NOUS41 KWBC 301240
PNSWSH
Service Change Notice 12-14
National Weather Service
Headquarters Washington DC
840 AM EDT Fri Mar 30 2012
To: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA
Weather Wire Service
-Emergency
Managers Weather Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS partners and NWS employees
From: Russell
Schneider
Director, Storm Prediction Center
Subject: Standardized
Format in Free Text Portion of Storm
Prediction Center (SPC) Mesoscale
Discussion (CONUS
Only) Effective May 1, 2012
Effective Tuesday, May 1,
2012, at approximately 1500 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS will
begin using a new standardized format in the free text portion of the SPC
Mesoscale Discussion (MD), CONUS only. This will not involve changes to World
Meteorological Organization Headers or Advanced Weather Interactive Processing
System IDs.
The first three sections of
the body of the SPC MD ("AREAS AFFECTED...", "CONCERNING..." and "VALID") will
remain the same.
For Severe Potential MDs,
a new fourth section will begin with "PROBABILITY OF WATCH ISSUANCE..." followed
by a permitted value of 5, 20, 40, 60, 80, or 95 and the word "PERCENT". A fifth
section will begin with "SUMMARY..." and contain a concise headline concerning
the ongoing/expected severe threat. The final section will begin with "DISCUSSION..."
and contain the main body of text.
For all other MDs, the
fourth section will begin with "SUMMARY..." and contain a concise headline concerning
the ongoing/expected severe threat. The final section will begin with "DISCUSSION..."
and contain the main body of text.
A more detailed
description and examples of the standardized format of the SPC Mesoscale
Discussion can be found at:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/md_changes_scn.html
If you have any questions about
the technical content or generation of these products, please contact:
Steven Weiss
NCEP Storm Prediction Center
or
John Ferree
Office of Climate Water and Weather Services
National Service Change Notices
are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
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