Editors' Note: Any Retirees Out There?

We've noticed that Central Region Headquarters has a list of retiree e-mail addresses to help people keep in touch. The list has existed for a few years and can be found off of the region's home page. We're guessing that some of our readers may be NWS alums. If you are an NWS retiree, would you like to have a list like Central Region's for all NWS retirees? Are there any NWS retirees who get together and do volunteer or charitable work? If so, please drop us a note at NWS.Focus@noaa.gov so we can recognize your activity.

Hurricane Season Outlooks Released

The NWS released outlooks for both the Atlantic and Central Pacific hurricane seasons today.

The 2002 Atlantic hurricane season will likely have normal to slightly above normal levels of activity. The outlook calls for the potential of nine to thirteen tropical storms, with six to eight hurricanes, and two to three classified as major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale), according to the press releases. The developing El Niño should have no influence on the Atlantic hurricane season.

The developing El Niño is of more concern in the Pacific. The 2002 Central Pacific hurricane season is also expected to bring an above average number of tropical cyclone systems–six to seven. However, two of the most damaging hurricanes to make landfall in Hawaii, Hurricane Iniki in 1992 and Hurricane Iwa in 1982, occurred during El Niño years. The most recent forecast from NWS's Climate Prediction Center calls for developing weak El Niño conditions to prevail during this year's hurricane season, which runs June 1 through November 30.

President George W. Bush signed a proclamation announcing this week as National Hurricane Awareness Week.

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Recently, a combination of timely NWS statements, watches, and warnings, and the response of a Pennsylvania public safety team helped protect participants in an outdoor fund-raiser.

On April 28, a March of Dimes Walk America event was scheduled on Presque Isle, a park northwest of Erie, PA. That morning, the Cleveland Weather Forecast Office (WFO) issued alerts to the Skywarn and Emergency Management communities on the potential for damaging thunderstorms. Several Skywarn spotters, trained by the Cleveland WFO to report severe weather, were part of an amateur radio group working with the March of Dimes.

The Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch as the morning progressed. Despite the watch, the March of Dimes event continued. Steve La John, of Girard, wrote in a May 12 letter to the Erie Times-News editor, "Moments after the event began came the notification we all feared, a tornado warning. A decision was made to cancel the walk and evacuate Presque Isle." All of the walkers were successfully sheltered before the onset of the storm. Golf ball-sized hail and damaging downburst winds descended on Presque Isle nearly 45 minutes after the warning was issued.

La John called the evacuation "an awesome display of people helping people." This is an example of how the National Weather Service is "working together to save lives."

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Volunteer Cooperative Observer Awards Announced

The NWS Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) is honoring seven observers with Thomas Jefferson Awards and 27 observers with John Campanius Holm Awards for 2002. These two prestigious awards recognize outstanding cooperative observers who have put in at least 20 years of dedicated service.

One of the goals of this year's COOP awards program is to involve NOAA and NWS senior managers in presenting many of these awards, said COOP Manager Andy Horvitz. Horvitz said the COOP Program added a new length of service award for 2002, the Richard H. "Dick" Hagemeyer Award. This award recognizes individuals who complete 45 years of COOP service. Named in honor of former Pacific Region Director Dick Hagemeyer, the award was approved for 28 observers. Sixty other awards were approved for observers with various lengths of service. The program also honored 123 institutional observation sites for lengths of service ranging from 25 years to 100 years.

"Our congratulations go out to all of this year's awardees," said Horvitz. "These individuals and institutions represent the highest level of cooperative observer service to the Nation."

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Forecast Office Uses Adopt-A-County Program to Share Safety, Spotter Training

Lead Forecaster Don Kirkpatrick of the Louisville, KY, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) provided a fortuitous storm safety and spotter class at Nelson County High School, his "adopted county" and alma mater, just days before damaging storms and tornadoes ripped through and ravaged central Kentucky.

"This may have saved lives because it was so timely," said WFO Louisville Meteorologist-In- Charge Mike Matthews.

The session was hosted by the school's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program and Nelson County Emergency Management Agency. Part of Kirkpatrick's message was: "The spotters are our ground troops. They are our eyes in the field."

Over the past year meteorologists at WFO Louisville implemented an "Adopt-A-County" program involving individual forecasters who adopt specific counties and conduct safety and spotter classes. Customers include emergency managers, media, police dispatchers, schools, and many others.

"This has proven to be a highly effective program considering the fifty-nine counties in the county warning area of responsibility," Matthews said. Several other central region offices have implemented the program. Central Region Director, Dennis McCarthy, is a strong advocate and proponent of the Adopt-A-County program and is overseeing its implementation within the region.

"The program is a powerful and effective way of involving ‘all' staffers in outreach activities and is proving to be very beneficial because it helps all of us get to know our customers better," Matthews explained. "Ultimately, the advantage is that because we better understand their needs we can serve them better. We all end up benefitting since they know the names and faces of the people who serve them."

For more information, contact Mike Looney at Central Region Headquarters, at 816-891-7734 extension 701.

