Contacts:   Maria Cardona          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
            Lori Arguelles         3/6/98

Washington, D.C. -- Commerce Secretary William M. Daley announced today that a plan to close the Williston, N.D., National Weather Service office and shut down the Williston weather radar is on hold until modernization activities are complete for the Williston area and the community is satisfied that no degradation has taken place.

This announcement follows a two-year evaluation of weather services for the area conducted by a departmental team. The team recommended that the current modernization plan to close the Weather Service Office in Williston and decommission the old radar would not degrade weather services for the area.

"I have decided that existing operations at the National Weather Service Office in Williston and support of the Williston radar continue until the community is confident that there is no degradation of service," said Commerce Secretary Daley. "The team's report and recommendation was based on a fully modernized weather service, which we don't have completely in place for the Williston area at this time."

The technology that Daley referred to is the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) housed at the modernized Bismarck Weather Forecast Office, which has forecast and warning responsibility for the Williston area. AWIPS allows forecasters to display and analyze satellite imagery, radar data, automated weather observations and computer-generated numerical forecasts, all in one workstation. The Bismarck weather office only recently got its AWIPS in January 1998.

"Modernization of the National Weather Service has already substantially improved the quality of weather services to the nation. By law, we must ensure that all communities receive weather services equal to the level of service they received prior to modernization," said D. James Baker, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere.

"The National Weather Service modernization plan is one of checks and balances. As necessary we have made adjustments along the way. We will continue working with communities to resolve weather service issues," said NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services John J. Kelly.

In October 1995, the late Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown transmitted a report to Congress prepared by a departmental team that studied modernized weather services for 32 areas of the country that were concerned about weather service modernization for their area. Williston, N.D., was one of these communities. At that time, Secretary Brown determined that for five of these areas, two-year operational evaluations were needed before a conclusion on the potential for degradation of service could be reached. The operational evaluations have been completed and, in addition to Williston, Secretary Daley has made decisions on four other areas of concern: Caribou, Maine.; Key West, Fla.; South Bend, Ind.; and Erie, Pa. Both Erie and Williston were seeking WSR-88D weather radars to resolve concerns with weather services. The Secretary directs that existing operations continue for both of these areas until an Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System is operational with the necessary capabilities in Bismarck, N.D., and Cleveland, Ohio, and forecasters gain operational experience with AWIPS to either validate or refute these needs. The Secretary accepts the recommendations to have modernized forecast offices for Caribou and Key West. The NWS recently established a northern Indiana Weather Forecast Office and WSR-88D weather surveillance radar which mitigated service issues for northern Indiana, including the South Bend area.

Commerce Secretary Daley said that he will work with Congress to identify the resources necessary to implement the mitigation actions.