Straight Talk:
Hydrometeorological Technicians

By General D.L. Johnson
NWS Director

I recently received a question from one of our Hydrometeorological Technicians (HMTs). He asserted, ".the need of the HMT is rapidly coming to an end," and asked, ".why have buy-outs not been offered?"

Let me be straight: there is a continuing need for HMTs. HMTs constitute a vital part of the WFO team.

One of the primary duties of the HMTs is public service, including responsibility for NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards broadcasts. That requirement, for HMTs and the entire organization, is increasing. Our HMTs assist in the basic weather watch and help forecasters keep abreast of changing weather conditions. HMTs also provide quality control observation data; help manage the Cooperative Observer program; compile and issue various climate, water, and weather reports; and launch radiosondes.

So, in reply to your question, we have no need to offer buy-outs for these critical positions.

Thanks for your question. Should you have a question you want me to answer or a topic you want addressed through this column please send it to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov.

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Service Change Notice Outlines Tsunami Warning Plan for Gulf, East U.S. Coasts

NOAA's National Weather Service issued a service change notice on April 20, 2005, to NWS customers, partners, and employees outlining a tsunami warning plan for coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern United States.

The West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WC/ATWC) is implementing a new suite of tsunami products for the Gulf and East coastal areas. Products will be similar in format and content to the existing tsunami products suite issued for Alaska and the west coast of the United States.

Should the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico coasts have a need for tsunami-related information, WFO Melbourne, FL, will disseminate information to affected WFOs in the Eastern and Southern regions using the Coastal Hotline, which is used to disseminate hurricane information. The affected WFOs in turn will disseminate the information by way of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards and the Emergency Alert System.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center will coordinate with WFO San Juan and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network for dissemination of tsunami information for Puerto Rico. In addition, the WC/ATWC will notify the U.S. State Department's Operations Center for international collaboration.

This procedure ultimately will be replaced by tsunami warning and information services which mirror those used for the U.S. Pacific coast. Dissemination will include the FEMA National Warning System, the NOAA Weather Wire Service, the Internet, and other communications paths.

The tsunami products join a long list of NOAA NWS products which help to protect East and Gulf coast citizens from the ravages of hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, lightning, floods, blizzards, and wildfires. During the next two years, NOAA will further expand the U.S. tsunami detection system to include a more robust network of tide stations and Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) buoy stations. Public education and safety efforts will be a key component in ensuring the public will know what to do if a tsunami warning or watch is issued.

Warning Coordination Meteorologists from the Eastern and Southern regions met in late March, discussed these new services, and learned more about tsunamis at the Tsunami Operational Training Workshop in Melbourne, FL. Managers across coastal NWS offices are actively working on outreach, education, and community preparedness in cooperation with state/local emergency managers.

See the full service change notice here.

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NOAAPort Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) Expands
By Philip G. Cragg
NOAA's NWS Office of Science & Technology, Systems Engineering Center

NOAA's NWS has modernized the NOAAPort Satellite Broadcast Network (SBN) to meet the challenge of an expanding number of products by adding improved hardware, software, and communications technologies to the network.

Advancements in numerical forecast modeling, satellite images, and radar data contribute to an evolving suite of forecast products vital to NWS forecasters and our partners. Data dissemination requirements needed to accommodate this growing suite of products could increase by more than 20-fold by 2010. This expanding product suite must be made available to end-users in a timely and reliable manner. The NWS Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) uses a Satellite Broadcasting Network (referred to as the SBN or NOAAPort) to deliver these products to NWS field sites and partners.

The centerpiece of the NOAAPort expansion is a new technology known as Digital Video Broadcast - Satellite (DVB-S), which will ultimately enable the NOAAPort to transmit all new weather products over a single satellite link or channel. DVB-S is an open standard which means system components are available commercially from a variety of vendors. In addition to DVB-S, another important component of the NOAAPort expansion has been the increased use of advanced compression technologies. Compression reduces the need for transmission capacity by more than 5 to 1, allowing at least five times more information to be transmitted for the same cost.

