New OrleansBaton Rouge Weather Forecast Office

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New Orleans/Baton RougeWeather Forecast Office

• Paul S. Trotter
• Meteorologist-in-Charge

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Leadership Structure
34th U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans
Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., US
Navy (Ret.) Under Secretaryof Commerce for
Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator
Brigadier General (USAF retired)David L. Johnson
Assistant Administrator (National Weather
Service)
President George W. Bush 42nd President of the
United States
Bill Proenza National Weather Service
Southern Region Director
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Organizational Structure

• United States Department of Commerce
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  (NOAA)
• National Weather Service
• NWS Headquarters
• 6 Regional Centers
• 13 National Centers
• 13 River Forecast Centers
• 122 Weather Forecast Offices
• 21 Center Weather Service Units
• Reference www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.html

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National Weather Service Mission Statement

• " 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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Vision Values

• Americas no surprise weather service
• A world class team of professional who
• Produce and deliver quality forecasts you can
  trust when you need them most
• Use cutting edge techniques
• Provide services in a cost effective manner
• Strive to eliminate weather related fatalities
  and improve the economic value of weather
  information

• We at the National Weather Service value
• Service above self
• Our customers and partners
• Respect and trust of others and the diversity of
  our agency
• The open exchange of information and ideas
• Commitment to integrity teamwork, self
  improvement, high standards, and the scientific
  approach to our mission
• An innovative and empowered workforce

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Area Information

• Nearly 3 million people in the New Orleans/Baton
  Rouge National Weather Service Forecast Area
• Shipping (1 port system in the U.S.)
• 50 percent of all U.S. Agricultural
  exports/imports pass through New Orleans and
  Baton Rouge ports.
• 8th Coast Guard District Headquarters - largest
  in U.S.
• Marine Forces Reserve National Headquarters.
• Tourism and Gaming in southeast Louisiana and
  south Mississippi

• Offshore Petroleum Exploration and Production
• Around 27 percent of daily domestic natural gas
  and oil production originations in Louisiana or
  off its shores
• The North Central Gulf of Mexico area is the only
  area off the coast of the United States with deep
  water port for offshore supertanker traffic
• Special Events (Mardi Gras, Sugar Bowl, Jazz
  Fest, Essence Festival, Bayou Classic, Super
  Bowl, Biloxi Seafood Festival and The Greater
  Baton Rouge State Fair )

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New Orleans/Baton RougeWeather Forecast Office

• An introduction to the Forecast Operations
• in the National Weather Service
• Dana Griffin

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NWS Duty Priorities

• Warnings, Watches, and Advisories
• Mission Critical Observations
• Forecasts, Observations, and Basic Weather Watch
• Non-Critical Public Service
• Training, Development, and Focal Point Duties

