Introduction to the National Weather Service Howard University School of Atmospheric Science

1
Introduction to the National Weather
ServiceHoward University School of Atmospheric
Science

• Ken Waters
• NWS Regional Scientist
• National Weather Service
• Pacific Region Headquarters
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• June 1, 2005

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Outline

• An overview of the National Weather Service
• A sample research area for NWS GIS Technology

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• Department of Commerce (DOC)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  (NOAA)
• National Weather Service
• Annual Budget 850M
• NWS Mission
• " The National Weather Service (NWS) provides
  weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and
  warnings for the United States, its territories,
  adjacent waters and ocean areas, for the
  protection of life and property and the
  enhancement of the national economy. NWS data and
  products form a national information database and
  infrastructure which can be used by other
  governmental agencies, the private sector, the
  public, and the global community. "

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National Weather Service Organization

• National Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD
• Support staff in Silver Spring
• Numerous other support facilities around the
  country such as the National Training Center in
  Kansas City, and the National Severe Storms Lab
  in Norman OK
• Six Regions
• (6 regional headquarters, 122 forecast offices)
• Eastern (Bohemia NY)
• Central (Kansas City MO)
• Southern (Fort Worth TX)
• Western (Salt Lake City UT)
• Alaska (Anchorage AK)
• Pacific (Honolulu HI)
• National Center For
• Environmental Prediction
• (NCEP) (Camp Springs, MD)
• Nine centers around the country producing
  national products and guidance

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Location of Forecast Offices
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• NWS Staff
• As of 2005 4832 employees, including
• 2348 Meteorologists
• 520 Meteorology Technicians
• 288 Hydrologists
• 516 Information Technology specialists
• 432 Electronics Engineer/Technicians
• 118 Physical Scientists (oceanographers,
  physicists, etc.)
• 610 Other fields (administrative support, etc.)

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NWS Systems

• AWIPS (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing
  System) In every forecast office LINUX-based
  system used for visualization of weather/hydro
  data (incl models) and issuance of products
• IFPS (Interactive Forecast Preparation System)
  Graphical editing of forecast grids of surface
  elements
• NEXRAD Doppler radar network
• NOAA Weather Radio (All-Hazards) Radios that
  can be programmed to alert for specified counties
  and warnings

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Products of National Weather Service

• Warnings, Watches, and Advisories (tornado,
  severe thunderstorm, marine, flash flood, wind,
  heat, hurricane, tsunami, surf, etc.)
• Aviation (terminal forecasts, AIRMETs, SIGMETs,
  graphical outlooks)
• Marine (surf, coastal, offshore, high seas
  forecasts and oceanic charts)
• Public forecasts (zone forecasts, state/area
  forecasts)
• National Digital Forecast Database
• Numerical Models Guidance
• Climate Forecasts and Summaries
• Hydrological warnings and summaries
• .plus much more!

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National Digital Forecast Database

• 2.5 km to 5.0 km resolution grid across entire
  country
• Forecasts out to 7 days of temperature, wind,
  precipitation, humidity
• Becoming the primary public forecast product
  for the NWS rather than text products
• Legacy text products are derived from complex
  computer programs that interrogate the grids
• Power users (AccuWeather, Weather Channel, etc.)
  can download the national grids and use to
  produce their own customized forecast products
• MORE INFO
• http//weather.gov/ndfd/

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Typical Forecast Office

• Meteorologist-in-charge (GS-14 or 15)
• Warning Coordination Meteorologist (GS-13 or 14)
• Science and Operations Officer (GS-13 or 14)
• Information Technology Officer (GS-13)
• 5 Lead Forecasters (GS-13)
• 5 Journeyman Forecasters (GS-12)
• 2 Meteorological Interns (GS-5 to 11)
• Meteorological Technicians, Electronics
  Technicians, and other support staff

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Requirements to become meteorologist in NWS

• Basic Requirements
• Degree meteorology, atmospheric science, or
  other natural science major that included
• At least 24 semester (36 quarter) hours of credit
  in meteorology/atmospheric science including a
  minimum of
• Six semester hours of atmospheric dynamics and
  thermodynamics
• Six semester hours of analysis and prediction of
  weather systems (synoptic/mesoscale)
• Three semester hours of physical meteorology and
  
• Two semester hours of remote sensing of the
  atmosphere and/or instrumentation.
• Six semester hours of physics, with at least one
  course that includes laboratory sessions.
• Three semester hours of ordinary differential
  equations.
• At least nine semester hours of course work
  appropriate for a physical science major in any
  combination of three or more of the following
  physical hydrology, statistics, chemistry,
  physical oceanography, physical climatology,
  radiative transfer, aeronomy, advanced
  thermodynamics, advanced electricity and
  magnetism, light and optics, and computer
  science.
• There is a prerequisite or corequisite of
  calculus for course work in atmospheric dynamics
  and thermodynamics, physics, and differential
  equations. Calculus courses must be appropriate
  for a physical science major.
• OR
• Combination of education and experience--course
  work as shown in A above, plus appropriate
  experience or additional education.
• Most meteorologists entering the NWS start at Met
  Intern level (GS-05 28,000/yr) although
  higher placement is available for holders of
  advanced (graduate) degrees or relevant
  experience (typically military)
• Most existing meteorologists are working at GS-11
  through GS-13 (45k-84k)

