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Your
Local Forecast by City, State or ZIP Code
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To view the backgrounders
in Portable Document Format (PDF) you'll need to download Adobe
Acrobat Reader.
A
Word About NOAA — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) conducts research and gathers data about the
global oceans, atmosphere, space and sun, and applies this knowledge
to science and service that touch the lives of all Americans.
NOAA History
— In a July 1970 statement to Congress, President Nixon proposed
creating NOAA to serve a national need "...for better protection
of life and property from natural hazards...for a better understanding
of the total environment...[and] for exploration and development
leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources..."
On October 3, NOAA was established under the Department of Commerce.
National
Weather Service — The National Weather Service
is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for
the United States. Television weathercasters and private meteorology
companies prepare their forecasts using this information. The NWS
is the sole United States official voice for issuing warnings during
life-threatening weather situations. (PDF)
National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
— NOAA Satellites and Information Service manages the U.S.
civil operational remote-sensing satellite systems, as well as global
data bases for meteorology, oceanography, solid-earth geophysics,
and solar-terrestrial sciences. (PDF)
NOAA
Fisheries — NOAA Fisheries is the federal agency
responsible for the stewardship of the nation's living marine resources
and their habitat. (PDF)
National
Ocean Service — The coastal environment is one
of the nation's most valuable assets. It provides food for people
and essential habitat for thousands of species of marine animals
and plants. A healthy coast is vital to the U.S. economy. Industries
such as marine transportation, fishing, tourism and recreation,
and homebuilding all depend on a vibrant coastal environment. (PDF)
NOAA
Research
— NOAA's research, conducted through the Office of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Research, is the driving force behind NOAA environmental
products and services that protect life and property and promote
sustainable economic growth. (PDF)
NOAA
Marine and Aviation Operations — Since NOAA's
beginning, much of its oceanographic, atmospheric, hydrographic,
fisheries and coastal data have been collected on NOAA ships and
aircraft. These flexible, multipurpose platforms support a wide
range of activities related to weather forecasting and prediction,
public safety, navigation and trade, natural resource management
and environmental protection. (PDF)
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Weather |
NOAA
Weather Radio All Hazards: On Alert For All Emergencies
— Saving lives is the focus of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards
by providing immediate broadcasts of severe weather warnings and
civil emergency messages and giving those in harm’s way critical
lead time to respond and remain safe. (PDF)
NOAA
Provides Critical Support to Wildfire Management —
NOAA experts play a vital role in efforts to combat wildfires that
rage across the United States each year. NOAA National Weather Service
meteorologists provide site-specific forecasting for wildfires of
all sizes — from half an acre to many thousand acres. NOAA
satellite experts provide a lifesaving bird's eye view of the devastating
blazes. (PDF)
Avoiding
the Risks of Deadly Lightning Strikes — Lightning
is one of the most underrated severe weather hazards, yet ranks
as the second-leading weather killer in the United States. More
deadly than hurricanes or tornadoes, lightning strikes in America
each year kill an average of 73 people and injure 300 others, according
to the NOAA National Weather Service. (PDF)
NOAA
Aviation Weather Forecasting Critical To Air Flight Safety
— To fly or not to fly? That is the question pilots and air
traffic controllers answer thousands of times each month. In recent
years, a record number of commercial flights crisscrossed the American
skies, and the travel industry expects the numbers to increase.
The latest weather forecast is crucial in making the right decisions
about whether to fly, or land. (PDF)
EMWIN:
High-Tech Readiness for Stormy Weather — The
NOAA National Weather Service and America's emergency managers continue
to strengthen their partnership to help protect lives and property
faced by the threat of severe weather. One shining example of this
alliance is The Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN),
a system that transmits live weather information to computers across
the U.S., the Caribbean, Central America and over most of the Pacific
Ocean. (PDF)
Forecasting
Tornadoes — Through a tremendous investment in
research, observing systems such as the WSR88D Doppler radar, and
forecasting technology, the NOAA National Weather Service issues
more than 15,000 severe storm and tornado watches and warnings each
year. The average lead time for warnings has increased from six
to 12 minutes from 1994 to 2001. (PDF)
When
Seconds Count, StormReady Communities Are Prepared
— To help Americans guard against the ravages of severe weather,
the NOAA National Weather Service has designed StormReady, a program
aimed at preparing cities, counties and towns across the nation
with the communication and safety tools necessary to save lives
and property. (PDF)
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Hurricanes |
Hurricane
Myth vs. Fact
Hurricane
Tracking Models: Helping to Forecast Severe Storms
— The NOAA National Hurricane Center's mission is to track
tropical cyclones and predict their future position and intensity
over the north Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and
eastern North Pacific Ocean. (PDF)
The
Retirement of Hurricane Names — Hurricanes that
have a severe impact on lives or the economy are remembered generations
after the devastation they caused, and some go into weather history.
