NOUS41 KWBC 022016

PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 12-33

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

416 PM EDT Tue Oct 2 2012

To:       Subscribers:

          -Family of Services

          -NOAA Weather Wire Service

          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

          -NOAAPORT

          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

From:     Mark Tew

          Chief, Marine and Coastal Services Branch

Subject:  Changes to West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

          (WCATWC) Products Effective November 1, 2012

Effective, Thursday, November 1, 2012, at 1800 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the WCATWC will implement changes to its tsunami products including formatting, readability, forecasts, and advice to customers.  Two products are being eliminated. 

The products listed in Tables 1-4 will use new formats. The products in Table 5 will be eliminated. There are no changes to headers or message definitions.

These changes are the first phase of a multi-phase approach to improve tsunami message content. Future phases will include input based on a social science review of the message content.

Table 1.  The text above the segmentation in WCATWC warning, advisory and watch products for Alaska, British Columbia, the United States (US) West Coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, East Coast, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the eastern Canadian coast has been eliminated. Segmented content is adapted for text-to-speech usability for Weather Forecast Offices and other automated systems.

Tsunami Product                        WMO Heading   AWIPS ID

Tsunami Message                        WEPA41 PAAQ   TSUWCA

Tsunami Message                        WEXX20 PAAQ   TSUAT1

Table 2.  WCATWC warning, advisory and watch non-segmented products for Alaska, British Columbia, the US West Coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, East Coast, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the eastern Canadian coast have changed to a bulleted format and the forecast and observation table has been reformatted.

Tsunami Product                        WMO Heading   AWIPS ID

Public Tsunami Message                 WEAK51 PAAQ   TSUAK1

Public Tsunami Message                 WEXX30 PAAQ   TSUATE

Table 3.  WCATWC non-segmented informational public products for Alaska, British Columbia, the US West Coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, East Coast, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the eastern Canadian coast have changed to a bulleted format.

Tsunami Product                        WMO Heading   AWIPS ID

Public Tsunami Information Statement   WEAK53 PAAQ   TIBAK1

Public Tsunami Information Statement   WEXX32 PAAQ   TIBATE

Table 4.  WCATWC non-segmented informational products for Alaska, British Columbia, the US West Coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, East Coast, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the eastern Canadian coast have changed to a bulleted format.

Tsunami Product                        WMO Heading   AWIPS ID

Tsunami Seismic Information Statement  SEAK71 PAAQ   EQIAKX

Tsunami Seismic Information Statement  SEUS71 PAAQ   EQIWOC

Tsunami Seismic Information Statement  SEXX60 PAAQ   EQIAT1

Table 5.  WCATWC non-segmented informational products for Alaska, British Columbia, the US West Coast, Gulf of Mexico coast, East Coast, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the eastern Canadian coast have been eliminated.  Content of these bulletins is contained in the products listed in Table 3.

Tsunami Product                        WMO Heading   AWIPS ID

Tsunami Information Statement          WEPA43 PAAQ   TIBWCA

Tsunami Information Statement          WEXX22 PAAQ   TIBAT1

Please see the following web site for links to examples of both the old and the new products.

  http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/ExampleProducts

For more information or comments on changes, please contact:

  Paul Whitmore

  WCATWC

  NWS

  910 South Felton Street

  Palmer, Alaska  99645

  Phone:  907-745-4212

  Email:  Paul.Whitmore@noaa.gov

National Service Change Notices are online at:

  http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$