News Release
National Weather Service Honors Ham Radio Dec 1"
Newington, CT Nov 21, 2007 -- The ninth annual SKYWARN Recognition
special event will take place Saturday, December 1. This celebration
of a lifesaving partnership is cosponsored by the National Weather Service
(NWS) and ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. SKYWARN Recognition
Day is the National Weather Service's way of expressing its appreciation to
Amateur Radio operators for their commitment to help keep communities safe.
During the 24-hour special event, Amateur Radio operators, working together
with their local National Weather Service (NWS) offices, will activate Amateur
Radio stations and work as a team to contact other hams across the world.
“This is a fun event,” said Allen Pitts, spokesperson for the ARRL. “For
364 days of the year, hams aid in providing the NWS offices with real-time information
on severe weather when people and property are at risk. But this one day
is for fun, friendship and recognition of the critical services given to communities
by the hams.”
“Radio amateurs are a tremendous resource for the National Weather Service”,
says Scott Mentzer (N0QE), organizer of the event and Meteorologist-In-Charge
at the NWS office in Goodland, Kansas. "These folks are dedicated,
and the assistance they provide throughout the year is invaluable. Skywarn
Recognition Day is our way of saying thank you”.
Last year, 90 NWS offices across the country participated and logged 16,209
radio contacts according to David Floyd (N5DBZ), the Warning Coordination Meteorologist
at Goodland. In typical SKYWARN operations during severe weather, direct communication
between mobile
spotters and local NWS offices provides critical "ground truth" information
for forecasters. In summer, spotter reports of hail size, wind damage and storm
rotation in real time greatly assist the radar warning operator since that
information can be correlated with Doppler radar displays. In winter,
snow nets are held, in which reports of snow totals, ice accumulations and
whiteout conditions in blowing snow help NWS forecasters assess the extent
and severity of winter storms. In recent years during wildfire situations,
amateur radio operators have reported the precise locations of thick smoke
and zero visibility, which allowed forecasters to provide crucial weather updates
to fire fighters.
"NWS offices utilize the real-time reporting of weather events to assist
in warning operations, but certainly hurricanes Katrina and Rita have shown
us that ham radio operators are equally important during the recovery phase
of large-scale natural disasters," Floyd pointed out. Floyd also
cited the example of the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN). He notes that the HWN,
which organized in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy, started out as an informal
group of amateurs but has since developed a formal relationship with the National
Hurricane Center in Miami via its Amateur Radio station WX4NHC. Ham radio operators
and volunteers at Miami work together when hurricanes threaten to provide real-time
weather data and damage reports to the Hurricane Center’s forecasters.
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Page last modified: 09:42 AM, 21 Nov 2007 ET
Page author: w1agp@arrl.org
Copyright © 2007, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
