NOAA s National Weather Service Role of the Emergency

NOAA’s National Weather Service Role of the Emergency Manager & Agency for Severe Weather Dan Stahl Administrator Seneca County Department of Public Safety Hazardous Weather Course May 17 -19, 2005 NOAA’s National Weather Service

The Day Begins Monitor the Weather • Serious, High-Priority EMA job – every day – – Any Weather for Any Emergency Severe Weather possibilities Multiple reviews of available data Begins before weather • • • Spotter activation criteria Contact with NWS office Emergency Operations Plan - in place Checklists – don’t miss procedures, assignments Relationships with other agencies and providers Local and Regional weather meetings

The Day Begins Monitor the Weather • NWS Severe Weather Outlook – – – Received daily 1 -day outlook 2 -7 day outlook Zone Forecast Local weather forecast through media Other “heads up” on the weather

Good or Severe Weather is Possible • • Your favorite weather source Check Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Forecast Check local media for their interpretation Check NWS Doppler Radar – NWS Cleveland – NWS North Webster – NWS Wilmington

Good or Severe Weather is Possible (continued) • • Monitor local Amateur Radio repeaters Monitor local Skywarn Net Monitor regional Skywarn Control Net Monitor MARCS system for other counties’ weather – West of our area – South of our area – Odd weather situations (unusual frontal activity)

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • • • Thunder Eagle Federal receivers Alpha Pagers Cell phones Internet EAS receiver NOAA Weather Receiver Weather Station Meteorlogix – Storm Sentry

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • • • EMWIN RASTRACK messaging Alpha-paging encoders Email / Email messaging Ohio EMA Weather Alerts Storm Now Alerts Public safety two-way UHF communications Amateur Radio Television

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • • AM/FM radio Scanners FAX Phone MARCS radio system Reverse 9 -1 -1 NW Ohio Skywarn group email NWS’ e. Spotter

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Goal • • • Provide a “heads up” for our communities Messaging to public safety agencies If practical, FAX to – – – Fire EMS Law enforcement Schools Hospitals Government agencies

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Thunder Eagle – Receives NWS weather messages – Use SAME codes to separate “our” messages – We broadcast any Tornado Warning or Severe Thunderstorm Warning for our county over a VHF radio frequency – We can send custom county messages – Activate Federal Receivers

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Federal receivers – “Black Box” receiver activated by encoded broadcast from the Thunder Eagle system – We place these in schools, hospitals, businesses, public buildings, etc. – We allow Warninglevel weather messages – Also receives our custom county messages

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Alpha Pagers – Alpha-numeric pagers – Short text messages via email – Weather status & warnings from subscription service – Weather status & warnings from our weather family

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Cell phones – Some of the same messages used by alpha-numeric pagers – Voice communications by live calling or by recorded message – Some phones allow email & web – Some phones now have shortrange radios used with other similar cell system components

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Internet – Some of the same email notifications used by pagers – Weather websites showing radar, reports, discussion – Emergency websites showing relief efforts, logistics – Shared data systems to connect agencies – Instant Messaging – IM’s such as Yahoo Messenger, AOL AIM, ICQ

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Emergency Activation System (EAS) receiver – Encode/Decode of NWS Weather Alerts – Logging of events on a dedicated printer – Local radio stations

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • NOAA Weather Receiver – SAME weather receivers available from places like Radio Shack, Uniden and others – At EOC we have a radio dedicated to each NOAA weather station in our area – Carey & Castalia – Some radios have the capability to send email to pagers and email accounts

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Weather Station – Local conditions – Available on Internet – Archive of weather readings to computer storage drive www. senecapublicsafety. org – Many types to choose from – Ours is a Peet Bros.

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Meteorlogix – Storm Sentry – – – Near real-time data Satellite feed New version is web-based Weather radar, text products Enhanced data analysis Looping of data pictures for review – Automated tasks such as printing of county-specific watches and warnings

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • EMWIN – Satellite reception – Send it out over Amateur Radio Packet BBS – We had a computer-generated voice read the report on Amateur Radio – Can be logged to a printer

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • RASTRACK messaging – Allows text messages to be sent to our Public Safety UHF radio system – Messages can be pre-set or can be custom – Saves air-time, personal time and is private – Messages can be sent to individuals or groups – Messages are identified by the assigned radio system ID’s

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Alpha-paging encoders – A previous method we used Alphamates – Can still use as a backup

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Email / Email messaging – Regular email to personnel – Email sent to pagers and cell phones – Email from discussion websites such as Yahoo!

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Ohio EMA Weather Alerts – This is a coordinated system between the Ohio EMA and NWS – OEMA receives NWS text product and sends it out to a subscription list of pagers, cell phones and email

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Storm. Now Alerts – Customize for your needs – Low cost subscription

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Public safety two-way UHF communications – Any channel is available for public safety and is redundant several times – We dedicate a common channel to severe weather information and communications when watches and warnings are issued – All fire, EMS, law enforcement and public safety can participate – Fire and law spotters

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Amateur Radio – This is a large resource – This volunteer group is many times cross-trained for service, especially emergency communications – They bring their own equipment – They can operate other equipment – They can supplement EOC – They may be independent, Skywarn, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), MARS – They run networks, are spotters, operate from home or onsite

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Television – Local stations – Weather Channel

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • AM/FM radio – Relationship with your local stations – Public service announcements – Find ways to keep them on the air during emergencies – Emergency power

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Scanners – Available to the general public – Published Public Safety frequencies – Monitor public services as they respond – Monitor Amateur Radio networks

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • FAX – Announce weather that is coming soon – Especially slow-arrival, long-range weather such as snow – Can be sent to a large group by broadcast

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Phone – – – – Easy to use Common to high percentage of people Easy to train users Both wired and wireless Many enhancement tools available Develop calling trees for notification Need to learn new ways to use or improve this universal resource

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • MARCS Radio System – – Another radio path to NWS Another radio path to other counties Digital Some SIMPLEX Analog channels

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • Reverse 9 -1 -1 – Use telephone infrastructure to call specific “groups” with any type of message – “Groups” can be of any delineation including geographic, service, workgroup and more – Message is automated for delivery by a dedicated network – Includes many other abilities such as verifying receipt of message, replying to the message, surveys – Extremely versatile – May incur additional costs

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • NW Ohio Skywarn group email (others) – Your local Skywarn group may have an online discussion group – Each group’s rules may differ – Usually includes ability to send notices, email, and Instant Messaging (IM) – If you use some of these online groups for other things, then you can easily send a request to join – You may need to first subscribe to a group service

Good or Severe Weather Monitoring / Warning Resources • NWS’ e. Spotter – – – – From the National Weather Service Online weather reporting system New version Each NWS office decides to use it Several offices now online Users authorized by each office EMA directors can be given additional privileges and review of reports

Are you ready? Get your resources lined up • • Don’t wait until the last minute Plan for redundancy Propagate working relationships with responders Talk to your NWS office regularly

Thank you! Next up – Severe Weather Plans • • How our county operates during severe weather Getting your severe weather resources in order Recruiting Volunteers Interfacing with Skywarn and NWS Thanks for your attention!