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NOAA's NWS Focus
August
04, 2003 |
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Science and Operations Officer Jeff Tongue
accompanied his family to the World Special
Olympics Summer Games in Dublin, Ireland, in
late June. Jeff's son, Scott, 15, earned Gold
and Silver medals for Team USA in equestrian
events. The games featured over 7,000 athletes
from over 160 counties around the world. From
left to right are: Jeff's wife Annamarie; son
Ryan; Jackes, the horse Scott rode in competition;
Scott; and Jeff. Jeff Tongue works at the New
York City Weather Forecast Office.
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| NOAA
Joins Department of Homeland Security Citizens Corps
NOAA is one of three new federal partners in the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) Citizen Corps.
The Citizen Corps, coordinated by DHS's Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), was created to enable Americans
to participate, on a voluntary basis, directly in homeland
security efforts in their own communities. The Citizens
Corps is a community-based initiative to engage all citizens
in homeland security and community and family preparedness
through public education and outreach, training opportunities,
and volunteer programs.
The affiliation with Citizen Corps is expected to help
expand NOAA Weather Radio coverage across the Nation, provide
opportunities for volunteer weather observers through the
Cooperative Observing Program, increase Storm Spotter training
for citizens at local forecast stations, and promote other
weather-related volunteer activities.
NOAA will participate by assisting with public education
forums on disaster mitigation and preparedness, citizen
training, and volunteer programs to safeguard life and property.
Read the FEMA news
release.
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| NOAA,
NWS Leaders Answer Questions at White House Online Forum
The NOAA Administrator
and NWS Deputy Director were guests of an online question
and answer forum called Ask
the White House last week. On July 30, 2003, Retired Navy
Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., Undersecretary of Commerce for
Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, offered his
views on the Earth Observation Summit and replied to questions
relating to the summit, hurricanes, and NOAA's mission. NWS
Deputy Director John
Jones participated in another chat on August 1, 2003,
and took questions on hurricanes, tornadoes, emergency planning,
careers in meteorology, and the state of the science in meteorology.
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| Official
Hurricane Records Revised
The NOAA Hurricane Research Division recently finished
revising the Atlantic basin hurricane
database (HURDAT) records for the second half of
the 19th Century and early 20th Century.
HURDAT is the official record of tropical storms and hurricanes
for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea,
including those that have made landfall in the United States.
This information on tropical cyclones is revised using an
enhanced collection of historical meteorological data in
the context of today's scientific understanding of hurricanes
and analysis techniques.
The NOAA National Hurricane Center's Best Track Change
Committee approved more than 5,000 additions and alterations
for the years 1851-1910.
Among the revisions:
The 1886 hurricane season has been analyzed as the busiest
on record for the continental United States, with seven
hurricanes hitting the United States.
The 1890s was one of the busiest decades on record for
the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Four major hurricanes
impacted the coast from Georgia northward.
Read the complete NOAA news
story, which highlights the most significant revisions.
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| Forecast
Office Briefs White House Homeland Security Council Staff
Members of the White House Homeland Security Council Staff
and OMB representatives handling Homeland Security budget
issues visited the Sterling, VA, Weather Forecast Office
(WFO) on July 30, 2003, to learn more about the potential
role of NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) in homeland security. In
addition to a briefing on NWR, the WFO Sterling staff also
showed the visitors the National Digital Forecast Database,
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, and the
modernized forecast process.
"The OMB people showed particular interest in the
NWS performance measures and how we used them to improve
our forecasts and warnings," said WFO Sterling Meteorologist-In-Charge
Jim Travers. NWS Headquarters staff also attended to help
answer national and policy questions.
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| New
Equipment Aids With Fighting Wildfires
With the summer 2003 wildfire season heating up, NOAA Incident
Meteorologists (IMETs) are using some new equipment to improve
their access to critical forecasting data and provide better
service to their customers.
The All-hazards Meteorological Response Systems (AMRS)
has been implemented nationally for the wildfire season.
The equipment combines advanced computer software and two-way
satellite communications. AMRS provide NOAA meteorologists
high-speed access to state-of-the-art weather data when
at a remote location without relying on the use of phone
lines.
"With the AMRS system, we can be up and functioning,
less than an hour after arrival, in the middle of a vacant
field, if necessary," said NOAA IMET Tom
Wright, based at the Missoula, MT, Weather Forecast
Office (WFO). Wright most recently was supporting the Robert
Fire near Columbia Falls, MT.
With another new tool, interactive weather data request
and display software, known as FX-NET, IMETs can now access
mesoscale numerical models, NOAA satellite imagery, specific
wind speed and direction at various heights from the nearby
Doppler weather radars or remote sensors by using one software
program.
"The FX-NET software allows us to access nearly the
same set of data we can at the WFO," Wright said. "The
FX-NET interface is nearly identical to the AWIPS interface
we use in the WFO. In fact, I think there are some functions
that actually work better."
Read
more about the mix of tools IMETS are using this
wildfire season.
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| NWS
Activates AMBER Alert in Kentucky Abduction:
Young Woman Found Unharmed
Within two hours of activating the Kentucky AMBER Alert
system, including state-wide NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts,
a 16-year-old girl was found and her alleged abductors captured
July 31, 2003.
State officials said the case was the first use of the
AMBER Alert system in Kentucky. The alert carried detailed
descriptions of the two men who were being sought, and soon
afterward the abductors released the girl.
Read the Louisville Courier-Journal article here.
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| What
the Hail?!
The National Extremes Committee, led by the National
Climatic Data Center, certified a new record for
the largest hailstone ever collected and measured in the
United States. On June 22, 2003, a hailstone recovered in
Aurora, NE, had a diameter of 7 inches and a circumference
of 18 3/4 inches. This hailstone was larger than the previous
record large hailstone that fell in Coffeyville, KS, in
1970 (5.7 inch diameter and 17.5 inch circumference). An
accurate weight could not be determined for the Aurora hailstone;
so the Coffeyville hailstone of 1970 remains the heaviest
hailstone weighed and verified in the United States at 1.67
pounds.
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| Radar
Trainer Retires
One of our readers in Norman, OK, asked us to note the
recent retirement of a NOAA employee known to many forecasters.
Don Burgess recently completed his federal career as Chief
of the Warning Research and Development Division of the
National Severe Storms Laboratory. But NWS employees may
know Burgess from his previous work at the Radar Operations
Center, where he was in charge of the training on the NEXRAD
Doppler weather radar system when it was new. Read the NOAA
news release here.
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| Employee
Milestones
- Click
here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS
through July 31, 2003.
- Click
here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through
July 31, 2003.
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| Take
a look at other NWS news, as submitted for the NOAA
Weekly Report
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Click
here to take a look at NOAA-wide employee news, as posted
in the latest issue of AccessNOAA
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