Straight Talk:
Student Loan Repayment Program

Dear General Johnson,

Would you mind sharing your thoughts on the National Weather Service becoming a part of the Federal Student Loan Repayment Program? Also, can you share why the Department of Commerce has so few listings in the 2005 Report to Congress? It would be such a great benefit to NOAA and the NWS to have such a program considering the majority of positions require a college degree, many of which are masters.

Thank you for your time.
Sherrie Hebert
Service Hydrologist
National Weather Service Pocatello, Idaho

Thanks for your question Sherrie.

The Federal Student Loan Repayment Program is a tool agencies can opt to use as part of the overall recruitment and retention plan. In the Office of Personnel Management's 2005 Report to Congress, agencies identified budget limitations as a primary impediment to participation. We've been very fortunate in that the number and quality of applicants for positions almost always exceeds our recruitment needs, and we're able to avoid carving funds from other programs. That said, we do use recruitment and retention tools when necessary. For example, we have previously advertised using recruitment bonuses in hard to fill locations.

Finally, I don't have access to the entire Department of Commerce data to address why there are so few DOC employees participating in the loan repayment program. But a cursory view of the information in the report appears consistent with the intent of the program to use loan repayment for hard to fill positions.

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"Top Gun" John Chiaramonte Receives the Max A. Kohler Award

John Chiaramonte, Service Hydrologist at the Binghamton, NY, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) since 1994 and known by his peers as a "Top Gun," is the latest recipient of the Max A. Kohler Award. The Kohler Award is presented annually to recognize individuals for sustained superior performance and distinguished accomplishments in support of the NWS hydrology program.

Chiaramonte's 39 years of federal service, which includes 28 years with the NWS, has been recognized by others and earned him and WFO Binghamton, NY, several awards including the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, the Water Resources Association 2006 Government Award, and a Unit Citation.

"John is so deserving of this award and I am absolutely thrilled to see him get this recognition," said Barbara Watson, Meteorologist-in-Charge at WFO Binghamton. "His hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm for the job along with his ability to work with so many people led to this success."

Chiaramonte has a large complex hydrologic service area that includes the headwaters of the Delaware and Susquehanna River basins, reservoirs that supply daily drinking water to New York City, and the Finger Lake Region which includes a large section of the Erie Canal. John has built and continues to improve a program which enables the NWS to provide outstanding services to communities and save lives and property.

Flooding is a primary threat in the Binghamton County Warning Area. John has been proactive in developing an outstanding training program for the WFO staff emphasizing hydrologic situational awareness and educating communities on hydrologic products and services. His training has lead to outstanding forecast and warning performances in both flash flooding and river flooding over the last several years.

In 2004, flooding produced by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan, threatened the City of Wilkes-Barre, PA. During this event, John was instrumental in accurately projecting and effectively communicating the level of the Susquehanna River which saved the city from an unnecessary and costly evacuation of 100,000 people.

Six months later, the region was struck again with major flooding from snowmelt and heavy rains. Some areas saw the worst flooding in 70 years. There were 1,350 people evacuated from homes and over 3,000 structures flooded causing more than $75 million in damages. Providing lead time on river flooding in the headwaters is often difficult, but for this event the average lead time from warning to flood stage was 14 hours and the average lead time to crest was a little over 29 hours.

During this flood, the advance warning provided by John and the staff at WFO Binghamton provided enough lead time for emergency crews to build a temporary 6-foot berm around Lourdes Hospital that saved the hospital over an estimated one million dollars in damages and eliminated the need to move any patients.

Broome County Emergency Services Director Mike Aswad stated "If it weren't for NOAA's NWS river forecasts and close coordination with hospital officials, Lourde's Hospital would have been closed."

Through John's long and distinguished career, he has worked tirelessly with many outside agencies to improve NWS forecast and warning services. He has developed excellent partnerships with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Delaware River Master, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, and the Delaware River Basin Commission. His diligent outreach through training and flood drills to prepare flood prone communities in responding to flooding has been applauded for its effectiveness. Congratulations to John and the entire staff at WFO Binghamton for the outstanding service they provide.

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New Training Modules Available on NOAA E-Learning Site

Over 250 online training courses developed for NWS are available through the E-Learning system (http://e-learning.doc.gov/NOAA/). Some of the newest ones include:

• The AWOC Winter Track is a learning path composed of eight Instructional Components totaling 38 online lessons, including an introductory video. This track contains approximately 20 hours of training that addresses a variety of topics pertinent to issuing winter weather warnings, including climatology, precipitation forcing mechanisms, and forecasting synoptic/mesoscale precipitation type and amounts. This learning path can be assigned following the job sheet (http://wdtb.noaa.gov/LMS/JobSheets/lms_js_assign_lp_v1_1.pdf) developed by the Warning Decision Training Branch. For more information about the course, please contact Don Rinderknecht.

