Fiscal Year 2004 Training Plan Available Online

The Implementation Plan for Training and Education for Fiscal Year 2004 (IP04), developed by the Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services (OCWWS), Training Division is available online.

IP04 is a comprehensive summary of all national training the OCWWS Training Division will conduct during FY 2004. The plan includes a full list of residence courses offered, as well as other non-residence training activities. Funding for these activities is allocated among categories including meteorology, hydrology, engineering, management/leadership, systems, and cooperative observing.

"IP04 is a valuable resource for all NWS staff to access training in support of operational office needs and meet goals defined in their Individual Development Plans," commented Eli Jacks, Acting Chief of the OCWWS Training Division.

The plan is the end result of the National Strategic Training and Education Plan (NSTEP) process for determining and prioritizing national training requirements, and was approved by all NWS Regional and Headquarters Directors.

IP04 is available on the WWW at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/os/org/training/IP04.pdf.

NDFD Technical Workshop Presentations Available Online

Approximately 70 individuals from private, public, and academic sector organizations and 30 NWS staff members took part in the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) Technical Workshop held in Silver Spring, MD, on August 13, 2003.

The workshop provided details on the technical aspects of NWS digital forecasts made available via the NDFD. Greg Mandt, Director of the Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, provided a historical background of NWS digital forecasting and described how NWS will engage its partners and customers as it continues to enhance the products and services made available via NDFD.

Participants described their experiences accessing the NDFD gridded data, and made recommendations for enhancing the NDFD.

Representatives from the Meteorological Development Laboratory and the Office of the Chief Information Officer provided technical presentations on the NDFD.

Hawaii Civil Defense Appreciates NWS Support in Recent Hurricane

Hawaii dodged significant damages from Hurricane Jimena recently, but the NWS forecast and warning efforts didn't go unnoticed by the Hawaii Office of Civil Defense, which e-mailed this excerpted "thank you" to the Honolulu, HI, Weather Forecast Office:

"On behalf of Governor Lingle and Major General Robert Lee, we extend our thanks for the support, preparedness, and assistance in responding to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Jimena. We wish to extend a special thanks to Mr. Jim Weyman, National Weather Service-Honolulu Forecast Office and his team of professionals for their outstanding skills and concern for public safety."

NWS also received letters of appreciation from the Jaycees and the Honolulu Executive Board. In the early morning on September 1, 2003, Jimena weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm and took a turn southward passing approximately 125 miles south of the Big Island. The Big Island experienced tropical storm force winds which uprooted some trees and caused a power outage for 1,500 people; minor flooding produced by heavy rainfall in some areas; and 10-15 feet of high surf which closed some roads and produced significant beach erosion and limited property damage. Jimena continued on its west southwest track and passed well south of the other Hawaiian Islands. The only impacts to Maui, Oahu, and Kauai Counties were 6-8 feet of surf, a slight increase in wind speeds, and scattered light to moderate rain showers.

Summer Projects Benefit Forecast Office, Challenge Interns

By Mike Heathfield
WCM Grand Rapids, MI, Weather Forecast Office

This summer the Grand Rapids, MI, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) hosted five interns: four from Central Michigan University (CMU) and one from Lyndon State College. Each of the interns was also provided a mentor and a project that would enhance or improve operations at the forecast office.

"The amount of work that the interns were able to complete over the summer surpassed all expectations of the WFO staff," said Meteorologist-In-Charge Daniel Houser. Several of the projects related to enhancing the forecast office's climatology program, and some of the interns helped with storm damage surveys.

Senior Forecaster Bill Marino mentored Trisha Bean, a CMU senior. Trisha's project involved transcribing the old climate record books from the Lansing, Muskegon, and Grand Rapids Weather Service Offices into common formats and checking accuracy of the results to save the operations staff time when answering climate questions. Trisha also observed and assisted with AWIPS and NOAA Weather Radio operations.

Marshall Stoner, a junior at Lyndon State, wrote a software program to translate climate records for Lansing and Muskegon from Midwest Climate Center formats into formats that XmClimate was able to read. He did the same thing for climate spreadsheets of Grand Rapids data from1902-1948, and he manually entered Grand Rapids climate data from 1898 through 1901 into the XmClimate format.

Mike Griesinger is a senior at CMU who has interned at WFO Grand Rapids the past two summers. He worked with Science Operations Officer Randy Graham to enter information on ceilings and visibilities associated with thunderstorms into a database in support of an aviation climatology study. Griesinger also created Michigan seasonal snowfall maps in Arc-View for the period from 1950 to 2000, and developed a Lake Effect Snowfall (LES) database and created radar and satellite loops for case studies of LES events. He also worked with Graham on collecting data for thunderstorm research that he will complete during his senior year at CMU.

