OB8.3.1 GFE Changes
Last Updated 10/1/08
National Weather Service
Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services
Forecast Decision Training Branch
Questions: Shannon.White@noaa.gov
Focal Point-Specific Information
News
You MUST Use
Winter
Weather Simplification Overrides
Information
on Grid Revert Fix
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Three hazards are new for the marine areas to avoid issues between NPW and Marine visibility hazards. These MF.Y, MS.Y and MH.Y hazards have been added to GFE. As a result, the following files have been modified: MakeHazard.Procedure The CalltoActions.TextUtility was updated to modify the CTAs for the FG.Y, SM.Y and AF.Y to remove marine wording and framing code and to add CTAs for the new marine hazards. You need to modify any SITE override to include these changes so the correct CTAs are available to the forecasters. If you have a local Hazards.COLORTABLE, you need to add your local changes to this new version. If you are overriding the Hazards_commonValues in a SITEgfeConfig, then it needs to be updated to include the 3 new hazards, and 5 new watches, under Marine. |
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Seven winter
Hazards (IP.W, HS.W, IP.Y, SN.Y, LB.Y, BS.Y, SB.Y) were removed from
GFE for the winter weather simplification project. This led to changes
in the following GFE files (many the same as those above): If you have an allowedHazard override in Hazard_FPWSW_FPLocal.TextProduct, you need to remove those 7 hazards. If you have a local Hazards.COLORTABLE, you need to add your local changes to this new version. Failure to do so can cause errors in the hazard grid display. If you are overriding the Hazards_commonValues in a SITEgfeConfig, then it needs to be updated to have the 7 winter hazards removed from Warning and Advisory. |
| An important change was made to MakeHazard.Procedure that prevents a site from "priming" MakeHazard with an NHC hazard. This change helps preserve the correct ETNs in the HLS. So, much like with the above issues, any override to MakeHazard must be merged with the new version so this new code is used. |
| A fix was made to VTECPartners.py which corrected the VTEC mapping for short-fused warnings. This change allows GFE to properly decode followups and remove non-GFE warnings from the GHGMonitor when they are cancelled. If you have a VTEC_MAPPED_PILS entry in etc/SITE/localVTECPartners.py, either remove it or update it to include the baseline corrections. |
| The HLS has been added as a VTEC product in the GHG Monitor. If you have any local filters and wish to view HLS hazards, update your filter to include the HLS. |
| With the winter weather simplification,
forecasters will be required to manually enter a hazard type to any
new (NEW, EXA, EXB) Winter Storm Warnings or Winter Weather Advisories.
To automate this as much as possible, Dave Metze (PUB) and Tom Spriggs
(LSX) have developed an override
which needs to be added to Hazard_FPWSW_FPLocal.TextProduct which adds
framing code to the attribution statement in those instances. Also, 2 versions of CalltoActions.TextUtility are provided which allows forecasters to choose hazard-specific CTAs in those situations. The first has the removed hazards' CTAs moved to WS.W or WW.Y so the forecaster can choose them from the Product header under CalltoActions --> Hazards in the product editor. |
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The second places the Winter Warning CTAs or the advisory CTAs in each possible segment and asks the forecaster to choose one. |
| The OB8.3 issue with grids reverting
after ISC data was sent has mostly been addressed. Previously, the ifpServer
sent a message to the GFE clients when grids were transmitted. This
message is called a "grid update notification". The gfe uses
this message both for when the actual grid data change and for when
the meta data (e.g. ISC transmit time) changed. In each case, the gfe
pulls a fresh copy of the grid and meta data from the server.
So with the 8.3 ISC change, grids are being sent every time they are saved. Thus the server queues up the grids to be transmitted. This opened a window of time where a forecaster could save a grid and then start editing it again. When the actual transmission occurred sometime later, the gfe would get the notification and revert the grid. The request ISC feature made this problem worse as another office could cause the notification to happen remotely. The fix is to never send the notification on transmit. The transmit time is now set when the grids are saved. There is still a case where a revert can happen even with the fix. If a forecaster saves a grid and then edits the same grid again within a time frame of ~3 seconds, then the grid can still revert. |
Changes
to PlotSPCWatches and PlotTPCEvents
Changes
to Hazards
GHGMonitor
Updates
Grid
Reverting Fix
Changes to PlotSPCWatches and PlotTPCEvents
| Some important changes have made to both the PlotSPCWatches and PlotTPCEvent procedures. A problem was discovered last spring where the hazard grid could be modified by the procedures even if the particular GFE was locked out of the Hazard grid (another user was modifying the grid). So now, if the Hazard grid is locked by another user, an error message will display if either of the 2 national center procedures are run. Also, when a TCV or WOU come in, the yellow banner that appears informs you to make sure the grid is not locked by another user. |
| The MakeHazard procedure has been modified so that if a NHC Hazard (e.g. HU.W:1009) is chosen before going into MakeHazard and marine zones are selected, an error will be given when either Run or Run/Dismiss is clicked. The MakeHazard interface will remain active, but will go to the background. |
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HU and
TR hazards can be split into multiple segments for marine zones.
Previously, if a segment number
was placed in the segment number box for any HU or TR hazard being
created for marine zones, that number would become the ETN, which
was incorrect. So marine zones under tropical hazards can
be split out, if desired.
Coastal zone tropical hazards, issues by NHC, still cannot be split out as those grids cannot be edited. |
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A winter weather simplification program has been implemented which removes 7 of the winter weather hazards. The following hazards are no longer valid:
In order to still have hazard-specific information reach the public, the reason for the winter advisory or warning must be manually added to the attribution phrase in the first issuance of the hazard for a given zone. See these policy and example documents for more detail. An override has been provided to sites which adds
framing code to the WSW attribution phrase in these instances to aid
in the transition. |
| Three new marine hazards
have been introduced for visibility restrictions. They are
MF.Y, MS.Y and MH.Y. They have the same names (Dense Fog, Dense Smoke
and Ashfall Advisories) as the old ones. As a result, there is no longer
a Common Marine/NPW section on the MakeHazard dialog. The MWW headlines
will continue to ported into the CWF and NSH products, including these
new ones. This change was made to avoid problems of having the same VTEC in two different products (MWW and NPW). |
| A fix has been made to limit the problem with split ETNs when segments are being used. Split ETNs are the issue of having two different actions (CON, EXT, etc.) for the same phenomena, significance and ETN (e.g. FG.Y 0004). But the best way to avoid the split ETN problem is to follow these guidelines. |
| The HLS has been added as a VTEC product in the GHG Monitor. |
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The issue with grids reverting has been mostly fixed. There is still a case where a revert can happen even with the fix. If a forecaster saves a grid and then edits the same grid again within a time frame of ~3 seconds, then the grid can still revert. |