklists and proficiency exams. The Office of Meteorology and NWS Training Center will lead this effort, and local office management will implement the standards. The new baseline proficiency standards will enhance our ability to maintain our high standards of excellence as a world class team of professionals."
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) has just released Technical Report 99-01, titled 1998 Atlantic Tropical Storms: Views from the NOAA Satellites. The report depicts each of last season's 14 tropical storms (including 10 hurricanes) with rainfall tables for four of the hurricanes, satellite imagery, and selected NEXRAD products. The 1998 hurricane season was one of the most deadly and damaging on record with over 11,000 fatalities and North American damages approaching $20 billion. The report is available for download on the web at:
The Cooperative Program for Meteorology, Education, and Training in Boulder, Colorado, has released a new training module for operational aviation meteorologists, "Icing Assessment Using Observations and Pilot Reports". The module assesses upper air charts, surface observations, and pilot reports as diagnostic tools to understanding aviation icing environments. A significant portion of the material describes basic meteorological principles applicable to icing assessment. The module also includes nearly 50 exercise pages for forecasters to sharpen their skills in data interpretation and icing diagnosis. Aviation meteorologists who want to preview the module can point to: http://www.comet.ucar.edu/modules/Ice3.htm.
A recently released study critically looks at the nation's aviation weather system. The study finds a critical need for the creation of requirements for aviation weather information and technologies aimed at meeting the demands for future air traffic growth. You can view the Boeing Aviation Weather Study in Adobe Acrobat format by pointing to:
NOAA scientists have developed a new method to distinguish snow and ice from clouds (including fog) viewed on satellite imagery. A new channel on polar orbiting satellite NOAA 15 makes this differentiation possible. A recent press release describes the technique. You can access both the press release (http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases99/apr99/noaa99-32.html) and descriptive satellite imagery (http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Snow/NOAA15new/) on the web.
David Thede of the NWS Goodland, Kansas, Office has authored a recent NWS Central Region technical attachment that describes the performance of the software build 10 tornado detection algorithm (TDA) during tornadic and non-tornadic (large hail) situations. The report has been posted on the Central region's web page at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/techa/ta9/tech9901/99-01.html.
Close by is a central region technical memorandum on the history of hailstorms at Cheyenne Wyoming from 1892-1996 authored by Jack Daseler of the Cheyenne forecast office. Point your browser to: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/techpapers/memos/index.html.
On April 19, 1999, workers removed the last Intergraph System workstations from the Hydrologic Prediction Center. For some two decades, meteorologists drew weather facsimile maps on these non Y2K compatible computers. Manual forecast map generation has been successfully transitioned to N-AWIPS work stations. As a result, all facsimile maps available through the Family of Services and NOAAPORT will be available in digital format--either BUFR or Redbook format.
PDC, the Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, AWOS station observations are now available on the NWS Family of Services.
Friday afternoons after a fried fish filet sandwich lunch present a waking challenge to my eyelids. But the adrenalin has started to kick in--partly because the Friday night baseball game starts in about two hours, but mostly because I have come to the last and most important part of this IM Update.
On Tuesday of this week, thirty five NWS "partners" from the private sector, the emergency management community, and the media spent a day at NWS Headquarters to discuss critical issues to the external meteorological community. While IM will make viewgraphs and a complete summary of the meeting available in future editions, I thought a short synopsis would offer some important news to loyal readers...(if you got this far in the IM Update, you deserve something worth reading).
This Partner's Workshop was the fifth in a continuing series of meetings to foster dialogue and NWS action items to improve service to our dissemination partners. Specific action items will follow in approximately one week. What follows is a short summary of some of the issues reviewed on Tuesday April 27th here at NWS headquarters.
Valid Time Event Code (VTEC): In response to requests from the user community, the NWS has worked to develop second identifier number--a system tracking number if you will--that would appear after the Uniform Generic Code (UGC) for watches, warnings, and advisories. The VTEC would allow tracking of weather events by WFO issuance. A limited test of the VTEC is scheduled to start in September 1999 for Winter Storm and Non-Precipitation Warnings. Full implementation would be possible in the summer of 2000 with AWIPS Build 5.0. Partners attending the workshop pointed out that while the code could eliminate current confusion especially in clearing warnings, VTEC implementation will require diligent coordination between WFO's. Users asked the NWS to consider a VTEC tracking system without numbering initially.
Communications Identifier Implementation: The Office of System Operations will issue weekly notification of impending Comms Identifier changes with two week lead times. The notifications will be posted on the OSO home page. The first notification will be posted on May 5, 1999. The NWS and attendees also discussed the possibility of creating a new category of PILS for spanish products issued out of San Juan.
NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service (NIDS): While the NWS does not plan to continue NIDS in the long term, we will likely need to extend the current NIDS agreement for a limited period of time to transition external NEXRAD radar product distribution to an open system. Several methods are currently under investigation including NOAAPORT delivery of radar products and access to NEXRAD products from a central Internet server at NWS headquarters. NWS is planning selective intranet access to certain NIDS products for the emergency management community. Radar data on NOAAPRT will be limited and unscheduled until the end of the NIDS agreement period. The ultimate goal is for the NWS to broadcast radar data broadly at no more than the cost of dissemination. A more detailed radar disemination plan will be available by this summer.
Future of NGM MOS Products: NGM MOS products will run until April 2001. However, the eta analysis will be used as the NGM's initial conditions. The Techniques Development Laboratory is working on AVN based MOS products with guidance to 72 hours issued twice daily. A limited package will be available starting in November 1999. There will be a full one year overlap with the NGM MOS products. Attendees at the workshop urged the NWS to consider an eta based MOS package for future development.
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