Ryan Collins, a senior at CMU, entered contact information for over 800 spotters into the Arc-View database this summer. He also completed a Power Point briefing describing the Volunteer Emergency Services Support Agency (VESSA)/ WFO Grand Rapids Mesonet and the cooperative data sharing plan the forecast office has with the Michigan Agricultural Weather Network (MAWN). Collins updated the Marine verification database, and, working with Service Hydrologist (SH) Mark Walton, Collins developed a naming scheme that allowed him to customize the WFO Grand Rapids basins for use in the Flash Flood Monitoring Program (FFMP).

Patrick Dol, a senior at CMU, helped work severe weather events from the field and called in reports of damage, or lack of it, during his real-time spotting support. He also helped with post-storm damage surveys and helped verify a number of warnings with his post-event surveys. Dol's major project of the summer was working with Walton, who mentored Dol in his river climatology project. The project is a database that answers questions such as: How often does a forecast point exceed bankfull...exceed flood stage or go 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, or more above flood stage. Forecasters will use this information as a decision assistance tool.

"We are proud of and thank all of our summer interns for their volunteering their time to help us out this summer with some projects that needed to be done and wish them the best in the upcoming school year," said Houser. He said one of the projects the interns enjoyed was a field survey to install a river gauge on Plaster Creek with Walton.

"The part of their summer they liked the most was working with the staff here at Grand Rapids, manipulating data on AWIPS and assisting answering phones during severe weather events," Houser said. Some said the experience of working at WFO Grand Rapids gave them a feel for what we in NWS Operations do, and it helped them decide if being a meteorologist at a WFO is a career path they wished to pursue.

Triple Play: Storm Spotter/SKYWARN Event Combines Baseball, TV Meteorologists, and Outreach

A minor league baseball stadium was the unique location for a local Storm Spotter/SKYWARN Appreciation Night, co-sponsored by the Birmingham, AL, Weather Forecast Office (WFO).

This was a first in the Birmingham market, and according to Birmingham Warning Coordination Meteorologist Brian Peters, may have been a first for anywhere in the country. On August 14, 2003, NWS meteorologists and TV weathercasters from all four of the major television networks in Birmingham appeared together for Storm Spotter/SKYWARN Appreciation Night at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The Hoover Met near Birmingham is the location of the Birmingham Barons double-A baseball team, who played the Mobile Bay Bears that night.

The Birmingham WFO worked in conjunction with the Alabama SKYWARN Foundation, Inc., which sponsored a discount ticket for the event. Over 900 storm spotters from Jefferson County and all surrounding counties were invited along with others interested in storm spotting or severe weather. The Birmingham WFO made the recognition night a public outreach effort at the same time. An NWS exhibit in the stadium concourse gave people an opportunity to learn about severe weather safety and the National Weather Service and meet all of the local television weather celebrities.

All four major television network weather celebrities spent an hour before the game signing autographs, shaking hands, and having photos taken with spotters and other fans.

"The Birmingham WFO owes a special thanks to Bonnie McLaughlin from CBS 42, David Neal from Fox 6, James Spann of ABC 33/40, and Jerry Tracey from NBC 13 for their support in drawing attention to the contributions of storm spotters and making the event an overwhelming success," said Peters.

NWS Earns Exhibit Award at State Fair

During the recent 2003 Upper Peninsula State Fair in Michigan, the NWS exhibit booth was recognized as the "Best Governmental Agency Exhibit" at the Fair, held in Escanaba, MI.

The exhibit, staffed by Marquette, MI, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) personnel, entertained and informed fair-goers by providing real-time weather forecasts, weather safety information, and hands-on displays during the six day event, August 12-17, 2003. More than 100,000 people attended the event.

"Our staff really put a lot of time and effort into making the booth interactive and informative," said Ed Fenelon, Meteorologist-In-Charge of the Marquette, MI, Forecast Office. "Between the tornado simulator and the NOAA Weather Radio give-aways, we were a popular booth. We were able to give fair patrons real-time weather forecasts and teach them about weather safety," noted Fenelon.

In the exhibit, NWS real-time forecast web graphics were projected onto a large screen for fair attendees. Items displayed in the exhibit included Doppler radar images, wind sensors, and a maximum-minimum temperature sensor. According to Fenelon, one of the most popular displays was the Cooperative Observer Hall of Fame (featuring pictures of long-time local weather observers).

The NWS competed against several other federal and state government agencies to win the "Best Governmental Agency Exhibit" award. To determine award winners, Fair officials considered each exhibit's neatness of display, courtesy of workers manning the display, attire and general appearance of workers, and creativity (i.e., decorating appeal, arrangement of display materials). This is the second year in a row that the NWS exhibit has won an award at the fair.

NWS staff members involved in this event included: Andy Just (team leader), Bruce Cromell, Don Rolfson, Gwen Akom, Jason Alumbaugh, Joe Lester, Jack Rice, Kevin Crupi, Marv Taulbee, Mike Dutter, Dave Petrovich, and Robin Turner.

"We are proud to have won this award," said Fenelon. "Plans are already underway for the 2004 fair. We want to make the NWS booth even more interesting, informative, and fun next year."