NWS Director Highlights What's Ahead for NWS at AMS Annual Meeting

The National Digital Forecast Database and the NWS Climate Program were among the topics covered by NWS Director Jack Kelly when he recently spoke to the membership of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Kelly addressed the Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) conference during the 83rd Annual Meeting of the AMS in Long Beach, CA, on February 10, 2003.

Addressing the coming year's efforts, Kelly described plans for the NWS Climate Program. The Climate Prediction Center's (CPC's) product suite will be expanded to include an excessive cold product to compliment the excessive heat product. Climate Services Programs will be operational in all NWS regions by the end of FY 2003.

Kelly also told the audience that starting later this year the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) will become operational and provide a seamless mosaic of NWS digital forecasts from NWS field offices working in collaboration with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. The database will be made available to all customers and partners - public and private - and will allow those customers and partners to create a wide range of text, graphic, and image products of their own.

NWS's AMS exhibit booth mirrored Kelly's remarks, showcasing some of the planned changes to the way NWS does business. Visitors to the NWS exhibit saw a demonstration of the NDFD, new fire weather forecasting technologies, NOAA Weather Radio, plans for the Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, and climate products issued by the CPC.

Looking back at the agency's 2002 accomplishments, Kelly highlighted the agency's actions associated with the Van Wert, OH, tornado episode, which occurred November 10, 2002, as a success for the entire weather community.

"It represented success at every level," he said, "including data acquisition and processing, numerical modeling, warning operations, and dissemination." He also noted the vital role played by those in research, academia, the media, and emergency management. "Users responded to our warnings and, by doing so, saved lives," said Kelly.

Click here for a link to a copy of Director Kelly's IIPS presentation.

NWS Employees Honored During AMS

Several NWS employees earned honors during the American Meteorological Society's (AMS's) annual meeting in Long Beach, CA, on February 9-13, 2003.

NWS employees William Proenza, NWS Southern Region Director, and Robert E. Saffle, NEXRAD expert with the NWS Office of Science and Technology, were named AMS Fellows. The honor of AMS Fellow recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences, or their applications, during a substantial period of years. Only two-tenths of one percent of membership are approved as Fellows each year.

Joseph T. Schaefer, Director, NWS Storm Prediction Center earned the Francis W. Reichelderfer Award. Schaefer was honored for his "enduring contributions to the improvement of severe weather forecasts and especially their dissemination and verification." The Reichelderfer Award is presented for distinguished public service contributions by personnel of the weather services. The award is named for the former Director of the U.S. Weather Bureau from 1938 to 1963.

Robert S. Davis, senior forecaster WFO Pittsburgh, PA, earned the Charles L. Mitchell Award. Davis was honored for "20 years of exceptional service and commitment toward the improvement of flash flood forecasting." The Mitchell Award is presented for lifetime achievement in operational weather forecasting and weather research. The award is named in honor of Charles L. Mitchell, who was recognized by the Society in 1967 "for his record of outstanding public service during the first half of the 20th century."

Raymond H. Brady, Michael L. Jurewicz, and David Morford, all forecasters at WFO Binghamton, NY, and Jeff. S. Waldstreicher, Deputy Chief of the Scientific Services Division, NWS Eastern Region Headquarters, Bohemia, NY, each earned the Award for Exceptional Specific Prediction. The meteorologists were all on duty during a severe weather outbreak that ranks among the worst in central New York and northeast Pennsylvania history in more than 50 years. During May 31 and June 2, 1998, 19 tornadoes occurred resulting in millions of dollars in damages and two fatalities. The four forecasters made critical decisions that resulted in extremely timely severe weather and tornado warnings that saved many lives. The team also made extraordinary efforts to coordinate with emergency managers and utility managers, two groups that are highly impacted by severe weather.

Survey Feedback Action Process Helps Manager Refocus, Turn Around Office Performance

Tom Kriehn recognized things needed to change at the Newport/Morehead City, NC, Weather Forecast Office (WFO). As Meteorologist-In-Charge, he was faced with sobering results from the 1998 NOAA Survey Feedback Action (SFA) process. His "workgroup" (the WFO) scored below the NWS average on every one of six key dimensions - leadership, innovation, employee involvement, communications, fairness, and teamwork.

After studying results of the survey, Kriehn took steps to understand the SFA scores and improve his leadership abilities and the office's performance. The results? Four years after the first SFA, the 2002 SFA scores for WFO Newport/Morehead City were all above the NWS average for the same six dimensions covered in the employee survey.

Kriehn acknowledges that advances in the science of meteorology have contributed to his office's performance improvement over the past few years, but he says embracing the principles of diversity and a change in thinking and attitude among the staff has played a major role in the office's performance turnaround.

Kriehn holds frequent staff meetings and he and his staff communicate frequently with all levels of the NWS. Kriehn's management staff also involves employees in planning. The staff and management developed an integrated workforce plan to include Hydrometeorological Technician's (HMTs) in the forecast process, and in the absence of an HMT, have meteorologists perform data acquisition duties. At a special once-a-year staff meeting, the staff works together to draw up the operating plan for the upcoming year. Most importantly, Kriehn and his staff changed the office standard from "being good followers" to "being regional leaders."

Kriehn said he openly encourages innovation and risk-taking, and the staff embraces change as an opportunity to do things a better way. Station meetings include training on leadership skills. He encourages the staff to fix any problems they can fix, and not wait for NWS Headquarters to fix their problems for them. At staff meetings the office celebrates successes and discusses leadership topics. Kriehn said he encourages the staff to, as ex-General Electric CEO Jack Welch said, "Be number one or two at everything we do."

Kriehn said his staff responded almost immediately to the shift toward being regional leaders. The staff created a local hazards web page and developed the graphical Regional Digital Forecast (RDF) product, which is a simple graphical version of the RDF that uses easily deciphered icons to depict the highly-detailed digital forecast product matrix.