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Public Forecast Program
We are responsible for public forecast products
across extreme South Mississippi and Southeast
Louisiana. The forecaster issues a seven day
zone forecast. The public forecast covers
weather conditions, wind speed and direction, and
maximum and minimum temperatures in the first 48
to 60 hours, and weather conditions and
temperatures through seven days. The
Hazardous Weather Outlook (HWO) is issued by each
office around 6 a.m. and around 11 a.m. The HWO
provides federal, state, and local emergency
managers a guide on the weather hazard of the
day. Because Louisiana experiences weather
extremes from snow, to drought, to flooding, to
hurricane, to fog. We have a public product to
match any weather condition.
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Public Forecast Program
Dense Fog Advisory Wind Advisory Heat
Advisory Urban and Small Stream Flood
Advisory Winter Weather Advisory Wind Chill
Advisory Freezing Rain Advisory Blowing Dust
Advisory Frost Advisory Freezing Fog
Advisory Dense Smoke Advisory Freezing Drizzle
Advisory Snow Advisory Sleet Advisory Blowing and
Drifting Snow Advisory
Flood Watch High Wind Watch Winter Storm
Watch Blizzard Watch Wind Chill Watch Excessive
Heat Watch Freeze Watch Inland Hurricane Wind
Watch Inland Tropical Storm Wind Watch
Flash Flood Warning Tornado Warning Severe
Thunderstorm Warning Freeze Warning Inland
Hurricane Wind Warning Inland Tropical Storm Wind
Warning High Wind Warning Winter Storm
Warning Heavy Snow Warning Blizzard Warning Ice
Storm Warning Heavy Sleet Warning Wind Chill
Warning Dust Storm Warning
Hazardous Weather Outlook Area Forecast
Discussion Point Forecast Matrices Tabular State
Forecast Zone Forecast Product Short Term
Forecast
Severe Weather Statement Special Weather
Statement Hurricane Local Statement Local Storm
Report Public Information Statement
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Internet Public Forecast Program
National Digital Forecast Database
Experimental Interactive Point Forecast
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The National Weather Service Forecast Office of
New Orleans/Baton Rouge is responsible for
providing Fire Weather Forecasts to Federal Land
Management Agencies in Southeast Louisiana and
extreme South Mississippi.
Fire Weather Program
The Fire Weather Forecast is an internal product
issued twice a day. The forecast contains the
lowest relative humidity value of the day,
surface wind speed and direction, weather
conditions, and other fire weather parameters to
help forestry crews with fire plans through the
next five days.
In the event life and/or property is threatened,
each office can provide a fire weather forecast
to local, state and other federal requesting
agencies.
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Marine Weather Forecast Program
The National Weather Service Forecast Office of
New Orleans/Baton Rouge is responsible for marine
forecasting. In the marine forecast program, the
marine forecaster issues a five day marine
forecast from Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana to
Pascagoula, Mississippi, and out into the Gulf of
Mexico 60 nautical miles.
In addition, The marine forecast includes Lake
Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas. The marine
forecast covers weather conditions, wind speed
and direction, and wave conditions.
If life and property is threatened, the National
Weather Service will issue a Special Marine
Warning for the designated area.
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Aviation Program
We issue specialized aviation forecasts tailored
for pilots approaching and departing Baton Rouge
Metropolitan Airport, Ryan Field in McComb,
Mississippi, New Orleans Armstrong International
Airport and Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport.
The forecaster issues a 24 hour Terminal
Aviation Forecast for each airport four times a
day. The forecast contains surface visibility,
wind speed and direction, weather condition and
cloud cover, and ceiling at a particular airport.
Set weather criteria, such as low visibility, may
inhibit a pilot from take off or landing.
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WSR-88D
The state of Louisiana is covered by five WSR-88D
Radars. The WSR-88D Radar has excelled in
detecting the severe weather events that threaten
life and property. In addition, WSR-88D Radar
has increased advanced warnings for short-lived,
often catastrophic events such as tornadoes, hail
storms, downbursts, and flash floods. The
WSR-88D Radar calculates both speed and direction
of motion of severe storms. The wind pattern data
within storms the WSR-88D Radar identifies the
weather conditions leading to severe weather such
as tornadoes.
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New Orleans/Baton RougeWeather Forecast Office

• An introduction to Data Acquisition Operations
• in the National Weather Service
• Doug Tranchina

