NY Weather Station Created to Stimulate Student Interest in Science

"This dedication ceremony represents what might be called a dream come true - that is to link education, weather observations, and improved weather forecasts for the Bronx," noted NWS Director Jack Kelly. "We are here to dedicate the achievement of installing this new equipment and the potential for success in educating the young people of Hunts Point about the wonders of science."

NWS's Mike Wyllie, Meteorologist-In-Charge of the Upton, NY, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) worked closely with the Hunts Point community to bring this plan to life. The Point is a non-profit organization dedicated to youth development and the cultural and economic revitalization of the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. The Point's mission is to stimulate culture and enterprise through self-investment by its residents, especially its youth.

"The Hunts Point Weather Station, with its new Environmental Discovery Center, will be an excellent educational tool for the residents of the South Bronx, providing all students an opportunity to become interested in meteorology and environmental science," said Wyllie.

The new Environmental Discovery Center will provide more than standard weather observations; it will also measure environmental factors that affect the community. The center includes instruments to monitor carbon monoxide and ozone levels allowing for air quality research to be conducted.

WFO Upton will have direct access to the new station, which will fill a gap between observations made at Central Park and LaGuardia Airport.

According to Wyllie, the new center also has a web camera to allow NWS forecasters and teachers in classrooms across the Bronx to see weather that's approaching. In addition, NWS also constructed a new weather computer lab to allow students to access local data to simultaneously work on projects.

"We aren't just installing equipment here, the NWS is working with the Bronx Community College, local high schools, and other members of the community to help students in the Bronx learn about science and weather," Kelly said.

Guests attending the ceremony included Congressman Jose Serrano and Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.), Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator.

NOAA, NWS, and Weather Radio Highlighted in Warning Discussion on MSNBC

Ward and Kuhr praised the NOAA Weather Radio network's alerting capabilities and pointed out that the NWS issues more warnings than all other Federal government agencies combined. Text of the discussion begins about halfway through the following transcript on the MSNBC homepage.

Science on a Sphere Debuts at NOAA Science Center

Science On A Sphere™ is the brainchild of Alexander (Sandy) MacDonald, Director of the NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, CO.

"We think NOAA Science On a Sphere will be an invaluable educational tool," said MacDonald. "It is a unique way to explain complex information using images. It can be used to illustrate geography, weather, climate, space weather and a host of other kinds of data. It's limited only by our imagination."

The exhibit provides a unique and engaging way of looking at the earth in its "native format," rather than as a distorted flat representation, and will help communicate NOAA science to the public, foster science education, and aid scientific visualization.

The 68-inch fiberglass sphere is suspended from a custom structure. Four 3,000-lumen projectors and four personal computers synchronize and blend the animated images from global environmental data sets. Images include land and ocean topography, weather events, weather prediction models, and past and future climate change. For example, viewers can watch how the warm water in the Pacific that signals an El Niño travels across the ocean, or see five centuries of past climate change as it affected the earth.

Science on a Sphere™ will be at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting in Long Beach, CA, this February. Discussions are underway to take Science on a Sphere™ to Capitol Hill in March to highlight the President's Fiscal Year 2004 budget initiatives.

The annual publication provides statistical information on fatalities, injuries, and damage caused by weather-related hazards. The statistics are collected by NWS forecast offices in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, archived at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, and compiled by the NWS Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, Program Performance and Awareness Division. The 2001 statistics are available online at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml.

Open Season for Federal Long Term Care Insurance Closing Soon

For background on plan options, a premium calculator to estimate payments for coverage, and frequently asked questions and answers, see the Office of Personnel Management's LTC website.

Also On The Web...News Article Focuses on Diversity at Hurricane Center

A recent Miami Herald feature story focused on increasing numbers of women and minorities in the field of meteorology, using the National Hurricane Center as an example.