Editors' Note: IMETS Werth and Zell Receive Plaques for Outstanding Service

Congratulations to Incident Meteorologists (IMETs) John Werth, WFO Seattle, and Gary Zell, WFO Tucson, who were among the 73 recipients of special plaques for outstanding service during the record-breaking 2000 Fire Season. Due to an editing error, their names were omitted from the April 27, NOAA's NWS Focus story "IMETS and Offices Honored for Extraordinary Service During 2000 Wildfire Season."

If you have a suggestion for a Focus article, send us a note at NWS.Focus@noaa.gov.

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Thrift Savings Plan Additions, Changes Detailed

Some changes to the Thrift Savings Plan took effect this week, and other changes are slated for the weeks and months to come.

Beginning May 1, two new investment funds, the Small Capitalization Stock Index Investment (S) Fund and the International Stock Index Investment (I) Fund, join the three existing TSP funds.

Plan participants can take advantage of the new I and S funds in two ways: by reallocating balances in their existing accounts, and/or by electing to have future contributions go into the new funds. According to a news release by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, requests to reallocate existing account balances among the five investment funds received by May 15 will take effect as of May 31.

For online questions and answers regarding the two new investment funds visit http://www.tsp.gov/curinfo/newsystem_9-27_pressrel_q&a.html

TSP participants may reallocate future payroll contributions between the five available funds and make other changes to their account via the TSP Web site www.tsp.gov, the ThriftLine automated telephone service (1-504-255-8777), or by mailing Form TSP-50 to their Plan record keeper. These elections will take effect when the next payroll contribution is received from the participant's employing agency.

Beginning May 15, the TSP annual contribution limit increases to 11 percent for FERS employees and 6 percent for CSRS employees. All TSP participants are subject to the $10,500 annual contributions limit set by the Internal Revenue Service.

Also beginning May 15, new employees no longer have to wait to begin contributing to their TSP fund (old rules required a six to twelve month waiting period for new employees before they could begin making TSP contributions).

Beginning in July, TSP participants may transfer funds into their TSP accounts from qualified 401(k) plans and other retirement plans established by their previous employer(s) or from Individual Retirement Accounts.

Beginning Oct. 9, members of the uniformed services (both active and reserve) will be able to enroll in the TSP with their elections to take effect in January 2002. Federal employees who are also reservists may be able to participate as both civilians and reservists, up to the existing annual contribution limits.

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Ed O'Lenic, Chief of Climate Prediction Center's (CPC) Climate Operations Branch, recently spoke to a gas utility trade association, The New York Gas Group (NYGAS). He presented "Products and Services for Disaster Mitigation and Economic Enhancement," to The NYGAS Weather Workshop in Albany, New York. The workshop included presentations by government and private meteorologists, risk assessors, and gas market analysts on the availability and use of weather products in the natural gas industry. The NWS presentation highlighted the preparation, meaning, and use of CPC's medium- and long-range forecasts, and offered a primer on using the CPC web site http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/. O'Lenic said he was impressed "that attendees knew about CPC products, and about half were already using them."

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The Office of Science and Technology's Meteorological Development Laboratory is implementing a new maximum/minimum temperature guidance package to help RFCs provide better products to their customers. The guidance gives the forecasters maximum and minimum temperature predictions 1-7 days in advance for different locations (or sites) along the various river basins. The River Forecast Centers use these temperatures to help determine if precipitation or snow will occur, or if snow will melt. These determinations are used in snow melt models and help the process of producing the river stage forecasts and flood probabilities. The new, more accurate guidance packages were developed in collaboration with the Northwest, Colorado Basin, Missouri Basin, and California-Nevada River Forecast Centers, and contain forecasts for more than 200 locations not included in the primary NWS temperature guidance.

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Federal Relay Service Helps People Talk to Each Other

For those you who need to communicate with coworkers who are hearing impaired or have speech disabilities, the Federal Relay Service (FRS) is available to help. The FRS was established not only to assist people who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind, and/or people with speech disabilities, but to help hearing government employees as well.

If you don't have a TTY, the device deaf people use to make phone calls, you can still use the FRS as simply as calling 1-800-877-8339. That call puts users through to a Communication Assistant (CA) who will then relay your call between a standard (voice) telephone user and text-telephone (TTY). The CA acts as a transparent conduit for the transmittal of information.

To learn more about the FRS, visit: www.fts.gsa.gov/frs/frs_main.htm

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NOAA Agencies Celebrate Earth Day in Monterey, CA

Underscoring the partnership between the U.S. Navy, NOAA, and other environmental agencies located in the Monterey Bay, CA, area, several organizations joined in a community-wide Earth Day and open house on April 21, 2001. The theme of the day was "Come and Explore Monterey's Community Collaborations in the Oceans, Weather, Science and Technology." More than 1,300 people attended the day-long event including more than 600 people who toured the San Francisco Bay Area WFO. U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, and Paul Moersdorf, director of NOAA's National Data Buoy Center, were two of the distinguished guests. In addressing the attendees, Farr said, "Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, this place is working not only to protect the U.S., but to make the information useful to the civilian community."

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Back by Popular Demand: Performance Measures Chart Updated for 2001

An electronic file of the 2001 Performance Measure Chart is available at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/tools.htm. You may replace the 2000 version hanging in your office, with this 2001 edition.

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