NOUS41 KWBC 211615

PNSWSH

Service Change Notice 11-43

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

1115 AM EST Wed Dec 21 2011

To:       Subscribers:

          -Family of Services

          -NOAA Weather Wire Service

          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

          -NOAAPORT

          Other NWS partners and NWS employees

From:     Elliott Jacks

          Chief, Fire and Public Weather Services Branch

Subject:  Changes to Some Public Weather Forecast Zones in

          Northeastern and Central Nevada Effective April 3 2012

Effective Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 1200 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the NWS Weather Forecast Office (WFO) in Elko (LKN), NV, will modify some of its public weather forecast zones covering southwestern and south-central Elko County and northern Nye County , Nevada .

The Southwest and South-Central Elko County (NVZ032) zone will be split into two new zones, Southwestern Elko County (NVZ038) zone and South-Central Elko County (NVZ039) zone. The new zones will be separated by the Ruby Mountains/East Humboldt Range (NVZ034) zone.

Northern Nye County (NVZ013) zone would also be split into two zones, Northwestern Nye County (NVZ040) zone and Northeastern Nye County (NVZ041) zone.  This change will allow more localized products for this large geographically and climatologically diverse region and provide a way to better focus on the majority of the population residing in the Northwestern Nye County zone.

Minor changes will also be made to the geographic extents of the Ruby Mountains/East Humboldt Range NVZ034) zone and the White Pine County (NVZ035) zone in order to improve associations of weather regimes and forecast zones.

Extreme Eastern Elko County (NVZ033) zone will be renamed Southeastern Elko County but retain its zone number.

Table 1:  New and Old WFO LKN Public Weather Forecast Zones

New Public     New Public       Old Public      Old Public

Weather Zone   Weather Zone     Weather Zone    Weather Zone

Number         Name             Number          Name

-------------  -------------    -------------   -------------

NVZ033         Southeastern     NNZ033           Extreme Eastern

                Elko County                       Elko County

NVZ038         Southwestern     NVZ032           Southwest and

                Elko County                       South-central

                                                 Elko County

NVZ039         South-central    NVZ032           Southwest and

                Elko County                       South-central

                                                 Elko County

NVZ040         Northwestern     NVZ013           Northern

                Nye County                        Nye County

NVZ041         Northeastern     NVZ013          Northern

                Nye County                        Nye County

NVZ034 – Minor boundary changes

NVZ035 – Minor boundary changes

These changes will improve public weather services for WFO LKN partners and users by better associating zone areas with weather regimes and population distribution.

Additional information regarding these changes, including text descriptions of the new zones, a listing of affected products and graphical depictions of the old/new zones is online at:

    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/public/zone/elko.pdf

NWS partners and users will need to make the necessary changes to their communication systems to accommodate these zone changes.

A shapefile of the new public weather zones for NWS LKN is online at:

    www.weather.gov/geodata/catalog/wsom/html/pubzone.htm

If you have any questions, please contact:

    Kevin B. Baker

    Meteorologist-in-Charge

    National Weather Service

    3720 Paradise Drive

     Elko , NV 89801

    Phone: 775-778-6716

    email: kevin.baker@noaa.gov

National Service Change Notices are online at:

    http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm

$$