• Five new AWIPS Delta training modules include OB6 AWIPS Hardware, OB6 AWIPS Software, OB6 AWIPS Front End Processors, OB6 AWIPS Networking, and OB6 AWIPS Crons. The modules provide an overview, changes, and lab assignments. This series of modules is designed for a variety of different users of the AWIPS System, from System Administrators to Focal Points. Please forward any comments or questions to Randy Schupbach.

• Two versions of the Webcast, The NCEP North American Mesoscale (NAM) Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, are now available to support the replacement of the NCEP Eta model by the new WRF model. A condensed version focuses on the most practical information about the new model and analysis changes and has a 40-minute run time. The full version provides more in-depth explanations of model changes and runs 75 minutes. Please contact Stephen Jascourt with any questions or comments about the modules.

• Conceptual Models of Tropical Waves provides an overview of tropical waves as observed over Africa, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean. The focus of this presentation is on three conceptual models of tropical waves, the Riehl Classical Easterly wave, the Frank Inverted 'V' wave, and the African wave. The conceptual models are used to help learners understand the dynamic and thermodynamic characteristics as well as the lifecycle of tropical waves. The Webcast takes about 35 minutes to complete. Please forward comments or questions to Arlene Laing.

• Runoff Processes offers a thorough introduction to the processes critical for flood and water supply prediction. The module explains key terminology and concepts including paths to runoff, basin and soil properties, and runoff modeling. It also provides an introduction to the National Weather Service River Forecast System (NWSRFS). This module is part of the Basic Hydrologic Science course that will provide an understanding of the core concepts in hydrologic science as applied to flood prediction. Please contact Matt Kelsch with any questions or comments.

• Barrier Jet Forecasting: Eastern Foothills and High Plains of Colorado, 17-20 March 2003 is a case study module covering a winter event that produced historical snow amounts in the foothills of the Front Range of Colorado and very heavy snowfall along the urban corridor. The emphasis is on the role of the barrier jet, a core of low-level northerly winds that developed over and just east of the foothills due mostly to blocking and thermodynamic processes. The module examines the dominant atmospheric processes and how the operational models analyzed and predicted the barrier jet and associated precipitation distribution. Please forward any comments or questions to Doug Wesley.

• Landfalling Fronts and Cyclones significantly impact the structure of mesoscale wind and precipitation fields along the west coast of North America. This 1 - 2 hour module focuses on the complex interaction of the wind field with topography and the resulting effects on nearshore winds and precipitation. Please contact Alan Bol with any comments or questions.

Remember to take the quiz and survey associated with each course through the E-Learning system. By doing this, your progress is tracked and access is provided to completion certificates. Taking courses through the MetEd Registration system will not provide the same type of data.

If you are a first-time user of eLearning@NOAA (http://e-learning.doc.gov/NOAA/), you can login using your user name (the portion of your email address to the left of @noaa.gov) as both your username and password. You will be prompted immediately to change your password. Then using the catalog, you can register for a course that is then made available on your My Courses page. Detailed instructions for logging into the site (http://wdtb.noaa.gov/LMS/JobSheets/lms_js_login_v1.pdf) and taking an online course (http://wdtb.noaa.gov/LMS/JobSheets/lms_js_takeOLT.pdf) are available from WDTB.

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Replacement Telecommunication Gateway Reaches Initial Operational Capability

The NWS Replacement Telecommunication Gateway (RTG) has now achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC).

Model Guidance from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) is being switched through the RTG to the NWS Network Control Facility.

Ed Cormier, Acting Director of the NWS Telecommunication Operations Center, Office of the Chief Information Officer, said the final steps of the implementation will migrate NWS customers to the new Gateway.

Ed praised the efforts of the Program Office, the three Branch Chiefs Allan Darling, Tom Sandman, and Dan Starosta and their staffs dedicated support for the development and deployment of the RTG, which will allow the NWS to eliminate the legacy gateway that has some components that have been operational for more than 10 years.

The deployment of the RTG was the culmination of the reengineering of approximately 5,000,000 lines of legacy code to a state-of-the-art commercial-off-the-shelf software solution. The RTG will allow the NWS to respond to higher resolution NCEP models, as well as support new and upgraded national and international programs, such as AWIPS and the World Meteorological Organization Global Telecommunication System.

Work continues on the Backup Telecommunication Gateway, which will be the next step in strengthening the NWS gateway infrastructure.