The first phase of the NOAAPort expansion, completed in August 2003, introduced lossless imagery compression, enabling consolidation of GOES East and West satellite imagery suites onto a single NOAAPort channel. The second phase began by outfitting NOAAPort send and receive sites with DVB-S technology- upgrading the NOAAPort channel freed up by Phase I.

A major milestone was reached on June 29, 2004, when compressed, high-resolution National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Eta model products were added to the DVB-S NOAAPort channel suite. This important addition to the NOAAPort suite provides NOAAPort users with valuable NCEP short-term model forecast products, in the 0 - 3.5 days range, at the native Eta model horizontal resolution of 12 kilometers, over the continental United States.

The second phase of the NOAAPort expansion, completed in March 2005, transitioned the NOAAPort into a single linearly scalable DVB-S channel, along with a 70 percent physical capacity increase. This transition allows NOAAPort to operate more efficiently, allowing existing data products to be received by NOAAPort users in a more timely manner.

In the longer term, the insertion of DVB-S technology into NOAAPort will help assist NOAA’s NWS to complete its mission. We are working through NOAA’s Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System (PPBES) to increase the NOAAPort capacity in F4 08 to support GOES-R data requirements. NOAAPort can readily accommodate these additions using the linearly scalable capability of the DVB-S technology.

These accomplishments are a culmination of efforts by Northrup Grumman, the AWIPS Prime Contractor, NWS field sites, NCEP, the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the Office of Operational Systems, the Office of Science and Technology, and NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, and numerous support contractors. The NOAAPort expansion is an example of how NOAA’s NWS is responding to the current and future needs of field forecasters and our industry partners with newer technologies that improve performance at a lower cost.

For more information contact Philip Cragg at Phil.Cragg@noaa.gov.

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New Heat/Health Watch Warning System Debuts in Seattle Area

NOAA's NWS is implementing a new Heat/Health Watch Warning Systems (HHWWS) in the Seattle area. HHWWS is a collaborative tool that measures oppressive air masses affecting health and is part of a national focus addressing the special hazards excessive heat has on urban centers.

Based on NWS storm data from 1994 to 2003, excessive heat is the number one weather-related killer, causing more fatalities per year than floods, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms and extreme cold.

"NOAA's National Weather Service currently issues Excessive Heat Watches, Excessive Heat Warnings, and Heat Advisories to provide the Nation advance notice of excessive heat events for the protection of life and property," said Mark Tew, NWS's Public Weather Warning Program Leader. "Today, these products are issued based on a single heat index value derived from temperature and humidity. Each HHWWS is based upon empirical data for individual cities and provide the NWS with tailored excessive heat guidance related to actual mortality and will improve forecasts and warnings of excessive heat events," he explained.

The HHWWS serving the Seattle area joins Dallas/ Fort Worth, TX; Phoenix and Yuma, AZ; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Cincinnati/ Dayton, OH; New Orleans and Shreveport, LA; Little Rock, AR; Memphis, TN; Lake Charles, LA; and Jackson, MS.

"The excessive heat program that started in Philadelphia in 1995 is proving to be a model for the rest of the country," said Brig. Gen. D.L. Johnson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), NWS Director. "Studies using three years of collected data indicate that 117 lives were saved by the Philadelphia heat program. While you can't put a price on a life, the estimated economic benefit of saving these lives is approximately $468 million."

Studies funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Southern Regional Climate Center indicate very hot weather increases the number of deaths in large urban areas.

"More people die of heat than any other environmental event. The Heat/Health Watch Warning System is the first and only meteorological tool that identifies oppressive air masses that historically diminish people's health," said Laurence Kalkstein, senior research fellow in the University of Delaware's Center for Climatic Research and developer of the new system. "A custom-made system is developed for each urban area, based on specific meteorology for each locale as well as urban structure and demographics."

According to Kalkstein, "During the average summer in the United States there are at least 1,500 excess deaths attributed to heat. If deaths by heart attacks, strokes or respiratory illness are above normal during a heat wave, we consider it a heat-related death; the medical examiner would not."