Media Seminar Draws Praise for Forecast Office

Eleven meteorologists and weather broadcasters, representing five TV stations and one university, attended WFO Green Bay's annual Spring Media Seminar on May 2. Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jeff Last and Science and Operations Officer Gene Brusky organized the event.

The group was briefed on topics including the 2001 severe weather season, NOAA Weather Radio expansion in Wisconsin, the meteorology and warning decisions behind several weather events and given a demonstration of the Interactive Forecast Preparation System Graphical Forecast Editor.

Tom Mahoney, chief meteorologist at the local CBS affiliate, wrote in a follow-up note, "I am greatly impressed by the outreach the NWS Green Bay office has extended the media over the last five or so years. It is the best I've ever been associated with. It is very much appreciated."

Lighting Safety Awareness Week Wrap-Up

Lightning Safety Awareness Week (April 28 - May 4, 2002) was a resounding success according to the NWS Lightning Safety Awareness Team. Innovative partnerships between NWS offices across the country and lightning experts, educators, and the private sector to promote the "Lightning Kills: Play it Safe" theme yielded a more enlightened public.

"We worked closely with the emergency management community to get the word out," said Rusty Kapela, Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) from the Milwaukee Weather Forecast Office (WFO). "Our goal was to hit the schools, the media, and inter-county agencies with lightning safety messages and I believe we succeeded in debunking some of the myths about lightning that exist. We sent out recorded public information statements, which were developed by the five WFO's that service Wisconsin, three times each day (once on every shift) to the NOAA Weather Wire, and recorded these messages on our six weather radios. All of this information was based on material found on the NWS lightning safety web site."

Rick Dittmann, WCM from the Great Falls WFO reported that his office worked with the Glasgow WFO to conduct a lightning safety workshop for the Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative. WFO Billings hand-delivered Lightning Safety Posters to golf course pro shops through its warning area.

Many television interviews were conducted and radio segments produced on lightning safety. Jim Vavrek, a Hammond, IN, teacher who was a part of the Lightning Safety Awareness Team, said PBS Channel 56 did a three and a half minute special on lightning and received more calls from this special than any other piece featured all year. As a result, Channel 56 now wants to do a half hour special about lightning and tornadoes for Lake and Porter Counties in Indiana. Local sponsors were also helpful in getting out the lightning safety message. Andy Kula, Meteorologist from the Des Moines WFO mentioned how the Iowa Cubs played the Rocco Mediate 30-second Public Service Announcement twice per game for four games on their "jumbo screens," displayed the lightning posters at information booths, and handed out 300 lightning safety tip sheets in their Cubs Yearbooks.

Roger Lamoni, WCM from the Reno WFO, celebrated the week with daily themed luncheons featuring a dose of lighting safety. Jane Hollingsworth, Reno's Meteorologist-In-Charge wrapped up the noontime festivities with a "situational awareness" seminar and a salad and breadsticks potluck lunch.

Todd Heitkamp, WCM from the Sioux Falls WFO, said the work done in his area also helped to get rid of some of the fallacies about lightning. "Many people in the upper-Midwest don't take lightning seriously. The public has a lot of misconceptions about thunderstorms and what behavior puts them at risk of a lightning injury." Not only did Heitkamp work closely with the media, but he also conducted a week-long "Ready, Set, Go!" course that he developed for fourth graders in Sioux Falls. Heitkamp also worked with the Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Department to develop a lightning safety plan. As a result, all sports associations that use a city field must now supply the department with a written lightning safety plan.

Thanks to all the offices who took the time to submit their Lightning Awareness Week activities to share in NOAA's NWS Focus.

Blood: It Does a Body Good

Mike Anderson of the North Central River Forecast Center contributed to the following report:

In January 2000, a family member of an NWS Chanhassen, MN, forecaster was diagnosed with a very rare blood disease. Over the course of 13 days, this individual received 260 units of plasma and six units of whole blood. (If a person donated blood five to six times a year, or about every 56 days, it would take one donor about 43 years to donate the same amount of plasma and blood needed by this patient in a 13-day span.)

Fellow staff members realized the importance of routine blood donations and organized their first NWS blood drive. In the past two years, approximately 65 staff members from three separate offices, the North Central River Forecast Center, the Minneapolis National Weather Service Forecast Office and the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center have held four blood drives.

In June, the NWS facility will hold its 2002 Summer Blood Drive in cooperation with the American Red Cross. During each of the previous blood drives, 20 staff members, or about 30 percent of all three offices, have donated. Ironically, the last blood drive was September 11, 2001. Future blood drives at Chanhassen have already been scheduled for October 2002 and for February 2003. Planning is currently underway to possible include some of the other businesses in the area to be a part of these future NWS Blood Drives.

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Also on the Web...Updated Office of Civil Rights Publications

The Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has revised three customer-oriented, user-friendly publications that explain employee rights and responsibilities and provide guidance on how employees may exercise their rights if they believe they have faced discrimination.

The three revised publications that are now found on the OCR web pages are:

• Manual for Processing Discrimination Complaints
  
• Sexual Orientation Discrimination: Questions & Answers
  
• EEO Mediation Guide