Contact: NWS: Stephanie Kenitzer FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-0622 6/6/96
Bill Sites
(301) 713-1677, ext. 128
NOS: Eliot Hurwitz
(301) 713-3066
Florida's Gulf Coast is better equipped to provide meteorologists with important environmental data now that several new pieces of observing equipment have been set in place there by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA began working with the state of Florida to expand weather observing capabilities in the area after the March 1993 Superstorm killed 10 people in Dekle Beach and Keaton Beach, Fla., and caused $50 million in damages on Florida's Gulf Coast.
"NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean Service have responded to the maximum extent possible after the 1993 Superstorm, an event which helped us identify areas along the Gulf Coast where we needed more data," said Elbert W. Friday Jr., director of the National Weather Service. "This valuable observing equipment is an example of the kind of life-saving programs that NOAA provides to Florida residents and the entire American public."
NOAA recently completed installation of the equipment for measuring, analyzing and predicting coastal winds, waves, and storm surge.
Two new meteorological sensing stations at Keaton Beach and Cedar Key were established by the National Weather Service's National Data Buoy Center. Each of these Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) stations provides hourly delivery of data to NWS forecasters. The C-MAN data includes wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and air and sea temperature.
A similar C-MAN in Fowey Rocks, has become a permanent observing site for the weather service operations after previously being used by the Florida Institute of Oceanography.
The National Ocean Service's Ocean & Lake Levels Division has outfitted four NOS Next Generation Water Level Measurement System tide stations with add-on meteorological sensors in Panama City Beach, Apalachicola, Naples and Virginia Key. These stations provide hourly tide level data, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and air and sea temperature to NWS forecasters.
The NWS also is expanding the mission of its network of NOAA Weather Radio transmitters to provide pre- and post-emergency information for severe weather events, natural disasters and man- made emergencies such as hazardous-waste spills.
The new equipment follows the earlier installation of a state-of-the-art Doppler weather radar at the NWS office in Tampa Bay, and a NOAA data buoy installed 90 miles south of Turkey Point in December 1993.