Science and Operations Officer Steve Cobb demonstrates WFO Lubbock, TX, operations to Congressman Randy Neugebauer (seated on left) and District Representative Mary Whistler. (Photograph by John Lipe, WFO Lubbock Senior Service Hydrologist).

Greg Zwicker and Betty Dodds explain NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) to an attendee at the 20th Annual Convention of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH) at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The June 30-July 2, 2005, annual convention brought together SHHH members, government officials who provide services to people with disabilities, private sector manufacturers and vendors who create and supply assistive equipment to people with hearing loss, academia who research hearing loss issues, and the medical community serving people with hearing loss, who shared information in three days of workshops and exhibits related to hearing loss. The NWR exhibit team of Steven Golston, Greg Zwicker, Betty Dodds, and Ken Putkovich introduced many of the 1,300 conference attendees to NWR. Visitors to the NWR exhibit included representatives of state governments who are increasingly including special needs NWR receivers in their inventory of assistive devices provided to their constituents at no cost.

Nine meteorologists and hydrologists from Russia recently toured the Peachtree City, GA, Weather Forecast Office and Southeast River Forecast Center as part of a two-week tour of the U.S. weather service program. The scientists were part of a 17-member delegation called Roshydromet, which has requested a loan from the World Bank to undertake an extensive Russian hydrometeorological modernization project, similar to the 4.5 billion dollar National Weather Service modernization program of the 1990s. NOAA recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Roshydromet. The agreement is a vital link in the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The Russian Federation, Canada and the United States are actively engaged in building GEOSS, which is supported by nearly 60 countries and over 40 international organizations. The tour group got briefings at the NWS offices and toured the Line Creek gauge off Highway 85, with help from scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

WFO Louisville, KY, recently exhibited at the Louisville, KY, Science Center. Student Temporary Employment Program participant Sarah Ede and student volunteer Andrea Lammers staffed the exhibit, which included the office's tornado machine, weather posters, information about NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, and various weather pamphlets. Many people enjoyed looking at the office's three historical weather posters (January 1937 record flood, 1974 Super Tornado Outbreak, and the 2004 Southern Indiana Christmas snowstorm). The Science Center is now interested in NWS Louisville's assistance to incorporate weather in their exhibits.

Jim Allsopp (left), Warning Coordination Meteorologist WFO Chicago/Romeoville, IL, and Bob Hansen, NOAA Office of Public, Constituent, and Intergovernmental Affairs (right), present a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receiver to drawing winner Dean Chu, Mayor of Sunnyvale, CA, at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.

On June 6, 2005, at the state capitol building in Topeka, KS, Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed a state proclamation designating June 19-25, 2005, as Lightning Safety Awareness Week in Kansas. NWS offices in Kansas partnered with the Kansas Emergency Management agency and local American Red Cross chapters to develop the proclamation. From left are: Ida Kirmse and Joy Moser, Kansas Emergency Management; Jim Keeney, NWS Central Region HQ; Lynn Maximuk, WFO Pleasant Hill/Kansas City, MO; Chance Hays, WFO Wichita, KS; Governor Sebelius, Michael Hudson, WFO Pleasant Hill/Kansas City, MO; George Shepard, American Red Cross, Topeka, KS; Mike Akulow, WFO Topeka, KS; and General Todd Bunting, KS Adjutant General. Photo courtesy of Joy Moser, Kansas Emergency Management.

Take a look at other NWS news, as submitted for the NOAA Weekly Report.