TsunamiReady Designation Given to First Native American Community

The Quinault Indian Tribe of Washington is the first Native American community in the country to receive a "TsunamiReady" designation. As the first Native American sovereign nation to achieve this recognition, they set an example for other tribes to put the infrastructure and systems in place to save lives and protect property. On May 30, NWS honored the Quinault Indian Tribe in a ceremony held at the reservation located about 100 miles west of Seattle, on the central Washington coast.

"The Quinaults are the nation's first Native American nation to achieve this high honor. Members of our tribe spend a great deal of time along the coastline. We must ensure everyone understands the importance of moving to high ground or inland immediately in case a tsunami occurs," said Pearl Capoeman-Ballar, tribal chairperson. "We are pleased the Quinaults can set a standard for other tribes to emulate. We can all be better prepared to protect ourselves and the members of our communities from severe weather events."

"StormReady" and "TsunamiReady" are voluntary preparedness programs providing communities with clear-cut advice on how to best use a grassroots approach and develop plans to handle local severe weather threats from floods, wind storms, or snow storms. "StormReady" and "TsunamiReady" will also strengthen a community's ability to receive and use severe weather watches and warnings from the NWS. To receive these designations, the Quinaults, working with Gray's Harbor County Emergency Management, successfully met the readiness criteria and were approved by an advisory board made up of local county emergency managers, representatives from the Washington State Emergency Management Division, and the NWS.

"Educating citizens and making those aware who live in or travel to seaside communities, especially areas in the Pacific Northwest, where earthquake dangers exist, is an ongoing goal of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Group," said Ted Buehner, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the NWS Forecast Office in Seattle. "The National Weather Service is working with communities throughout this region to help them prepare and better protect their citizens in the event an off-shore earthquake produces a damaging tsunami."

The International H₂O Project (IHOP), involving several arms of NOAA and the NWS, is providing a unique opportunity for the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) to evaluate state-of-the-art numerical models.

The International H₂O Project (IHOP) 2002 is tracking the swaths of moisture that fuel heavy rain across the southern Great Plains from Texas to Kansas. Scientists hope that analyzing water vapor will yield better predictions of when and where summertime storms will form and how intense they will be. The project runs through June 23, 2002.

HPC produces six hour quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) for the NWS's River Forecast Centers (RFC). The forecasts are highly dependent on numerical models to provide high quality guidance to HPC forecasters. The IHOP is running a special high resolution version of the RUC (Rapid Update Cycle Model) that incorporates some of the unique data sets and unique ways of assimilating this data into the models. The RUC can be run every hour using the latest observations which means that more timely information is used to determine short term forecasts. The goal is to significantly improve the NWS's ability to predict warm season precipitation that comes from thunderstorms.

HPC and the NWS's National Precipitation Verification Unit will evaluate the models performance along with the current suite of operational numerical models being used by HPC. The target area will be the forecast area covered by the Arkansas Red-Basin River Forecast Center which is centered within the IHOP field experiment.

"The most challenging forecast we make is for rainfall from thunderstorms," said Dave Reynolds, Chief of the Forecast Operations Branch of HPC. "Little progress has been made over the past 40 years in this area. IHOP is attempting to observe a critical measurement for making accurate QPFs and that is water vapor. The almost two months of model data being verified should help both the IHOP project scientist and HPC forecasters get a much better handle on how these new observations and ways of ingesting them by models will help improve rainfall prediction from summer thunderstorms."

See last week's issue of NOAA's NWS Focus for more background on IHOP.

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Web Teasers...Opportunity Knocking?

With the redesign and roll out of the new NWS web site in March 2002 (click here for past story in NOAA's NWS Focus), all NWS web site visitors can now find web teasers at the top of the NWS web page right above the weather map. These bite-sized pieces of information called web teasers are offered each day and provide an opportunity for employees to share important NWS issues with the public. The text of the teaser directs readers to web links with follow-up information. Currently the Communications and Public Affairs Offices create most of the web teasers used on the NWS home page.

