National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain Across the Ohio Valley;

Severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts will be possible from the mid-Mississippi Valley into parts of the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians. Heavy rain associated with these storms may lead to considerable flash and urban flooding impacts across portions of the Ohio Valley. Mid-summer heat persists from the Central Plains to the Southeast. Read More >

LAWRS

Limited Aviation Weather Reporting Station

LAWRS defined - A facility where observations are taken, prepared, and transmitted by NWS certified FAA control tower personnel or Flight Service station personnel on a limited basis to support aviation requirements.

 

The Lake Charles hydromet staff monitors a total of four LAWRS sites. They are Beaumont/Port Arthur, New Iberia, Lafayette, and Alexandria (International). All the sites use ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System). We are tasked to monitor observations from these sites to ensure they enter the NWS database. These observations are then quality controlled to make sure all required elements are in the observation and are correct. If any elements are in error, these sites are contacted to fix the error. If elements are missing, then the observer will augment that element of the observation.

In situations where elements are missing due to outages or communications have failed or are failing, we are tasked to notify AOMC (ASOS Operations and Monitoring Center).

Besides the LAWRS sites, we also monitor two unmanned sites, one at Salt Point and the other at Esler Field near Alexandria, plus our very own system here at Lake Charles.