A special phase of the NWS Communications Identifier Implementation Plan will be implemented at 1500 UTC on November 23, 1998.
This implementation will support pre-planned product changes scheduled for December 1 by the NWS Office of Meteorology (OM).
Several public information notices describing the December 1, 1998 product changes are posted at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notif.htm.
Effective November 23, 1998, WMO headings for sixty nine products will change. A full list of these products including the AFOS PIL, old WMO heading, new WMO heading, last receive date, and distribution is posted on the Systems Operations Center web page at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oso/notices/notices.shtml.
The CID XR-9 Distribution Identifiers List Cross Reference has also been updated to add two new customers:
| L7 | OSO Server for OM/ Forecast Warnings |
| WF | WAFS (World Area Forecast System)/ICAO |
The National Climate Data Center (NCDC) has just released a 3 CD-ROM set that describes a complete snow climatology of the United States. The DOS ASCII files include data files, documentation files, and user friendly table files.
Several NCDC projects contributed to the CD-ROM set. The official 1961-1990 normals provided snowfall and snow depth normals for U.S. airport stations. Official 1961-90 snow normals were also computed for stations in the Cooperative (COOP) Station network aand are included in the CD-ROM set.
In support of NWS real-time snow operations, NCDC generated a snow climatology (SNOWCLIM) for stations in the COOP network.
Numerous statistics and parameters based on the period of record through 1996 are derived from the snow climatology and are part of the data set. These statistics include return period for 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day extreme snowfall and August-July seasonal total snowfall.
The CD-ROM's contain no software or extraction routines that allow the user to import the data directly into spreadsheets or other applications. However, a file may be easily copied from the CD-ROM onto a hard drive or other device with the DOS copy command for manipulation. The text files are easily read by a a word processor or text file editor.
United States Snow Climatology Volumes 1-3, Version 1.0, October 1998 is available for ordering by e-mail to orders@ncdc.noaa.gov or by phoning (828) 271-4800.
Effective December 1, 1998, NOAA-15 will replace NOAA-12 as one of two primary operational Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) maintained by the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS). NOAA-12 will become a back up satellite. The second primary operational POES is NOAA-14. In the back up mode, NOAA-12 will continue to transmit AVHRR data and support search and rescue operations.
The Federal Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) recently opened its membership to private sector organizations through two technical subcommittees. ACWI now represents all levels of government and the private sector.
The subcommittees will define new water-information requirements as conditions change over time, evaluate the effectiveness of water-information programs inside and outside of government, and draft reports and recommendations for the ACWI. In addition, the subcommittees will work with other standards organizations to develop consensus technical guidance, protocols, and standards for conducting water information activities.
An organizational meeting for these two subcommittees will take place December 3, 1998 at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia. Contact Nancy Lopez at the USGS for reservations (e-mail: nclopez@usgs.gov ).
In Western Region Technical Attachment 98-36 (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrhq/98TAs/9836/index.html) Greg Martin of the Oxnard NWS Forecast Office nicely describes the capabilities of the Eta-10 model and its outstanding performance in QPF details for the southern California storm of 23 February 1998. The Eta-10 is the first operational NCEP model to accurately depict the detail in U.S. locations with complex terrain changes over short distances, such as Southern California.
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