"This is an opportunity to get the message out about important issues like El Niño, Hurricane Awareness Week, Lightning Awareness Week, the Drought Outlooks, and so much more," said Bob Bunge, NWS Webmaster. "This new feature of the web site offers an unprecedented chance to get the NWS message to the masses. The web teaser at the top of our web page greets everyone who logs on."

The NWS Communications Office welcomes your suggestions and material for upcoming web teasers. If you have suggestions, please forward them to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov.

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New Severe Weather Professional Development Series Available

The NWS has developed a new Severe Convection Professional Development Series (PDS) to increase expertise among NWS personnel in warning situations. The document allows all NWS forecasters, especially NWS Science and Operations Officers (SOOs) and Training Officers to assess training requirements and locate available training associated with developing severe weather forecasts and warnings. The PDS is composed of nine Professional Competency Units (PCUs) which represent a collective grouping of job task skills, knowledge, and abilities. Each PCU identifies specific training modules (instructional components) for various elements of the integrated forecasting and warning process. NWS forecast offices can use this PDS as a tool for implementing individual development plans. A draft of the new PDS is available at http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/resources/PDS/newconvectpds.htm.

Three Minds, One Mission: Administrative Support Assistants Share Ideas, Innovations

The Administrative Support Assistants (ASAs) from three Weather Forecast Offices in Kentucky meet each quarter to work together and share ideas and innovations.

As a result of their idea exchanges, the offices are testing a software program developed by Bill Whitlock, WFO Louisville Electronic Systems Analyst, which eliminates the need to manually enter time and attendance data for each employee. "This eliminates a redundant task and saves valuable time," said Louisville ASA, Pam Lozier." The three offices will also implement and test a property tracking program developed at WFO Jackson.

"The ASAs are as important to the administrative operations of NWS offices as the WSR-88D is to meteorologists during severe weather," said Matthews. "The accomplishments coming out of these exchanges are a good example of the NWS values of an innovative, empowered workforce openly exchanging information and ideas." Meteorologist-in-Charge (MIC) Beverly Poole added, "every successful NWS office depends on those individuals who work long and loyally to make their services the best available. I applaud the initiative taken among the Kentucky ASAs in continually striving to anchor that cornerstone in the foundation of putting top quality mission first." MIC Shawn Harley also said, "the opportunity for the ASAs to share ideas and learn from each other not only benefits the administrative operations at our office, but also benefits the NWS as a whole by promoting integrity, teamwork, self improvement, and high standards.

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NWR 2002 Conference Held

The conference was held to provide information, receive feedback, clarify policy/program goals, resolve outstanding issues, and exemplify best practices around the Nation. Topics on the agenda included current NWR program status, the Voice Improvement Program, disability issues, outreach initiatives, frequency management, the outlook for future NWR expansion, and the future certification program for NWR receivers.

John Jones, NWS Deputy Assistant Administrator, addressed the participants, discussing the NWR program as it relates to National Defense currently and in the future. Presentations were also made by Peter Ward, of the newly-created Partnership for Public Warning, Craig Wulf, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (whose Rural Utilities Service grant program is helping finance the installation of new NWR transmitters in rural America), and Jessie Rotman, of the All Hazards Communications Association.

Steven Golston, Telecommunications Specialist with the NWR Program, said "This conference allowed the NWR Program operators to come together to address issues effecting the current and future operations of the system. The three days of intense program discussion and actions will ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of this life-saving system."

Kudos from the U.S. Marshals Service

NOAA Administrator Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., USN (Ret.) recently received a letter of appreciation from the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service congratulating the NWS for efforts to increase interagency cooperation. Click here to read the letter.

Employee Milestones: New CIO and Pacific Region Director Among New Appointments

• Click here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through May 31, 2002.
• Click here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through May 31, 2002.

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