National Weather Service Office in Slidell, Louisiana Announces
Forecast Zone Changes for St. Tammany and Orleans Parishes
WHY: St. Tammany and Orleans Parishes have coastal areas that touch both Lake Borgne and Lake Pontchartrain. Due to the way that WEA messages are sent for Storm Surge Warnings, the current zone configuration alerts all of Orleans Parish as well as all of coastal St. Tammany Parish even if the threat is limited to areas near the Rigolets and around Lake Borgne. Subdividing these zones will allow for more precise alerting of storm surge threats.
WHERE: After coordinating with local officials, it was decided two zones in Louisiana would be changed.
St. Tammany Parish (Louisiana): Areas generally east of Bayou Liberty and south of the Interstate 10/12 corridor will be included in a new zone named “Southeast St. Tammany Parish” with the remainder being renamed “Northwest St. Tammany Parish” (see maps below).
Orleans Parish (Louisiana): Areas outside the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System levees as well as areas outside of the New Orleans East maxent levee will be included in a zone named “Eastern Orleans Parish” with the remainder being renamed “Western Orleans Parish” (see maps below).
WHEN: The zone implementation will occur during the day on Tuesday, March 30, 2021.
IS THIS NORMAL?
YES! The NWS frequently reconfigures forecast zones to provide better service to its partners and the public. Locally, the most recent zone reconfiguration occurred in 2011 when Tangipahoa Parish was split into two zones to better convey potential for significantly different impacts across the northern and southern portions of the parish. In general, zone reconfigurations have shown to provide increased forecast detail, especially when dealing with winter weather and tropical conditions.
Which NWS products will be affected?
The table below lists the affected products by AWIPS ID and WMO Heading.
PRODUCT NAME AWIPS ID WMO HEADING
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NON PRECIPITATION WARNING NPWLIX WWUS74 KLIX
WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE WSWLIX WWUS44 KLIX
FLOOD WATCH FFALIX WGUS64 KLIX
AREA FORECAST MATRICES AFMLIX FOUS54 KLIX
TABULAR STATE FORECAST SFTLIX FPUS64 KLIX
SHORT TERM FORECAST NOWLIX FPUS74 KLIX
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT SPSLIX WWUS84 KLIX
ZONE FORECAST ZFPLIX FPUS54 KLIX
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT PNSLIX NOUS44 KLIX
LOCAL TROPICAL WATCH/WARNING TCVLIX WTUS84 KLIX
EXTREME WIND WARNING EWWLIX WTUS82 KLIX
HURRICANE LOCAL STATEMENT HLSLIX WTUS84 KLIX
COASTAL HAZARD MESSAGE CFWLIX WHUS44 KLIX
AIR QUALITY ALERT AQALIX AEUS74 KLIX
FIRE WEATHER FORECAST FWFLIX FNUS54 KLIX
FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE RFWLIX WWUS84 KLIX
HYDROLOGIC OUTLOOK ESFLIX FGUS72 KLIX
Does this affect my weather radio?
No. If your NOAA Weather Radio is programmed to alert for Orleans or St. Tammany Parishes, it will continue to do so.