Straight Talk:
In Praise of Strong Partnerships

In recent days, John Jones and I have addressed some of our most important partners—the International Association of Emergency Managers and the National Business Aviation Association—about our current state, our case for change, and our vision of the future as it relates to our new strategic initiatives, primarily the new Concept of Operations and Securing our Role in the Provision of Aviation Products and Services. The NWS collaboration with these important groups, and our road to the future, is critical and affects every American in one way or another.

Our partnership with emergency managers helps protect our citizens from hazards—natural or otherwise. Our relationship with IAEM is strong, and the emergency managers praised your efforts, your dedication, and service throughout the historic 2005 hurricane season and other severe weather events.

The aviation community's trust in the information we provide—a consistent, accurate forecast that is relevant and totally integrated into user decision-making processes—is equally critical. The feedback and data they provide from airborne observations are important aspects of increasing aviation forecast accuracy, aviation safety, and efficiency.

One thing is apparent from our conversations with these partners—the status quo is not enough to meet their growing needs. The continued protection of America on the ground and in the air demands that we forge even stronger partnerships in the future. In addition to our Initiatives, John and I talked about the path ahead and some of the challenges, including growing the National Digital Forecast Database, upgrading our radars, and budget realities.

Our partners in emergency management and the aviation community are very interested in our successes and our challenges. Like many of you, they are anxious how our future course may impact our service delivery. We emphasized that both the Concept of Operations and Aviation Initiatives are still under development and no final decisions have been made, yet there are some certainties—we will maintain a presence in 122 communities; and there will be no degradation of service.

There's much work to be done to educate our partners and customers about these efforts. We will keep you informed about both the strategic initiatives and our budget challenges as they unfold.

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Editors' Note:
Let's Toast the Year's Accomplishments, Virtually

Since we can't all get together to toast our many accomplishments over the past year, let's spread some holiday cheer among the NWS family this holiday season—virtually!

The NWS Focus staff invites each office, regional headquarters, and national center, to send us one digital holiday photo of your staff—even if it takes two or three shots. These can be funny or serious, just make sure they are appropriate to post on the Internet. Please be sure to include everyone's names, and in 50 words or less tell us of your office's proudest accomplishment this year in support of the NWS mission.

Send your photos and accomplishments to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov no later than December 5, 2005. We'll do something creative with your input. Our goal is to post everyone's photos and messages before the end of the year. If you have questions, contact us at NWS.Focus@noaa.gov.

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NWS Improves Automated Dissemination of Major Weather Products

On November 1, all Weather Forecast Offices in the contiguous United States transitioned from experimental to operational use of Valid Time Event Code (VTEC) in seven NWS product categories.

The products include watch county notifications for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, winter weather and non precipitation weather messages, flood watches and coastal hazard messages, and two types of routine marine forecasts (coastal waters forecasts and Great Lakes nearshore forecasts).

VTEC is a coded text string located in a weather product or product segment header, and is used in conjunction with the Universal Geographic Code (UGC). While UGC tells where a hazard or forecast is valid, VTEC identifies the specific type of hazard or forecast as well as the valid time of the hazard.

VTEC allows vendors to better tailor the product stream to their clients, allowing the selection of the specific message types they want to receive, thus improving automated dissemination of weather information to the public through paging systems and television message crawl systems, for example.

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Open Season Begins for Establishing Flexible Spending Accounts

The open season for enrolling for the Federal Flexible Benefits Plan runs from November 14 to December 12, 2005.

When you establish a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) you can later tap the account to pay for the uncovered portions of qualified medical costs, or for dependent-care expenses. All employee contributions to FSAs are made from pre-tax earnings, but there are no government contributions to the program. For information on establishing a Flexible Spending Account go to https://www.fsafeds.com/fsafeds/index.asp. See the OPM website for more details.

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NWS Offices Partner with Football Coach on Public Service Announcements

Huntsville Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) Tim Troutman, Birmingham WCM Jason Wright, and Huntsville Senior Forecaster Andy Kula partnered together to compose a lightning safety Public Service Announcement (PSA) recorded for radio airplay by University of Alabama Football Coach Mike Shula.

This PSA mentioned that Alabama ranks 7th with 23 deaths attributed to lightning strikes in the United States, reminded people that they are in danger from lightning if they can hear thunder, and referenced the national lightning safety web, www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov.

NWS partners are distributing the PSA to radio stations across the state, but it is available for use in other states too, with no limitations. Efforts are underway to convert the PSA into a wav file for use on NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards. This PSA has been distributed to lightning safety institutions and submitted to the WCM Resource Center.

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How We Began

By Glenn Austin, Digital Services Program Manager

I recently attended memorial services for a relative in Buffalo, NY. Afterwards, I was notified that the first head of the National Weather Service was also buried there. I was driven to the site of the mausoleum for Albert J. Myer, first director of the Army Signal Corps and founder of the U.S. Weather Bureau.

After returning home, I did a little research. Here's what I discovered about Myer and the creation of the bureau (source: A History of the United States Weather Bureau by Donald R. Whitnah, 1961).

Prior to the Civil War, only a few regional weather observations and warning systems existed (including networks operated by the Smithsonian Institution and Cincinnati Observatory.) Then, in 1869, a bill was passed authorizing the federal government to begin taking meteorological observations at military stations across the country and to provide storm warnings only for the northern lakes and Atlantic seaboard. President Grant signed the measure on February 9, 1870.

By the end of the month, Secretary of War William Belknap notified Colonel Myer that the responsibility for establishing weather services would belong to the Signal Service. The Signal Service had been organized in 1860 by the Assistant Surgeon General of the Army, Albert Myer.

Finally, an announcement was made in August of 1870 introducing the creation of a weather service. In November, Myer turned to scientific leaders for help. Professor I. A. Lapham was asked to assume responsibility for the Great Lakes Region. The same day, Lapham issued the first storm warning. By 1873, the Signal Corps issued seventy weather bulletins a day and almost as many weather maps.

Ocean services began within the first year of Signal Service weather duties. Myer requested ships at sea take three daily, simultaneous observations and report the weather data within forty-eight hours after arriving at their destination. Weather services were extended throughout the United States by act of Congress in 1872. Starting in 1873, river and flood data was collected. Forty-three special river stations were established by 1887. Weekly river reports were sent to the section centers along with reports of excessive rain.

In the late 1870s, another pioneer, Army Signal Corps Lt. John Finley, began a systematic study of tornadoes that included a survey of the number of tornadoes in the Great Plains, which later resulted in experimental tornado predictions and subsequent verifications.

A training center was established for new recruits at Fort Myer, VA. Enlisted trainees were given six months of lectures and study as well as instructions on observational techniques. Three to five enlisted soldiers were employed at each station located in cities the size of Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston. Many smaller one-man stations were also established.

Myer served as the chief of the Signal Service until his death in 1880. He is credited with forming and expanding the services of the U.S. Weather Bureau. Myer's remains are interred at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Walden-Myer Mausoleum. For more information, go to: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/index.php and http://scard.buffnet.net/1st/myer/myer.html.

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Also On the Web...
Ex-Meteorologist Police Officer Reads Amber Alert, Saves Kid

A recent Washington Post article focuses on how a rookie Washington, DC, police officer who is a former meteorologist read an Amber Alert from Nevada while reviewing weather forecasts on the web, and later spotted the out-of-state vehicle on his beat. Read the article here.

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