Contact: Barry Reichenbaugh             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                        4/16/97

Nationally-syndicated comic strip character Mark Trail will serve as the campaign symbol for educating the public about the National Weather Service's NOAA Weather Radio program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and King Features Syndicate announced today.

"I hope that Mark Trail will encourage people across the country to get early warnings of severe weather by having a NOAA Weather Radio," said Mark Trail illustrator/writer Jack Elrod of Atlanta.

The announcement was made during a conference in Washington, D.C., focusing on the direction NOAA's National Weather Service will take for disseminating weather information, forecasts and warnings through NOAA Weather Radio and new telecommunications technologies. A color poster of Mark Trail holding a typical NOAA Weather Radio was unveiled during the announcement. The poster headline reads "Mark Trail Champions NOAA Weather Radio," and Mark is pictured saying "NOAA Weather Radios should be as common in homes and public places as smoke detectors."

In the past two years, several Mark Trail full-color Sunday strips have focused attention on weather-safety issues, including flash floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, and the value of having NOAA Weather Radio receivers to get severe weather warnings quickly.

NOAA Assistant Administrator for Weather Services Elbert W. Friday Jr. praised the public education contributions of Elrod and King Features.

"Mark Trail has rendered an invaluable public service by drawing attention to the dangers associated with flash flooding, tornadoes and hurricanes," said Friday. He also credits Elrod and King Features for giving national attention through Mark Trail to NOAA Weather Radio, "one of the biggest public safety secrets' in the United States."

The Mark Trail strip is syndicated by King Features in more than 175 newspapers, with an estimated readership of about 35 million people.

"King Features is pleased to team up with NOAA and the National Weather Service to help educate people about how they can stay safe and get immediate warnings of hazardous conditions by having a NOAA Weather Radio," said King Features spokesperson Claudia Smith.

Elrod, who since 1950 has been associated with the outdoors strip known to generations of Americans, said he's always had an interest in weather. He shares a pretty common experience with many NOAA scientists who have been forecasters in the military -- Elrod was a Navy weather forecaster in the Pacific during World War II. The Mark Trail image will help NWS meteorologists and local NOAA Weather Radio citizens committees as they work to build public awareness of the program, organize support for establishing new transmitters and place NOAA Weather Radios equipped with automatic tone alarms in all schools and other public gathering places. During an emergency, National Weather Service forecasters interrupt routine weather radio programming and send out a special tone that activates weather radios in the listening area. The tone alarm feature can sound an alert from a "standby" or mute setting and give people immediate information about a life-threatening situation. Hearing- or sight-impaired people can also get these warnings by connecting weather radios with alarm tones to other kinds of attention-getting devices such as strobe lights, pagers, bed-shakers, and printed text equipment.

Some parts of the country have made significant strides since Vice President Al Gore began an initiative in 1994 to extend the reach of the NOAA Weather Radio network to areas unable to receive weather radio broadcasts.

He also set a goal to make NOAA Weather Radio receivers as common as smoke detectors in American homes and to extend the coverage provided by the NOAA Weather Radio network to 95 percent of the U.S. population.

Since the Gore NOAA Weather Radio initiative began, the National Weather Service and other members of the Gore task force have been actively promoting public/private sector partnerships to provide the needed resources. More than 50 new weather radio transmitters have been installed since 1994 through grass roots organizations, combining resources of private enterprises, associations, and local, state and federal government agencies. With the addition of new transmitters, Alabama in late 1996 became the first state to achieve near 100 percent NOAA Weather Radio broadcast coverage.

Editor's Note: A gray scale TIFF image of the Mark Trail NOAA Weather Radio poster is available on the Internet. To download a copy of the image to illustrate this story, contact the National Weather Service Office of Public Affairs. For any technical information regarding the electronic image, contact Jerry Slaff of NOAA Public Affairs.

All NOAA press releases, and links to other NOAA material, can be found on the Internet at http://www.noaa.gov/public-affairs . Journalists who wish to be added to our press release distribution list, or who wish to switch from fax to e-mail delivery, can send an e-mail to releases@www.rdc.noaa.gov, or fax to (202) 482-3154. NOAA constituents can send an e-mail to constaff@www.rdc.noaa.gov, or fax to (202) 501-2953.