NOUS41 KWBC 171838

PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 12-09

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

138 PM EST Fri Feb 17 2012

TO: Subscribers:

-Family of Services

-NOAA Weather Wire Service

-Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

-NOAAPORT

Other NWS Partners and NWS Employees

FROM Eli Jacks

Chief, Fire and Public Weather Services Branch

SUBJECT: NWS Weather Forecast Office Charleston, SC,

Will Split the Fire Weather Forecast Zone for Berkeley

County, SC, Effective March 19, 2012

Effective Monday, March 19, 2012, at 2 pm EDT, 1800 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Charleston (CHS), SC, will split its fire weather forecast zone for Berkeley County (SCZ045), SC, into two fire weather forecast zones: Inland Berkeley (SCZ045) and Tidal Berkeley (SCZ052). Splitting Berkeley County into two fire weather forecast zones will allow WFO CHS to provide more specific fire weather forecast and warning services.

Berkeley fire weather forecast zone (SCZ045) will retain its zone number because the fire weather climatology of the zone will not change significantly as a result of the split. This zone will, however, be given a new fire weather zone name, Inland Berkeley, to better identify its geographic extent. Tidal Berkeley fire weather forecast zone (SCZ052) will have a new zone name and number to account for its differing climatology.

Table 1. New fire weather zone (z) form of the Universal

Geographic Code (UGC) and names for WFO CHS users:

New fire weather New Old fire weather Old

zone name UGC (z) zone name UGC (z)

------------- ------- ------------- -------

Inland Berkeley SCZ045 Berkeley SCZ045

Tidal Berkeley SCZ052 n/a n/a

Table 2. Products affected by this change

Product name WMO Header AWIPS ID

-------------- ----------- --------

Fire Weather Planning Forecast FNUS52 KCHS FWFCHS

Fire Weather Message WWUS82 KCHS RFWCHS

Detailed information regarding the reason for this change, as well as narrative and graphical depictions of the change, is online at:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/fire/chs_zone.htm

This change will make WFO CHS fire weather zones for Berkeley County identical in name, number and geographic extent as the public weather zones for Berkeley County.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/scn10-02ccb_chs_zone.txt

Partners and users should take the appropriate action to ensure their systems recognize the new UGC and zone alignments.

An updated fire weather zone shapefile is online at:

http://www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/firezone.htm

For more information, please contact:

Ron Morales

Warning Coordination Meteorologist

National Weather Service Charleston SC

North Charleston SC 29406

843-744-1436

ron.morales@noaa.gov

Harvey Thurm