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Getting Into the NWS

• Entry Information
• http//www.weather.gov/eeo/StudentResearchOpportun
  ities.htm
• Jobs Online at
• https//jobs1.quickhire.com/scripts/doc.exe

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switching gears

• A research application example of some work being
  done in NWS blending operations with new
  technologies.
• THE GOAL integrate Geographic Information
  Systems (GIS) principles into the National
  Weather Service.

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Background

• National Weather Service issues four types of
  short-fused warnings
• Tornado Warnings (TOR)
• Severe Thunderstorm Warnings (SVR)
• Flash Flood Warnings (FFW)
• Special Marine Warnings (SMW)
• Issued normally for one county at a time
• Can lead to a large false-alarm area, especially
  in the case of large or irregular-sized counties
• Verification has been strictly county-based
• Legacy dissemination methods all tied to
  counties
• NOAA All-Hazards/Weather Radio
• Uses SAME alert code based on counties
• Internet displays again, based on counties

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WARNGEN

• Allows forecaster to graphically highlight the
  area of greatest threat
• Creates a template text product for the warning,
  including proper headers, issue/expiration times,
  county UGC codes
• ALSO includes latitude/longitude vertex points
  for the pathcast, or polygon warning --- LITTLE
  USED by NWS, partners, and public

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Using GIS with Polygon Warnings

• Polygon vertices well-suited to include in GIS
• Mechanism was established to strip off the
  lat-long polygon information, database the
  polygons, and create real-time GIS shapefiles
• Using only open source (freeware) software
• Code written in Perl
• Polygon values formatted in ESRI gen format
• Use gen2shp and txt2dbf packages

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County vs. Polygon

• Latitude/Longitude points at the bottom of all
  TORs, SVRs, FFWs, and SMWs.

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Polygon Advantages

• Shows specifically where the threat is
• More accurately shows warning area on systems
  displaying warnings graphically
• Reduction of risk area to public
• Better graphical description capabilities
• Wider local distribution via cell phones, PDAs,
  etc.
• Increase NWS role in the confirmation part of the
  warning process
• Private sector starting to turn to polygons
• Allows NWS to refine warnings to true threat area
• Allows us to track and set goals for false alarm
  area
• Better warning quality
• Keeps NWS in technological step

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Polygon Advantages
Polygon Eliminates Area False Alarmed
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Prototype Test
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Jackson MS Apr 5-7Trial by fire
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• And now, some examples, using 2004 warnings

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Tornado Warnings -- 2004
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Tornado WarningsFlorida 2004
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Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
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Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
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Tendency to align warnings to county borders
continued in 2004
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Flash Flood Warnings
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Special Marine Warnings
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Flash Flood Warningsstill very county-based
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Applications For Viewing Polygon Warnings

• CONUS map showing warnings, updated each minute
  http//www.prh.noaa.gov/regsci/gis/
• ArcIMS map service for historical viewing
  http//www.prh.noaa.gov/regsci/gis/
• Texas AM Site (warnings radar)
  http//www.prh.noaa.gov/regsci/gis/warn.html
• Iowa Mesonet http//mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/GIS
  /apps/rview/warnings.phtml

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Display of warnings onlyhttp//www.prh.noaa.gov/r
egsci/gis/
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Busy Day.!
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ArcIMS Map Servicehttp//www.prh.noaa.gov/regsci/
gis/warn.html
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Includes LSR data from SPC
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Iowa Environmental Mesonethttp//mesonet.agron.ia
state.edu/GIS/apps/rview/warnings.phtml
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The Challenges

• Internal to NWS
• Forecaster paradigm shift to focus on weather
  threat
• Workload issues keeping track of warnings
• Ensuring events dont slip between nearly
  adjacent warnings
• Verification measures
• Changes to GPRA baselines
• Special verification issues (e.g., multiple
  warnings for same county)
• Software
• WARNGEN error -- periodically issues 2-point
  polygons well out of CWA
• External to NWS
• Dissemination!
• Many TV Stations not prepared to display polygons
• Niche market for private sector (e.g.,
  WeatherData)
• NOAA All-Hazards Radio
• Technical limitation location is based only on
  county
• New generation of NWR needs to allow users to
  input either lat/long or nearest city to take
  advantage of polygon technology

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Questions?

• Updated every minute for TOR, SVR, FFW, SMW, as
  well as SPC watches
• Available at
• http//www.srh.noaa.gov/hq/regsci/gis

Ken Waters Regional Scientist NWS Pacific
Region Honolulu, Hawaii Ken.waters_at_noaa.gov (808)
532-6413