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NOAA Weather Radio
Console Replacement System (CRS) is one of the
components of the new and modernized weather
radio system-NOAA Weather Radio. This system
allows forecasts, statements and current weather
conditions to go out automatically and
instantaneously on NOAA Weather Radio. This will
free up the staff to spend more time analyzing
weather conditions so they can provide more
timely and accurate forecasts and warnings.
NOAA Weather Radio also directly feeds into the
Specific Area Message Encoder (SAME) for use by
Emergency Alert System (EAS) and specialized NOAA
weather radio receivers. In the past, warnings
and watches were alerted manually by choosing and
pressing a series of buttons. Automation of these
manual entries speeds up the process of
broadcasting the warnings. The National Weather
Service hopes that these benefits will outweigh
the fact that the automated computer voice may
sound "funny" and will take some time getting
used to. With the rapid advancement in technology
today, the National Weather Service already has
plans for the improvement of the voice quality on
NOAA Weather Radio.
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Cooperative Observing Program
The National Weather Service Cooperative
Observing Program was formally created in 1890
under the Organic Act. Its mission today is
two-fold To provide observational
meteorological data (usually consisting of daily
maximum and minimum temperature, snowfall, and
24-hour precipitation totals) required to define
the climate of the United States and to help
measure long-term climate changes.
To provide observational meteorological data in
near real-time to support forecast, warning,
hydrological and other public service programs of
the National Weather Service (NWS). The
National Weather Forecast Office cooperative
network consists of nearly 200 active cooperative
sites in Louisiana and 11,700 sites nationwide.
The program includes the selection of data sites
recruiting, appointing, and training of
observers installation and maintenance of
equipment station documentation observer
payroll data collection and its delivery to
users data quality control functions and the
management of fiscal and human resources required
to accomplish program objectives.
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River Forecasting to the Public
The National Weather Service Offices of
Shreveport, Lake Charles, New Orleans/Baton Rouge
and Jackson, Mississippi are responsible for
river forecasting and river flood warnings.
Daily, the Lower Mississippi River Forecast
Center in Slidell collects river and rainfall
data, analyzes, forecasts and transmits river
forecast data internally to each office. The
Hydro-Meteorological Technicians interpolate the
river forecast data and transmit river stages and
forecasts, river flood warning(s) and/or river
flood statements as needed.
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Upper Air Program
The balloon is filled with hydrogen gas. Attached
to the bottom of the balloon is a weather
instrument known as a radiosonde. This
instrument measures upper air observations such
as atmospheric temperature, wind speed and
direction, dew point, and relative humidity.
Once the weather balloon is released, it travels
into the upper atmosphere and reaches heights of
approximately 100,000 feet. The observed data is
sent by radio signals to the ground equipment.
Once the data is received, it is coded and
transmitted. As the balloon ascends, it becomes
larger and larger because of the extreme low
pressure. It expands until it bursts and then
falls back to earth with the help of the attached
parachute.
The National Weather Service in Slidell, Lake
Charles, and Shreveport release a weather balloon
twice a day one is released at 5 a.m. and
another at 5 p.m. Central Standard Time. More
than two releases may be needed in the event of a
significant change in the weather such as a
hurricane. The data received from the weather
balloon aides meteorologists in preparing weather
forecasts for the surrounding areas.
If you find one of these instruments in your
area, just place the instrument inside the
prepaid postage bag, and mail it back to the
National Weather Service.
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New Orleans/Baton RougeWeather Forecast Office

• An introduction to the Electronic Operations
• in the National Weather Service
• Michael Festino

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Electronics Staff Operation

• A cadre of five technicians including one
  Electronics Systems Analyst (ESA)

• One Upper Air site located on station and One
  WSR-88D Doppler Radar located on station

• We Calibrate, Test, Inspect, Service, and Repair
  a variety of equipment used by the National
  Weather Service

• Two Emergency Power generators as well as Two
  Uninterruptible Power Supplies located on station

• The equipment consists of eight ASOS sites from
  Baton Rouge to Pascagoula and from Boothville to
  McComb. Five Handar units around Lake
  Pontchartrain and Audubon Park

• One Console Replacement system located on station
  and the station Telephone System

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Electronics Staff Operation

• We also Verify, Load, and Update software on
  dozens of Personal Computers, Laptops, and
  Printers on station as well as maintain the
  Station LAN
• We also Verify, Load, and Update software as well
  as Test, Inspect, Service, and Repair Two
  Advanced Weather Interactive Processing Systems
  (AWIPS)

• In short our goal is to maintain all of the
  National Weather Service Systems as seamlessly as
  possible in order for our Operational Staff to
  provide accurate forecasts to protect life and
  property

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Wrap Up

• Questions and Comments
• NWS Resource Web Sites
• www.srh.noaa.gov Southern Region Headquarters
• www.srh.noaa.gov/lix - WFO New Orleans/Baton
  Rouge LA at Slidell, LA
• www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc - Lower MS River Forecast
  Center at Slidell, LA