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NWS, FAA's Flight Standards District Office Team Up for Aviation Safety

Weather forecasters from the Albuquerque, NM, Air Route Traffic Control Center's Weather Service Unit (CWSU) and the Albuquerque Weather Forecast Office (WFO) briefed aviation weather hazards common in the Southwest to 75 pilots at safety meetings in Albuquerque and Farmington during July.

The Federal Aviation Administration's Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) in Albuquerque is promoting the presentation that the CWSU and WFO jointly developed. The briefing explains and provides local examples of smoke and haze obscurations, strong wind events, low level wind shear, thunderstorms, microbursts, the dry line, mountain wave turbulence and icing. It also explains the process of creating, monitoring and updating Center Weather Advisories, the Collaborative Convective Forecast Product, Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts and Transcribed Weather Broadcasts.

Then forecasters go to the Internet, where pilots learn about new features like RIDGE-radar overlays, the Hourly Weather Graph, and graphical forecasts from the National Digital Forecast Database. Aside from helping aviators meet safety training requirements, the presentation teaches aircrews to interpret weather forecasts more effectively, and introduces them to products that may make flight planning easier.

Pilots found the conversation engaging and contributed some of their own cockpit experiences with hazardous weather as examples, giving forecasters some good insight from the pilots' perspectives. The rewarding exchange continued beyond the briefings as forecasters toured the Farmington airport and the Eclipse Aviation flight line in Albuquerque. Since April, the powerful multimedia weather hazards presentation has been in high demand, and the FSDO has committed to hosting the CWSU and WFO forecasters at safety meetings across New Mexico.

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Deputy Under Secretary Kelly and Congressional Staff Visit SEC

Deputy Under Secretary (DUS) of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Brig. Gen. Jack Kelly, USAF (ret.), accompanied a delegation of Congressional Staffers and members of the NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs to the NWS Space Environment Center (SEC) in Boulder, CO, on August 23, 2006. Kelly spoke of the need to continue to educate the public about the value the SEC provides to the Nation.

(Left to right: CAPT (sel) W. Blake, G. Graves, C. English, D. Edwards, S. Prestidge, T. Bogdan, DUS Brig. Gen. Jack Kelly, USAF (ret.), J. Robertson, J. Kunches). Photo by LT (jg) E. Spencer.

Tom Bogdan, Joe Kunches, Bill Murtagh, and Terry Onsager gave an overview of space weather, current and recent space weather conditions, SEC customers, and transition activities and plans, to the group. The visit was one of the activities affiliated with the formal dedication ceremonies of the Earth System Research Laboratory.

The Congressional Staffers included; Garret Graves from the office of Senator David Vitter (R LA), Chad English (Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R MI), Denise Edwards (Rep. Robert Cramer, Jr., D AL), and Scott Prestidge (Rep. Mark Udall, D CO). DUS Kelly was accompanied by CAPT (sel) Wade Blake, NOAA Corps, Jason Robertson, and other staff from NOAA Congressional Affairs.

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Cover Your Cough!

With flu season just around the corner, here are some key facts on influenza and the influenza vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control.

This link contains information on the "Cover Your Cough" Campaign from the Minnesota Department of Health, including a downloadable poster.

Use these links in good health!

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Obituaries

Stephen R. Pertgen (Steve), Data Acquisition Program Manager, Weather Forecast Office, Albany, NY, suffered a heart attack at home and passed away on the evening of August 21, 2006. Steve was 53. Steve had more than 31 years of combined military and civilian federal service. His tenure at the Albany office began in 1987 as a Communicator. He worked his way through the ranks and was promoted to his current position in 1995. Steve was intimately involved in the deployment and maintenance of NOAA's Environmental Real-time Observing Network (NERON) throughout northern New York State and Vermont.

James Zoller, NWS retiree and former Omaha, NE, Meteorologist-In-Charge (MIC), died July 30, 2006, of complications from a fall. Jim received his education from Coe College, Cal Tech and the University of Michigan. He served in WWII in England as a meteorologist for the U.S. Army Air Corps and also served in the Korean War in the U.S. Air Force. After the Korean War, he moved his family to what was then called the Territory of Alaska. He was a survivor of the Great Alaskan Earthquake, as he watched the air tower come down at the Anchorage International Airport and helped in the rescue of many people. After his children went stateside to college, he left Alaska and moved to Michigan and then to Omaha, where he became an MIC. He served in that capacity until he retired at 70 years of age.

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Employee Milestones

• Click here to see NEW APPOINTMENTS/TRANSFERS to NWS through August 31, 2006.
• Click here to see RETIREMENTS/DEPARTURES from NWS through August 31, 2006.

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Snapshots

Click here for a look at photos we've received from around the NWS.