NOUS41 KWBC 211615
PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 11-43
National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC
1115 AM EST Wed Dec 21 2011

To:       Subscribers:
          -Family of Services
          -NOAA Weather Wire Service
          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network
          -NOAAPORT
          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

From:     Elliott Jacks
          Chief, Fire and Public Weather Services Branch

Subject:  Changes to Some Public Weather Forecast Zones in
          Northeastern and Central Nevada Effective April 3 2012

Effective Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 1200 Coordinated Universal 
Time (UTC), the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Elko (LKN), 
NV, will modify some of its public weather forecast zones 
covering southwestern and south-central Elko County and northern 
Nye County, Nevada.

The Southwest and South-Central Elko County (NVZ032) zone will 
be split into two new zones, Southwestern Elko County (NVZ038) 
zone and South-Central Elko County (NVZ039) zone. The new zones 
will be separated by the Ruby Mountains/East Humboldt Range 
(NVZ034) zone.

Northern Nye County (NVZ013) zone would also be split into two 
zones, Northwestern Nye County (NVZ040) zone and Northeastern 
Nye County (NVZ041) zone.  This change will allow more localized 
products for this large geographically and climatologically 
diverse region and provide a way to better focus on the majority 
of the population residing in the Northwestern Nye County zone.

Minor changes will also be made to the geographic extents of the 
Ruby Mountains/East Humboldt Range NVZ034) zone and the White 
Pine County (NVZ035) zone in order to improve associations of 
weather regimes and forecast zones.

Extreme Eastern Elko County (NVZ033) zone will be renamed 
Southeastern Elko County but retain its zone number.

Table 1:  New and Old WFO LKN Public Weather Forecast Zones

New Public     New Public       Old Public      Old Public
Weather Zone   Weather Zone     Weather Zone    Weather Zone
Number         Name             Number          Name
-------------  -------------    -------------   -------------

NVZ033         Southeastern     NNZ033          Extreme Eastern
                Elko County                      Elko County

NVZ038         Southwestern     NVZ032          Southwest and
                Elko County                      South-central
                                                 Elko County

NVZ039         South-central    NVZ032          Southwest and
                Elko County                      South-central
                                                 Elko County

NVZ040         Northwestern     NVZ013          Northern
                Nye County                       Nye County

NVZ041         Northeastern     NVZ013          Northern
                Nye County                       Nye County

NVZ034 – Minor boundary changes

NVZ035 – Minor boundary changes

These changes will improve public weather services for WFO LKN 
partners and users by better associating zone areas with weather 
regimes and population distribution.

Additional information regarding these changes, including text 
descriptions of the new zones, a listing of affected products 
and graphical depictions of the old/new zones is online at:

    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/public/zone/elko.pdf

NWS partners and users will need to make the necessary changes 
to their communication systems to accommodate these zone 
changes.

A shapefile of the new public weather zones for NWS LKN is 
online at:

    www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm

If you have any questions, please contact: 

    Kevin B. Baker
    Meteorologist-in-Charge
    National Weather Service
    3720 Paradise Drive
    Elko, NV 89801
    Phone: 775-778-6716
    email: kevin.baker@noaa.gov

National Service Change Notices are online at:

    http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$