Alabama
As a recent target in a series of hazardous storms across the
southeast, Alabama was hit by a severe tornado earlier this
month. Trees 
toppled, power lines went down, and homes were damaged in Montgomery
as 73-112 mph winds ripped through the area. But NWS's
Birmingham Forecast Office issued a 23-minute lead warning
time, more than doubling the 10-minute national average tornado
warning lead time. No deaths or injuries were reported. Kudos
to Tom Bradshaw, lead forecaster, and Jim Westland, John DeBlock
and Don Smith for giving residents plenty of time to take cover.
Massachusetts
NWS's
Taunton Forecast Office near Boston also received praise
for getting rapid, accurate information out during the recent
"Lion Blizzard." Forecaster Joe Dellicarpini was singled out
by the Greater Boston Executive Board for "making the right
decisions in sync with state and city leaders and appropriate
for the safety of our employees."
Boulder
15
employees from NOAA Research's
Forecast Systems and Aeronomy
Laboratories took a day of leave to help out with Special
Olympics' northeast area regional Colorado winter games' competition.
With Julie Singewald coordinating, NOAA volunteers pitched in
as gatekeepers, timers, course marshals, and ski buddies. NOAA
recruits were Darien Davis, Rich Jesuroga, Carol Werner, Barb
Keppler, Jonathan Auerbach, Jon Wood, Keith Hulob, Mike Shanahan,
and Hank Barber. They also brought along friends and family
to assist the 180 athletes.
Seattle
Port
facilities built on river deltas might be undermined by the
earthquake that recently rocked the Seattle area. Because the
earthquake may have triggered underwater mudslides, the U.S.
Geological Survey asked NOAA's
Rainier to conduct emergency hydrographic riverfront
surveys in the Seattle-Tacoma region. The first survey began
this week. Data will be used to create new topographic maps
for comparison with pre-earthquake maps to evaluate whether
landslides have spurred unseen hazards to area port facilities.
These special surveys must be conducted quickly because strong
tidal currents can alter the evidence of small landslides in
a matter of weeks. Mapping the deltas provides a unique opportunity
to add significant scientific observations that would otherwise
not be made.
Plus … the Rainier just hosted nearly 80 fifth grade
students and their teachers and parents on a hands-on tour.
A big hit, the tour highlighted a year of oceanography studies.
From the bridge to the survey department and down to the engine
room, NOAA
Corps' Daniel Karlson kept the pace lively.
Puerto
Rico
On the second leg of a Caribbean Marine Mammal Survey, NOAA
scientists aboard the Gordon Gunter have begun surveys
to establish baseline information on winter migratory paths
of humpback and other protected whale and dolphin species. Future
monitoring will explore annual trends and habitat use. Survey
staff include scientists from NOAA's
National Marine Fisheries Service in Miami and Pascagoula
Laboratories and NOAA's Atlantic
Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami.
Hawaii/Africa/Sri
Lanka/Japan
Delores
Clark, of NWS’s
Honolulu Forecast Office, recently guided a Sri Lanka official
through the process of effectively disseminating weather watches
and warnings, working with the media, and educating the community…...African
scientists will visit NOAA’s National
Climatic Data Center in North Carolina next month to learn
about NCDC’s quality control processing of observational data.
Once data are quality controlled, researchers use it to examine
such issues as how climate varies over time, whether the earth
is warming or cooling, and to place significant weather events
into historical perspective. The African scientists are from
the African Center for Meteorological Applications Development
in Niger, and they are on a mission to save deteriorating African
paper weather records. In recent months, scientists have also
visited from China, Australia, South Africa, and Spain...…Greg
Hernandez, NOAA
Public Affairs, developer with Janet Ward, High
Performance Computing & Communications (HPCC), of NOAA’s
popular home page, just explained how it all comes together
to extremely interested NOAA guests from Japan.