With the recognition of heat as possibly the greatest weather-related killer in many areas of the developed world, there has been a growing impetus to develop warning systems to permit urban health agencies and local meteorological offices to issue advisories to the public if a dangerous heat wave is imminent. "This has led to an important collaboration to construct Heat/Health Watch Warning Systems for vulnerable large cities around the world," said Kalkstein.

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April is Records Management Month

Every year, NOAA observes Records Management Month to remind employees that every day we are creating historical records. Leaving behind clear records of our work will help document our agency accomplishments. Good documentation should be an important consideration when planning our work.

Good records management:

• Contributes to the smooth operation of NOAA programs by making information needed for making decisions readily available;
• Provides information useful to successor officials and staff for background and analysis, facilitating transitions between Administrations;
• Creates a complete record of your official actions that will remain with NOAA for future use by agency officials and may later be transferred to the National Archives of the United States as a historical record;
• Ensures accountability to the Administration, Congress, and the American people; and,
• Ensures that electronic records, especially those generated by desktop applications, will be available to all authorized personnel.

View a copy of NOAA's Records Management Guide at NOAA's Records Management web site. The site also includes a list of the NOAA Records Liaison Officers who can help you with any questions that you may have.

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Former NWS Office Director Earns Presidential Rank Award

John L. "Jack" Hayes, past Director of NOAA's NWS Office of Science and Technology and currently Deputy Assistant Administrator, NOAA's Ocean Service, was one of six NOAA leaders selected to receive a 2004 Presidential Rank Award the most prestigious recognition bestowed on career senior executives and scientists.

Very few people are honored in the "meritorious" category. Honorees are recognized as "strong leaders who achieve results and consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service," all hallmarks of NOAA's core values.

Hayes was cited for outstanding accomplishments during his tenure as OST Director (October 2000 to December 2004).

"Under his leadership, every important aspect of the NWS forecast and warning operations was improved," wrote retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator in an e-mail to all NOAA employees. "His decision to select a non-standard operating system as the backbone of the NWS communications system improved tornado detection and warning performance parameters and system performance capabilities, potentially saving lives and generating annual savings of billions of dollars in resource protection."

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NWS Pacific Region Welcomes Soldier Back From Iraq

Sergeant First Class Matthew Puletasi, an Electronics Technician at Weather Service Office (WSO) Pago Pago, American Samoa, recently returned to Honolulu after serving a year in Iraq.

His National Guard unit – the 411th Engineering Combat Battalion – was activated in January 2004. By March, the unit deployed to Iraq where they supported the war effort by building housing, a hospital, and providing other assistance to the troops. His unit is one of the lucky ones – all 625 soldiers from around the Pacific returned safely.

Puletasi's group received so many care packages from home that they ran out of storage space and had to enlarge the post office in order to receive all the boxes.

"The other units couldn't believe how generous the people from the Pacific are," he said. "We shared with each other and we gave away stuff to the kids, and every day more kids would show up to see what we had."

Staff from NWS Pacific Region greet Sergeant First Class Matt Puletasi (back row wearing leis). "On behalf of NWS, we're glad to have you back," said Pacific Region Director Jeff LaDouce (back row, third from left). Photo by Sam Thomas, NOAA Ocean Service.

"Matt is a valued member of our team and we missed him tremendously while he was away serving our country," said Pacific Region Director Jeff LaDouce. "We could have really used his skills, for instance, when four tropical cyclones threatened American Samoa this past February. Fortunately, with excellent teamwork by the Pago staff, and assistance from Bob Watanabe, an El Tech from Hawaii, we were able to keep the operations going. Everyone is looking forward to Matt's return, but especially WSO Pago Pago."

Puletasi, who is married and has daughters in high school, is looking forward to going home to American Samoa.

"It's great to be back," he said. "You don't realize how much we have in the U.S. until you're away. I'm look forward to a little time off, then getting back to work at WSO Pago. I really appreciate all the e-mails, packages, and support from Pacific Region."

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Snapshots

Click here for a look at photos we've received from around the NWS.