The Morehead City office was one of the first offices in the Eastern Region to begin posting graphical forecasts to the Internet. The staff created a graphical version of the hurricane local statement and posted it on a secure local web server on station. The page provides one-stop shopping for emergency managers seeking critical forecast information about hurricanes such as storm surge graphics, watch/warning status, flooding potential, and other information needed for briefing county officials. Since the web site is hosted by a server on station and is password protected, emergency managers are insured quick access at times when other web pages are difficult to access due to high volume. The office was one of the first in the Eastern Region to begin issuing forecasts for rip currents.

The staff also embraced diversity principles, especially in the hiring process, where the entire management team is included in the process.

"We hired a number of new people since the 1998 SFA survey," said Kriehn. "The local management team has varied backgrounds and bring many perspectives to the table. In the end, our selections have improved based on the inclusive atmosphere."

John Elardo, Senior Forecaster who has worked at the Morehead City office for the past nine years said he has noticed the change in the office attitude.

"The confidence we gained from solving problems ourselves rather than waiting for a top-down solution unleashed lots of creative energy in our office," Elardo said. "Our early successes fostered a strong team spirit, which enabled us to overcome cultural and other impediments to change."

The change has been noticed at the regional headquarters level too.

"Tom has embraced the leadership principles we advocate in Eastern Region," said Eastern Region Headquarters Director Dean Gulezian. "His office's performance is a reflection of his improved leadership skills."

After Gulezian became NWS Eastern Region Headquarters Director in 2000, he emphasized leadership training for Eastern Region MICs, HICs, and Division Chiefs. Kriehn attended the Army-sponsored Professional Management for Executives course (PME) in 2001 (now the NWS Executive Leadership Course). He attributes most of his improvement in leadership skills to lessons he learned at the PME course.

"If we continue to follow the leadership paradigm by espousing the concepts of empowerment, risk taking, and innovation, we will realize the full potential of our staff and ensure that we fulfill the mission of the NWS," said Kriehn.

In 2002, NWS SFA Coordinator Steve Smith, was asked to make a business case for the SFA process for the NWS Corporate Board. Steve collected data on the NWS Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) goals, specifically, tornado Probability of Detection (POD), False Alarm Rate (FAR), and lead times, and correlated those results by WFO to the 2002 SFA survey results. Smith found a positive correlation between the top ten performing offices during 2000 and 2001 with respect to GPRA goals, and SFA results. One of those offices in the top ten was WFO Newport/Morehead City.

The office's performance measures have steadily improved since 1996 and 1997. In 1996 and 1997, WFO Newport/Morehead City tornado POD was 69 percent, FAR was 61 percent, and the average warning lead time was 8.8 minutes. This past year, based on eight tornado events, the office POD was 88 percent, the FAR was 25 percent, and the average warning lead time was 14 minutes. All are above the 2002 NWS GPRA Goals of POD of 69 percent, FAR of 71 percent, and lead time of 11 minutes.

Thrift Savings Plan Catch-Up Plan Outlined in Bulletin

A recent Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) bulletin outlines details of a new "Catch-Up Contributions" feature which enables federal workers aged 50 or over to contribute additional money to their TSP accounts. According to the bulletin, TSP will implement the program in July. The bulletin provides many details on the program.

NWS Forecaster In Current Movie: Employee Sees Life as a Civil War Soldier From Both Sides

As part of his duties as an NWS Incident Meteorologist, Jack Messick often travels from his home in Pocatello, ID, to provide wildfire support to land management agencies. He is used to living in remote locations and facing the weather elements. But for fun, he sometimes spends additional time in remote locations, wearing heavy, scratchy, wool uniforms.

Messick studies the American Civil War and also enjoys Civil War reenactments. He travels to battle reenactments across the country, usually participating as a Union infantryman.

Messick's hobby landed him a role in the new movie Gods and Generals, released nationally on February 21, 2003. While the movie focuses on the life of Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson and Yankee Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, it also portrays every day soldiers and citizens who became heroes on both sides of the war. "I went to Maryland on vacation in September 2001 and volunteered for two weeks on the movie set as one of hundreds of 'background artists." Instead of paying me for my work, the studio contributed a portion of its budget towards preservation of land that has historical value," said Messick.

"Usually I play the role as a Federal Army private at Civil War re-enactments," said Messick. "For Gods and Generals, the director needed everyone in the same uniform to recreate the charges and retreats on a grand scale. So, the wardrobe department outfitted me with a Rebel uniform on some days, while other shooting days I got to wear my Yankee blues. Through movie magic I may actually chase myself across the big screen."

Although Messick did not play the part of a weather forecaster, he is quite aware of the decisions that were made during the Civil War due to the weather.

"In a heavy rain, muskets and cannons could not fire once the gunpowder got wet. Muddy roads bogged down troop and wagon train movements, sometimes halting it altogether. Snow also forced the armies to stop marching for almost the entire winter. The few winter battles during the Civil War were near disasters for the army on the offensive. This made the war drag on. Had there been any ability to forecast the weather 140 years ago, it would have been an incredible advantage for either side."

Several NWS employees in Pocatello planned to attend the opening night of the movie in hopes of spotting Jack Messick in either his blue or gray uniforms. He wouldn't give away the ending of the movie, but Messick said he does survive in his battle scenes.

Also On the Web...Communicating With, To, And About People With Disabilities

Last month the Federal Communicators Network sponsored a workshop on a topic of ever-increasing importance: communicating with, to, and about people with disabilities. The conference, titled "The Next Communications Challenge: Integrating Disability," drew participants from across the federal sector and beyond.

Vodium provides a webcast of this event. To access it click on http://www.vodium.com/login/fcn.