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National Situation Update: Friday, January 20, 2006

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

Significant National Weather

West: The storm moving ashore over the Pacific Northwest will bring additional precipitation to this already soaked region. Showers will fall across western Washington and northern California.
Up to 18 inches of snow will fall in the Cascades with snow levels ranging from 2,000 feet in Washington to 4,500 feet in northern California. Snow will push into the northern Rockies where as much as a foot could fall across northern Idaho and western Montana. Snow will end around Denver overnight with a total of three to five inches.

Midwest: A low pressure system moving out of the southern Plains will move northeastward toward Chicago. The system will produce rain which will change over to snow from Missouri to southern Iowa and Illinois. Accumulations could reach four inches or more by tomorrow morning over many locations.

South: Gusty winds will keep the fire danger high from Texas to the southern Plains as low pressure develops over Oklahoma. Showers will develop east of this system but too away to ease the drought in Oklahoma and Texas. Another storm system will move out into the southern Plains on Sunday and produce rain - providing some reduction in the fire danger in Texas and Oklahoma.

Northeast: Today will be rather quiet across the Northeast except for extreme northern New England, where some light snow will fall. Over the weekend the storm system from the Midwest will produce rain and snow from western Pennsylvania to northern sections of New England and rain and windy conditions in the Middle Atlantic. (NOAA/NWS and Various Media Sources)

Red Flag Warnings for Texas

Today's Red Flag Warning for the northwestern two thirds of north Texas will remain valid from 10 am until 6 pm due to gusty winds and very dry conditions.

There will be a continued threat of high fire danger over all but extreme southeast portions of north Texas. A cold front will move into northwest portions of the region this morning and move southeast during the day. Behind the front gusty and dry north winds will once again bring a high fire danger to the area.

Texas counties affected by the Red Flag warning include: Montague, Cooke, Grayson, Fannin, Lamar, Young, Jack, Wise, Denton, Collin, Hunt, Delta, Hopkins, Stephens, Palo Pinto, Parker, Tarrant, Dallas, Rockwall, Kaufman, Van Zandt, Rains, Eastland, Erath, Hood, Somervell, Johnson, Ellis, Henderson, Comanche, Mills, Hamilton, Bosque, Hill, Navarro, Lampasas, Coryell, Mclennan, (National Weather Service)

National Earthquake Center goes 24/7

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Earthquake Center in Golden, Colo., announced the implementation of a new 24/7 operation center and seismic event processing system, HYDRA. When combined, the round-the-clock on-site personnel and new technology are expected to cut in half the amount of time required to report information about earthquakes around the globe.

In response to the December 2004 Sumatra earthquake and resulting Indian Ocean tsunami, the USGS has carried out a wide range of activities to aid recovery in that region and reduce the impact of future tsunami events in the United States and around the globe. The USGS is taking steps to improve seismic monitoring and information delivery in a number of ways including hiring new scientists and support staff.

A new seismic event processing system, HYDRA, identifies, locates, and measures earthquakes; these changes are already greatly speeding up and improving delivery of earthquake notifications. The state-of-the-art system is working in a provisional mode and will become fully operational in March, 2006. Other software and hardware enhancements to support subsystems are also being put into place.

One of these enhancements, Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER), is designed to predict damage from major earthquakes worldwide based on estimates of people and property exposed to potentially damaging levels of ground motion. The system is being developed specifically as a tool for emergency relief organizations such as U.S. Agency for International Development.

The USGS will also debut a new website and notification service for earthquake information at the end of January. The URL will remain: http://earthquake.usgs.gov. (U.S. Geological Survey (USGS))

New Horizons Mission

Liftoff occurred Jan. 19, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. New Horizons is headed for a distant rendezvous with the planet Pluto almost a decade from now. (NASA)

Augustine Volcano

The level of concern color code is ORANGE. Seismicity remains relatively quiet but above background levels.

Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) is monitoring the situation closely and will issue further updates as new information and analyses become available. Volcano information on the internet: http://www.avo.alaska.edu (USGS/ Alaska Volcano Observatory, Region X)

Tropical Activity

There are no active tropical disturbances in the Atlantic and Pacific. (USDOC/NOAA/NWS, National Hurricane Center, Central Pacific Hurricane Center, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Earthquake Activity

No significant earthquake activity during the past 24 hours in the United States or its Territories. (United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Disaster Declaration Activity

North Dakota: The Joint Field Office (JFO) for 1616-ND will close on January 31, 2006 (FEMA HQ)