The  MICROBURST

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WELCOME

As you may have noticed, this newsletter is something new to the NWS Upton Homepage.  This new on-line newsletter is planned for up to 4 times per year to help us keep in better contact with our dedicated volunteer SKYWARN spotters, and to help you, the SKYWARN community, stay better informed about our program.  In the coming months, we will be making some rather significant changes in our program.  Some of those changes will be detailed below.  We hope that you will find this newsletter informative and helpful.  Feel free to send us your comments regarding this newsletter and the program in general.

Enjoy.

WHAT'S NEW IN 2001...

The first big change to our SKYWARN Program in 2001 was the addition of our on-line Spotter Report Submission.  Thanks to Matt Hirsch here at the Upton office for his work in getting that up and running.  In case you haven't seen that, check it out here.  Of course, the more obvious changes in the OKX SKYWARN Program are the new-look homepage and this new on-line newsletter.

Bob Giglio is our new Regional SKYWARN Coordinator.  Bob takes over for Joe Tomasone, who has moved on to the warmer climate of Florida.  Joe will be greatly missed.  Bob, Gary Conte (NWS Upton's Warning Coordination Meteorologist/SKYWARN Program Leader) and Scott Reynolds (Senior Forecaster/Assistant SKYWARN Program Leader, NWS Upton) are working on filling the remaining County/Local SKYWARN Coordinator vacancies.  Gary and Scott are also working to finalize the 2001 SKYWARN Training schedule (see below for more).

"SPRING TRAINING 2001"

Spring has sprung across the Tri-State Region, which can only mean...longer days, afternoon seabreezes along the ocean and Long Island Sound shores, and the Spring SKYWARN Spotter Training season has arrived.  We're looking at a busy schedule this spring, with a dozen or more training sessions planned, with several sucessful sessions already completed.  Thanks to the Connecticut Wing Civil Air Patrol and the North Jersey Weather Observers, just to name a few, for hosting training sessions.  We still have a number of sessions to go this spring as of this writing.  Click here to see the latest training schedule.

If you are a spotter that has not been to a training session in the past three (3) years, we ask that you come back for a "refresher."  More on that below...

FUTURE CHANGES...

As we mentioned above, there are a number of changes in the works for the Tri-State SKYWARN Program.  Here's  an overview of the more important changes...

• We are now asking that all SKYWARN volunteers attend a training session every three (3) years.  This will allow our spotters to remain current on the latest storm spotting information.  Beginning with the end of the Spring 2002 Training season, all spotters who have not attended a training session within the past five (5) years will automatically be dropped from our Spotter lists.
• We are looking at the possibility of starting an Advanced Spotter Training Course in 2002.

Stay tuned for more...because there's more to follow...

SPOTTER CALL-IN/E-MAIL CRITERIA REFRESHER

Since the Spring Severe Weather Season is right around the corner, we thought we'd take the time to briefly remind our spotters about when we, the National Weather Service, would like to hear from you, the spotters.  First, a quick refresher on some severe weather basics...

Severe Thunderstorms are thunderstorms that produce...

• Winds of 58 mph (50 knots) or greater;
• Hail of 3/4 inch or greater (approximately the size of a dime or larger); or a
• Tornado

Severe Thunderstorm (or Tornado) Watch...

• There is a threat for severe weather in and close to the watch area.  Spotters should be alert for the possibility of severe weather.

Severe Thunderstorm (or Tornado) Warning...

• A severe thunderstorm (or tornado) has been detected by radar, or has been reported to the NWS.

We ask that our SKYWARN Spotters report the following to the NWS via e-mail, the 800 number provided to you during Spotter Training, or to your local SKYWARN Coordinator (who will in turn forward this to the NWS)...

1. HIGHEST PRIORITY/Life Threatening Criteria

a. Any deaths or injuries associated with hazardous weather.
b. Any TORNADO or WATERSPOUT.