The NOAA National Hurricane Center near Miami, Florida, monitors
tropical disturbances in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans,
which could become a hurricane. (PDF)
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Ocean |
NOAA
and Tsunamis — A tsunami is a series of ocean
waves generated by any rapid large-scale disturbance of the sea
water. Most tsunamis are generated by earthquakes, but they may
also be caused by volcanic eruptions, landslides, undersea slumps
or meteor impacts. (PDF)
NOAA
Diving Program — As an agency whose mission encompasses
ocean and coastal research, one of NOAA's greatest assets is the
NOAA Diving Program, headquartered at the NOAA Dive Center in Seattle,
Wash. (PDF)
NOAA
Teacher at Sea Program — The mission of the NOAA
Teacher at Sea program is to give teachers a clearer insight into
our ocean planet, a greater understanding of maritime work and studies,
and to increase their level of environmental literacy by fostering
an interdisciplinary research experience. (PDF)
National
Sea Grant College Program — The National Sea
Grant College Program engages the nation's top universities in conducting
scientific research, education and extension projects designed to
help us better understand and use our ocean, coastal, and Great
Lakes resources. (PDF)
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Satellites |
NOAA
Environmental Satellites — Operating the country's
system of environmental satellites is one of the major responsibilities
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's Satellite
and Information Service operates the satellites and manages the
processing and distribution of the millions of bits of data and
images these satellites produce daily. (PDF)
The
National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System
(NPOESS) — Over the last decade, the U.S. government
has been merging the nation's military and civil operational meteorological
satellite programs into a single, integrated, end-to-end satellite
system capable of satisfying both civil and national security requirements
for space-based remotely sensed environmental data.
NOAA
and Volcanic Ash — Ash plumes that are ejected
from volcanoes into the atmosphere pose costly and potentially deadly
dangers to aircraft flying through them. Accidentally flying through
an ash cloud is sufficient to severely damage critical aircraft
components, including lift surfaces, wind screens and engines.
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Ships
and Aircraft |
NOAA
Hydrographic Survey Ships Aid the Nation During Disaster Recovery
Efforts — The downing of TWA Flight 800 into
the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, N.Y., in July 1996 was the first
of three national air disasters in recent years that called for
the special expertise of NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessels.
It was the NOAA ship Rude that scanned the ocean floor and found
the primary wreckage fields of the aircraft. (PDF)
NOAA
“Hurricane Hunter” Aircraft — Specially
equipped NOAA aircraft play an integral role in hurricane forecasting.
Data collected during hurricanes by these high-flying meteorological
stations and from a variety of other sources are fed into numerical
computer models to help forecasters predict how intense a hurricane
will be, and when and where it will make landfall. (PDF)
The
GULFSTREAM- IV: NOAA’S High-Flying Meteorological Platform
— NOAA’s Gulfstream-IV jet is the agency’s newest
high-flying, high-tech platform in its hurricane forecasting arsenal.
The jet flies around developing hurricanes to create a detailed
picture of the surrounding upper atmosphere; the data it collects
enable forecasters to improve hurricane track and landfall predictions
by up to 20 percent. (PDF)
NOAA
"Hurricane Hunter" Aircraft Fly Through Pacific Winter
Storms and More — NOAA's "hurricane hunter"
aircraft and their crews may be best known for their prowess in
flying through and around nature's severest storms over the Atlantic
Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. However, these flying meteorological
stations prove their mettle on the West Coast and over the Pacific
Ocean as well—after hurricane season has ended and severe
Pacific winter storms have begun. (PDF)
The
Shrike Commander: NOAA's World Class Snow Survey Platform
— Each year, significant runoff from snow melt can cause flooding—sometimes
severe—of streams and rivers. Knowing snow water equivalents—or
the water content of snowpack—in a given region is essential
for timely, hydrologic forecasting. (PDF)
NOAA
Ship RONALD H. BROWN: Unique in the U.S. Civilian Fleet
— Commissioned into the NOAA fleet on July 19, 1997, the RONALD
H. BROWN brings new and unique capabilities to the nation's environmental
science community. The ship is designed to conduct multidisciplinary
scientific operations throughout the world's oceans. (PDF)
MD
500D Helicopter: NOAA’s Ship-based Aerial Photography Platform
— NOAA’s MD 500D helicopter is the smallest aircraft
in the agency’s research fleet. It serves as an outstanding
platform for observation and aerial photography for several of NOAA’s
diverse environmental science missions. (PDF)
New
Fisheries Scientific Computer System Revolutionizes Data Collection
— NOAA software engineers and scientists have developed a
breakthrough, automated system for recording biological and oceanographic
data during a trawl-based fishery resources survey. The Fisheries
Scientific Computer System, or FSCS, is replacing manual data recording
and shaving months off the time required to make cruise data available
for use. (PDF)
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