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- Proposed Policy Clarification -
NWS Support for Special Events
Every year millions of Americans attend hundreds of thousands of outdoor events at tens of thousands of venues.
These events include professional, amateur, and recreational sporting events of all types, outdoor festivals, and other kinds
of gatherings that attract crowds large and small. When severe weather threatens the vicinity of these events, both participants
and spectators are potentially exposed to hazards such as lightning or tornadic activity. These situations pose a special challenge
to event coordinators, public safety officials, and weather service providers.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has an uncompromising commitment to public safety and works closely with public safety
officials to ensure they understand the information provided in our products relating to hazardous weather. While NWS can provide
support to public safety officials for special events, more comprehensive services are available from America’s Weather Industry
(private sector providers of weather services), such as customized consulting services organized and packaged to help make
decisions about how to plan and run the event.
The NWS partnership with America’s Weather Industry helps improve the overall level of service that can be provided to the public.
This paradigm of event support was used in weather support for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, where NWS worked with the Olympic
Committee, public safety officials, and commercial vendors to provide the best mix of support for public safety (NWS) and event
operations (private sector).
As NWS works to refine our internal policies for support to special events, we believe that greater clarity in providing weather
support for these special events will improve understanding and lead to better services for all parties involved. To that end,
we have drafted proposed policy principles (below) which clarify NWS services in this area, and are interested in your views
and comments. Again, we don’t see this as a change in our current level of support, as much as a clarification of the level
of support NWS is committed to provide.
Proposed Policy Principles for NWS Support of Special Events
This file is in Adobe Acrobat® format. The free
reader/printer for these files is available from
http://www.adobe.com.
Please send any comments you may have to nwssp.comments@noaa.gov by June 30, 2008.
//Note: Comments are Currently Closed.//
Update: Final Guidance Memorandum - September 25, 2008
Update: NWS Policy Directive - July 14, 2009
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