The NWS recently certified the operational readiness of the NOAAPORT Broadcast. NOAAPORT exists to meet the NWS requirement for distribution of centrally produced and collected data and products to its modernized forecast offices. The broadcast is open for use as well to anyone with the appropriate satellite downlink capability.
During a NOAAPORT Operational Readiness Demonstration (NORD) conducted in May of 1998, engineers measured the data transmission performance of the satellite broadcast network. 99.9% of the High Level Data Link Control Communications Frames transmitted were received without error at the receive sites. 97.7% of the lightning data transmitted from the Network Control Facility was received without error at the sites. In terms of end-to-end product delivery, 98.6% of preselected products transmitted were received at the downlink sites.
These NORD results exceeded the pass/fail performance criteria predetermined by an NWS team. More importantly, the NOAAPORT performance has been deemed sufficient to support NWS operations and is ready for reliable, routine access by the external meteorological user community.
You can locate the official 1998 Hurricane Season Wrap-up by pointing to:
The National Climate Data Center (NCDC) has posted a report on the effects of Hurricane Mitch on Central America at:
NCDC has also posted an open letter to all customers on the Center's Y2K compliance efforts. Point your browser to:
Congress notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that the agency can proceed with closing 52 weather offices as part of the modernization of the National Weather Service in compliance with Public Law 102-567. A Federal Register Notice will appear shortly on these closures.
This action leaves 32 offices remaining under consideration for closure. Currently eight of these are under review before submission to Congress.
With the immanent closing of the 52 offices, the National Weather Service will have closed a total of 132 offices.
A detailed breakdown of the NOAA budget for FY 1999 has been posted on the Public Affairs homepage at:
The Operational Training Branch of the NEXRAD Operational Support Facility (OSF) will deliver a new distance learning operations course and WSR-88D Hydrometeorological Technician Course in conjunction with Build 10 of the WSR-88D operating software.
The course descriptions are posted at:
If portions of the courses appear as if they will assist you in your operational environment, contact your local NWS Scientific Operations Officer to inquire about auditing portions of the course. Training will take place this winter and spring at most NWS field offices.
To learn more details of the WSR 88D software Build 10 and changes for NIDS users, check out the on-line training branch manual at:
An excellent article on mean areal precipitation estimates derived from the WSR 88D radars has been posted on the NWS Office of Hydrology homepage at:
In addition, the June issue of Weather and Forecasting has a number of excellent articles on estimation of rainfall from WSR 88D algorithms and reflectivity imagery.
Rock Hill, South Carolina, has renamed its airport and a new site identifier is effective December 3, 1998. Rock Hill municipal airport has been renamed Rock Hill-York County Airport. The site identifier changed from K29J to KUZA.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has recently released the Central Asian Snow Cover Data Set. The data include end of the month snow depth, snow density, and snow water equivalent for snow points measured from the ground. Only snow depth is included for additional snow points measured from the air. Temporal coverage varies for each snow point, with the longest record extending from 1932 through 1990. For more information visit NSIDC's homepage at:
IM has pasted three 1970's vintage western region technical attachments on its home page that offer classic words of wisdom to operational forecasters:
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