NOUS41 KWBC 231834

PNSWSH

 

Public Information Statement, Comment Request

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

225 PM EDT Fri Sep 23 2011

 

To:       Subscribers

          -Family of Services

          -NOAA Weather Wire Service

          -Emergency Managers Weather Information Network

          -NOAAPORT

          Other NWS Partners, Users and Employees

 

From:     Therese Z. Pierce

          Chief, Marine and Coastal Weather Services Branch

 

Subject:  Comments Sought on Proposed Change to Offshore Waters

          Marine Zones for the Caribbean, Southwest North

          Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico through October 31, 2011

 

The National Hurricane Center Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch (TAFB) is accepting comments on its proposed offshore marine zone reconfiguration in the Caribbean, southwest North Atlantic, and Gulf of Mexico through October 31, 2011.  Comments concerning this experimental service are welcome at:

 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/experimental/offshores

 

Currently there are 5 marine zones covering the Caribbean and Southwest North Atlantic and 4 marine zones covering the Gulf of Mexico.  TAFB proposes to reconfigure these zones into 24 marine zones to cover the Caribbean and southwest North Atlantic and
8 zones to cover the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Marine observations, local effects, and substantial customer feedback all indicate that the current configuration of marine zones does not adequately address local effects or provide sufficient detail for the marine community. This reconfiguration would improve the precision of marine warnings, forecasts and other services by allowing forecasters to be more area specific.

 

To meet the time constraints for broadcast via U.S. Coast Guard NAVTEX transmitters [HDC1]  , the products will be based on forecast data within 250 nautical miles of each of the NAVTEX transmitter areas and will mimic the current offshore zones. Graphical images of the current marine zones and the proposed marine zones, as well as examples of current and proposed Offshore Marine zone forecasts are online at:

 

www.nhc.noaa.gov/scn/marine/2011/marine_zones/examples.html

 

For more information regarding this notice, please contact:

 

National Hurricane Center

Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch

Miami , FL 33165-2149

305-229-4454 

Hugh.Cobb@noaa.gov

         

National Public Information Statements are online at:

 

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notif.htm

 

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