1 / 13

SNOWFALL REQUIREMENTS, DATA AND TRANSITION

SNOWFALL REQUIREMENTS, DATA AND TRANSITION. (OR…WHAT’S UP WITH SNOW) Eastern Region Climate Workshop 09/16/03 Alan E. Dunham DAPM, NWS Forecast Office Taunton, MA. The Way It Was the golden years. WFOs and WSOs took manual obs

moeshe
Download Presentation

SNOWFALL REQUIREMENTS, DATA AND TRANSITION

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SNOWFALL REQUIREMENTS, DATA AND TRANSITION (OR…WHAT’S UP WITH SNOW) Eastern Region Climate Workshop 09/16/03 Alan E. Dunham DAPM, NWS Forecast Office Taunton, MA

  2. The Way It Wasthe golden years • WFOs and WSOs took manual obs • Snowfall and Snow Depth was recorded every 6 hours and at midnight LST • Local Climatological Data was maintained • All Was Well With the World

  3. What Went Not So Correct • Restructuring Resulted in WSOs Closing • ASOS Took Over Observing • FAA Personnel and/or Contractors Took Over ASOS Backup/Augmentation • 6 Hourly Measurements of Snowfall not a Requirement for them • Snowfall Data began disappearing form LCD sites

  4. We Will Take a Brief Pause for These Few Words From the Presenter

  5. Terms and Practices as They Stand Today • Snow Depth…the snow that is on the ground. Measured by sticking a ruler (or yardstick) through the top of the snow to the ground. • Snowfall…The amount of snow which has fallen since snow began to fall and/or snow that has fallen since the previous snowfall measurement. Measurement taken from a SNOWBOARD • Snowboard…That on which snowfall is measured. The snowboard shall be cleared no more frequently than every 6 hours

  6. We Now Return to the Original Presentation

  7. Where Are We Near TermLast Year and Going into this Snowfall Season • Last Year…A lot of Dedicated CWOs gave NWS Snowfall Data • These CWOs not allowed to provide the data this year • Team Established to Find Answer/Answers

  8. Options the Snowfall Team Considered • Take no action…things continue to get worse • COOP/Spotter Observers at/near LCD sites…these would be volunteers so hard to require 6 hourly and midnight obs • Give the FAA Funds for the CWOs to take snowfall data…only would be at service level A and B sites leaving 124 C and D sites

  9. Options considered by Snowfall Team Continued • Eliminate Airport LCD Snowfall Observation entirely…Airports really bad for measuring snow but would expect tremendous objections from media and climate community • Totally Automate LCD Snowfall Observations…technology to meet our needs probably at least 5 years away

  10. And the Winner Was...

  11. “Snow Paid” NWS Contract Staff at LCD sites • PRO...Gives the NWS direct control of how the Snowfall observations are taken, where they are taken from, water equivalent of snowfall will be included in the contract…standards met and maintained • CON…Recurring cost around 3/4 of a million, will be hard to recruit at some airports

  12. The GREAT Unknown of the Plan??????Will NWS Headquarters adopt it

  13. Whatever Course is ChosenOutreach/education of our customers and partners(media and climate) must be a top priority

More Related