National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heavy Rainfall in the Southern Plains and Mississippi Valley; Thunderstorms in Eastern Colorado on Thursday

A multiple day heavy rainfall event will begin to set up from the Southern Plains into the Mississippi Valley Thursday, peaking in intensity over the holiday weekend. Widely scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop across eastern Colorado Thursday afternoon and evening. Large hail will be the primary hazard. Read More >

Byte Blaster:

  • Client/Server Internet Based Service (NWS is one of many participants)
    • Client software is used to receive products from other servers
    • Local server may have many clients - when a file is received it is immediately re-distributed
    • A server may collect products from different sources (e.g., satellite broadcast, local LAN, or as a client to another ByteBlaster server)
    • Multiple daisy chains are possible: Server -> Client/Server -> Client/Server ->…
  • LoadMaster (NWS)
    • Agent for load balancing clients on registered servers
    • Assists in reassignment of clients when a registered server is no longer active

Future Service Outlook:

  • IDP Environment does not currently support the Windows environment.
  • Existing operational IDP file-push protocol (e.g., XMPP) does not adequately support binary file transfer today.
  • Alternative 1: Switch to NWWS End User Client software to receive a portion of the EMWIN distribution
    • Provides an Internet push of all EMWIN US-National text products, and then some
    • Does not include EMWIN International or Image Products
  • Alternative 2: Continue to operate client/server networks in absence of the NWS ByteBlaster Servers and LoadMaster.