Welcome to the National Weather Service office in Taunton, Massachusetts
The Weather Forecast Office shares a building with the River Forecast Center.
Inside, trained meteorologists are hard at work creating and distributing weather forecasts and other weather information.
Our offices issues forecasts for much of southern New England.
To create the forecasts, meteorologists use the new AWIPS computer system.
AWIPS stands for Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System.
AWIPS uses state of the art hardware and software to display various
meteorological parameters forecast by computers such as pressure, wind,
temperature, and precipitation. It also shows us satellite imagery, lightning data, radar, and hydrologic (river) information.
AWIPS is replacing an older computer system called AFOS.
To make a forecast we need data. We obtain radar data from
the radar data acquistion hardware. The radar dish is located
in the large white sphere across the street from our office. We
obtain satellite images, and data from other computers through
our satellite broadcast network.
Weather observations are also received from automated observing
stations and other sources through computers and modems.
Forecasters at the workstations then examine this data
Weather maps can be printed. Detailed radar images enable
accurate timing of short range weather events such as thunderstorms.
The forecasters discuss the meteorological situation to arrive at a
forecast.
Then the forecast is entered into the AWIPS text workstation.
After the forecast is completed it is transmitted through AWIPS
and is relayed to radio, TV, newspapers, and the public. Many
forecasts are also broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio.
The office staff have received numerous awards for their hard work
and dedicated service.
