This document summarizes a presentation given by Todd Morris from NOAA/NWS and Jay Rosenthal from Air, Weather & Sea Conditions, Inc. at the 93rd AMS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX from January 6-10, 2013. The presentation discusses how weather is a decisive factor for emergency response and outlines various meteorology concepts, operationally available forecasts, and planning/real-time information resources that the NWS provides to help emergency responders and planners understand weather impacts. Key points included how weather parameters can vary seasonally, diurnally, and hourly and impact issues like hazardous plumes, emergency operations, and more.

1. Todd Morris
NOAA/NWS
Salt Lake City, UT
801.803.4011
and
Jay Rosenthal
Air, Weather & Sea Conditions, Inc.
818.645.8632
93rd AMS Annual Meeting
Austin, TX
January 6-10, 2013

2. SuperStorm Sandy
October 29, 2012

3. 2011 Weather Extremes

4. Weather Impacts

6. Motivation for this talk
 Emergency responders/planners know weather is
important but don’t always know, how, why, where, or
when
 The NWS is committed to helping with disaster response,
and has developed many valuable tools and processes for
helping emergency responders

7. Outline
 Weather – A Decisive Factor for Emergency Response
 Meteorology 101 Concepts for Emergency Managers
 Operationally Available Forecasts & Emergency Response
 Planning/Real-Time Information

8. Weather Can Be Decisive Factor for
Emergency Response
 Who will be in harms way?
 Damage & lethality?
 Plume model inputs?
 Emergency operations?
 Will conditions change?
 Terrain, coastal & altitude factors?
 Humidity, temp., clouds, wind?
 Are all decision-makers/responders using the same
representative meteorological data?
 Are historical data of value?

9. Variability of Weather Parameters
 Seasonal
 Summer stratus
 Santa Ana’s
 Diurnal
 Sea Breezes
 Drainage winds
 Daily stratus “burn-off”
 Hourly

10. The
Impact
Of
Changing
Winds
From NARAC, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

11. Satellite Imagery and Utility
 Seasonal and Diurnal Patterns of Cloud Cover
 Day vs. Night
 Morning vs. Afternoon
 Implications
 Radar Propagation
 Communications

12. Operationally Available Forecasts
• Website
• www.weather.gov
•Formats
• Narrative
• Table/Graph
• Gridded
• HAZMAT
• Spot Forecast

13. GIS Compatible Digital Forecast Data
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/gis/index.php
 Derived from NWS gridded
forecasts
 Resolution is 2.5km
 Available for download in
shape file format
 3-hrly intervals
 Out to 7 days
 At least 12 sensible weather
elements
 NWS continues expanding
on this capability
July 11, 2007 Weather Support to Forensic Intelligence

14. Fire boundaries
shown for aerial
extent comparison
Piru (2003)
Simi (2003)
Topanga (2005)
Wind Speed and Direction in GIS

15. Decision Support Services
What Can Be Done
 Virtual conferences
 Town hall meetings
 WCMs
 On-site support
 Incident Meteorologists

16. Partner E-mails
 “Heads-up” notice
 3-7 days in advance
 Threat Defined
 Location
 Condition
 Timing
 Impacts
 Confidence

17. Weather Stories
 Graphical story
 Relays important/concise
information
 Impacts
 Timing
 Coordinated with other
legacy NWS products

18. Digital Data and Hazard Viewer
 Online mapping tool
 Brings together
 Weather forecast
information
 Hazard planning data
 Allows better
understanding of the
impacts

19. Graphical Travel Web Pages
 Provides graphical weather
forecast information
 For well traveled roadways
 Derived from local office
digital forecast database
 Hazards depicted on a scale
from none to extreme

20. Statewide Weather Pages
 Brings together all-hazards
weather data for a state on
one page
 Weather stories
 Radar data
 Watch/warning/advisory
map
 U.S. hazards assessment
map

21. Social Media
 Facebook
 Twitter
 YouTube

22. Takeaways
 Weather is obviously important to emergency
responders/planners
 Don’t always know, how, why, where, or when
 NWS is committed to helping
 Disaster response
 Real-time on-site support
 Incident meteorologist
 Developed many valuable tools and processes

23. Questions?