NOAA - National Weather Service to Honor Ham Radio Dec 1

Newington, CT, November 22, 2007 --(PR.com)-- 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.

Allen Pitts, W1AGP
ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager
(860) 594-0328
apitts@arrl.org

NOAA's National Weather Service
Goodland, KS Weather Forecast Office
920 Armory Road
Goodland, KS 67735-9273

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