Post by w4aga on Apr 24, 2009 18:04:48 GMT -5
I am encouraging the use of WXSpots throughout the state.
During and after severe weather the NWS (National Weather Service) needs ground-truth (eyeballs on the storm) and storm damage reports to accurately and reliably generate effective watches and warnings, and to give them much-needed information after the storm to develop a full historical perspective.
As the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and an ALERT (Alabama Emergency Radio Team) NCS (Net Control Station) for the W4CUE 146.88 and W4SHL 146.98 amateur radio club emergency net repeaters I am often at the NWS meteorology station at the Shelby County airport (NWS-BMX), operating their radio station K4NWS.
K4NWS exists to help the NWS gather severe weather reports. The NWS defines threatening weather as: nickel size hail or larger, wind breaking twigs off trees, road flooding, cloud rotation, wall clouds, frequent lightning (one every few seconds continuously), funnel clouds or tornadoes.
To do that we use amateur radio, internet chat and a number of other tools... so many, in fact, that it is difficult to gather all of the viable reports.
The ARES or ALERT operator needs as close to a single source for all of these reports as we can get, and WXSpots can grow into that role.
The NWS does not need routine reports, nor do they have time to sort through poor reporting of junk reports... "Man it's really raining in Hoover" or "There are big black clouds but the rain hasn't started in Irondale yet" are an unfortunate part of weather report gathering. We're just not going to be able to train that out of folks.
ARES and ALERT operators monitoring WXSpots can 'scrub' the reports coming in via WXSpots and pass the relevant and important reports directly to the NWS via radio or chat or whatever is available.
To make this work we need reports. From everyone... radio operators, police and fire, ALERT members, SKYWARN-trained citizens, Jane Q. Public... anyone can report what they see via WXSpots.
I encourage everyone to report severe weather and storm damage reports via WXSpots and please encourage your friends to do the same.
During and after severe weather the NWS (National Weather Service) needs ground-truth (eyeballs on the storm) and storm damage reports to accurately and reliably generate effective watches and warnings, and to give them much-needed information after the storm to develop a full historical perspective.
As the Assistant Emergency Coordinator for ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) and an ALERT (Alabama Emergency Radio Team) NCS (Net Control Station) for the W4CUE 146.88 and W4SHL 146.98 amateur radio club emergency net repeaters I am often at the NWS meteorology station at the Shelby County airport (NWS-BMX), operating their radio station K4NWS.
K4NWS exists to help the NWS gather severe weather reports. The NWS defines threatening weather as: nickel size hail or larger, wind breaking twigs off trees, road flooding, cloud rotation, wall clouds, frequent lightning (one every few seconds continuously), funnel clouds or tornadoes.
To do that we use amateur radio, internet chat and a number of other tools... so many, in fact, that it is difficult to gather all of the viable reports.
The ARES or ALERT operator needs as close to a single source for all of these reports as we can get, and WXSpots can grow into that role.
The NWS does not need routine reports, nor do they have time to sort through poor reporting of junk reports... "Man it's really raining in Hoover" or "There are big black clouds but the rain hasn't started in Irondale yet" are an unfortunate part of weather report gathering. We're just not going to be able to train that out of folks.
ARES and ALERT operators monitoring WXSpots can 'scrub' the reports coming in via WXSpots and pass the relevant and important reports directly to the NWS via radio or chat or whatever is available.
To make this work we need reports. From everyone... radio operators, police and fire, ALERT members, SKYWARN-trained citizens, Jane Q. Public... anyone can report what they see via WXSpots.
I encourage everyone to report severe weather and storm damage reports via WXSpots and please encourage your friends to do the same.