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Weather
Team All Set
For First-Ever Olympics Partnership
By Marilu Trainor
NOAA National Weather Service Public Affairs Officer
XIX Olympic Winter Games
(Feb. 8-24)
· about 3,500 athletes and officials
representing up to 80 nations
· 78 events in 15 disciplines and 7
sports
VIII Paralympic Winter Games
(March 7-16/)
· about 1,100 athletes and officials
representing up to 40 nations
· 5 sports in 34 medal events
· 5 indoor and 5 mountain venues
Over
one million visitors expected, 26,000 volunteers and about 16,000
media
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More than one million spectators, thousands of athletes, officials and
local residents will converge on Utah’s Wasatch Front mountains and the
greater Salt Lake City area for 2002 Winter Olympics events in February.
Keeping the population aware of rapidly changing weather conditions is
a challenge that falls to a team of weather forecasters from the National
Weather Service, the private sector and academic community.
“Weather typically affects the Olympic Winter Games in some way, whether
it is snow, fog, wind, air quality, warm temperature, rain, or avalanches,”
said Vickie Nadolski, director, NOAA’s National Weather Service Western
Region, headquartered in Salt Lake City. Vickie and her team of meteorologists
are getting ready to support the XIX Olympic Winter Games from February
8 - 24 and the VII Paralympic Winter Games, March 7 - 16 in her home state.
Speaking at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society
in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 14, Vickie said, “Accurate and timely weather
forecasts, and the way in which these forecasts are made, will become
part of 2002 Olympic Winter Games’ history.”
Announcing the weather partnership between the United States’ National
Weather Service, the University of Utah and 13 private meteorologists
under contract to a Salt Lake City television station last April, the
Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the games set the stage for advancing
meteorology in the region. The 50- member team has over 700 years of combined
Utah meteorology experience.
Team NWS
Forecasters (left to right) Tom Niziol, lead forecaster, Buffalo, NY;
Joel Cline, lead forecaster, Raleigh, NC ; Randy Graham, science and operations
officer, Grand Rapids, MI; Jim Campbell, western region deputy director,
Salt Lake City, UT; Timothy Barker, science and operations officer, Boise,
ID; Larry Dunn, meteorologist-in-charge, Salt Lake City, UT ; and David
Schultz, research meteorologist, NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory,
Norman, OK.
“We want everyone to be ‘weather-wise and weather-safe’ during the Games.
The forecasters’ job will be very important to ensure that people coming
to Utah will be prepared for winter weather conditions that can change
in a short period of time,” Vickie said.
She summarized the duties of NOAA’s National Weather Service as providing
the baseline meteorological information through routine NWS products and
services for public safety, emergency operations, traffic, security, aviation
and avalanche control. The NWS Forecast Office in Salt Lake City will
also issue a special Hazardous Weather Potential Outlook twice per day,
and provide historical climate data for venues and cities. Customers relying
on our forecasts include those responsible for ground and air transportation
as well as medical emergency responders, she said.
Streamlining the flow of weather data to the team, NOAA’s Forecast Systems
Laboratory, in Boulder, Colo., developed a PC-based weather display system
called FX-Net. FX-Net provides access to current weather and forecast
information at outdoor venues for use by KSL forecasters. The communication
network ensures all forecasters have access to the same weather information
as they provide their critical forecasts for the Games.
Mark Eubank, head meteorologist at KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, leads a team
of 13 private meteorologists who will provide official weather forecasts
at five outdoor venues. They will also provide weather forecasts for the
opening and closing ceremonies and the daily weather briefings for the
organizing committees and official media.
Faculty and students at the University of Utah Department of Meteorology
are maintaining 27 weather sensors at the five outdoor venue sites and
other key locations throughout northern Utah. The university will run
high resolution (1-Km.) analysis models every hour for Northern Utah and
high resolution (4-Km.) computer forecast models four times a day. They
have provided training to about 25 volunteer students and others who will
make official Olympic weather observations at the outdoor venues and maintain
weather databases and software at the university.
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Gearing
up for Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, NWS forecasters eye
potential avalanche slide areas in Provo Canyon.
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The core to the weather observations for the 2002 Winter Olympics is called
MesoWest. It encompasses nearly 3,000 weather stations in the Western
U.S. from more than 70 participating organizations. Data from Road Environmental
Sensor Stations (ESS) in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Washington, and
Wyoming also contributes to the vast array of up-to-the-minute observations.
The data will be processed and quality controlled at the University of
Utah. Graphical products will be generated every 15 minutes and provided
to the Weather Support Group as well as Games officials, media and the
public from the Weather Support Group partners’ web pages.
The official 2002 Olympic Winter Games’ Weather Operations Center will
be located at the NWS’ Salt Lake City forecast office where the meteorologists
will jointly prepare daily forecasts ensuring consistent information is
made available to all decision makers. Media interviews will also be conducted
from this location.
"The weather legacy of the Games is a model partnership that clearly
demonstrates how government, private industry, and academia work well
together to provide a superior product. The multi-sector cooperation has
led to improved forecasting tools, and a better understanding of winter
weather in complex terrain. The data gathered will support future mountain
weather research. The special software developed to exchange information
between the forecasters has already been used by the National Weather
Service to support our ongoing mission for fire weather and all hazards
forecasting,” Vickie said.
“The 2002 Olympic Winter Games is a major challenge for operational weather
forecasters and the experienced Weather Support Group is ready to go!”
For more:
NOAA’s National Weather Service: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Saltlake
University of Utah Department of Meteorology: http://www.met.utah.edu
The Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games: http://www.saltlake2002.com.
"A Climatology of Northern Utah, For the 2002 Winter Olympics":
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/techrpts/tr200102/tr2001-02.pdf.
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