[Ccarc] 9th annual SKYWARN recognition event

[Tom Murray]

Hams and the National Weather Service: Working Together for SKYWARN Recognition Day



The Ninth Annual SKYWARN Recognition Day
recognizes Amateur Radio operators for their commitment to help keep
communities safe. Co-sponsored by the ARRL and the National Weather
Service (NWS),
the event is scheduled for Saturday, December 1. During this 24 hour
special event, Amateur Radio operators, working together with their
local NWS offices, will activate Amateur Radio stations and work as a
team to contact other hams across the world.
"This is a fun event," said ARRL Media and Public Relations
Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP. "For 364 days of the year, hams aid in
providing the NWS offices with real-time information on severe weather
when people and property are at risk. But this one day is for fun,
friendship and recognition of the critical services given to
communities by the hams."
Scott Mentzer, N0QE, organizer of the event and
Meteorologist-In-Charge at the NWS office in Goodland, Kansas,
concurred. "Radio amateurs are a tremendous resource for the National
Weather Service. These folks are dedicated, and the assistance they
provide throughout the year is invaluable. SKYWARN Recognition Day is
our way of saying thank you."
In 2006, 90 NWS offices across the country participated and
logged more than 16,000 radio contacts, according to Goodland's Warning
Coordination Meteorologist David Floyd, N5DBZ. In typical SKYWARN
operations during severe weather, direct communication between mobile
spotters and local NWS offices provides critical "ground truth"
information for forecasters. In summer, spotter reports of hail size,
wind damage and storm rotation in real time greatly assist the radar
warning operator, since that information can be correlated with Doppler
radar displays. In winter, snow nets are held, where reports of snow
totals, ice accumulations and whiteout conditions in blowing snow help
NWS forecasters assess the extent and severity of winter storms. In
recent years during wildfire situations, Amateur Radio operators have
reported the precise locations of thick smoke and zero visibility,
allowing forecasters to provide crucial weather updates to fire
fighters.
"NWS offices utilize the real-time reporting of weather events
to assist in warning operations, but certainly hurricanes Katrina and
Rita have shown us that ham radio operators are equally important
during the recovery phase of large-scale natural disasters," Floyd
pointed out. He also cited the example of the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN). He notes that the HWN, organized in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy,
started out as an informal group of amateurs but has since developed a
formal relationship with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami via its Amateur Radio station WX4NHC.
Ham radio operators and volunteers at Miami work together when
hurricanes threaten to provide real-time weather data and damage
reports to the Hurricane Center's forecasters.
For more information on SKYWARN Recognition Day, including a
list of participating NWS offices, QSL card and certificate
information, please see the NWS Web site. Information is updated on the site each Thursday as it becomes available.



_________________________________________________________________
Put your friends on the big screen with Windows Vista® + Windows Live™.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/shop/specialoffers.mspx?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_CPC_MediaCtr_bigscreen_102007
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ns1.culcom.net/pipermail/ccarc/attachments/20071121/f579146a/attachment-0001.htm