2. Other High Priority/Life Threatening Criteria

a. Funnel or wall clouds.
b. Clusters of "Virga" that expand as they descend beneath the cloud base.
c. Thunderstorms with wind gusts of at least 58 mph, or that cause structural damage to homes, power lines, or whole trees.
d. Hail 3/4 inch in diameter (about the size of a penny) or greater.
e. Flooding of rivers or streams into homes or industries. Also stream, river, or poor drainage urban flooding which make roadways totally impassable.
     i. Report following a short (less than 1 hour) torrential downpour (0.7 inches in 15 mins., 1.2 inches in 20 mins).
     ii. Report 2 inches of rain in 3 hours.
     iii. Report 1 inch of rain in an hour in urban area.

3. Other Priority Items

a. Thunderstorm wind gusts from 40 to 57 mph. These gusts are strong enough to down tree limbs.
b. Hail of any size less than 3/4 inch in diameter.
c. Event total rainfall.
d. Rises of streams or rivers to bankfull condition.

4. During Tropical Storm or Hurricane Warnings...

a. Please report only Priority 1 and 2 Criteria Conditions.
b. Report any wind gusts greater than or equal to 58 mph whether or not a thunderstorm is in progress.
c. Also report the following:
     i. Any KNOWN storm surge inundations of coastal areas.
     ii. The highest wind gust during the tropical storm/hurricane.
     iii. The lowest barometric pressure and time it occurred.
     iv. Event total rainfall.

REMEMBER...NEVER place yourself in any danger when reporting Severe Weather! Your safety is and should be your highest priority.  Pass along your reports ONLY when it is safe to do so.  We need you and thank you always for your help.

NEW NOAA WEATHER RADIO TRANSMITTERS ON THE WAY

There will be 2 new NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) transmitters in the region in the next few months.  One will be located on Mohawk Mountain in central Litchfield County, CT, and should be on-line in a month or so.  This will provide additional NWR coverage in the Lower Hudson Valley, and for the Upton forecast area, Putnam County, NY in particular.  The Albany. NY NWS office will provide the programming for this transmitter.

Another new transmitter will be based in Hardyston in eastern Sussex County, NJ.  This transmittter will provide additional NWR coverage for northeastern New Jersey (Bergen and Passaic Counties in particular), as well as Orange and Rockland Counties of New York.  It is scheduled to be on the air late this summer.

Yet another transmitter is scheduled to be installed in Monmouth County later this year.  This will be low-power transmitter (300 watts), but may provide additional coverage for Union County, NJ.  The Mt. Holly, NJ NWS office will provide programming for both of these transmitters.

Stay tuned for more details on all of these and other new NWR transmitters.

Amateur Radio

On December 2nd, 2000, the second annual National Weather Service Special Event (NWSSE) took place across the country. This event was cosponsored by the
American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the NWS.  The purpose of this annual event is to thank the Amateur Radio community for its support throughout the  year during hazardous weather events. The amateur radio community often provides critical and potentially life-saving information to the NWS offices during severe weather events.

AB2M (Joe Tomasone) led the local staffing at the Upton office during the event.  The station had 354 contacts, contacted 36 NWS offices, worked 39 states and received a QSL card from N0A, Special Events Station at NWS Goodland, KS. Goodland had the most NWS offices contacted (56) and tied for the most states  contacted (49). No one contacted all 50 states.  

...From the entire staff at NWS Upton...Thanks to our amateur radio friends for all of your help in the past, and we look forward to working with you again this year and in the future!

Final Thoughts from the Editor...

This newsletter has been an idea in the works for almost a year now...a brainstorm Joe Tomasone (AB2M) and I devised while driving to (and back from) a SKYWARN training session in Bethel, CT last June.  It has taken some time to get it off the ground, but here it is.  I hope that you find this informative and useful.  Any comments, suggestions or ideas for articles that you have for the next issue of "The Microburst," please send them along.

During the 5-plus years that I have been a member of the NWS Upton staff, there have been a TON of changes in the technologies that meteorologists utilize on a day-to-day basis, including during severe weather events.  AWIPS, of course, has been the biggest.  We continue to receive new software tools to better diagnose severe weather for our area, but we still need you, the SKYWARN Spotters to provide us with necessary "ground truth" to allow us to better do our part in the protection of life and property.

So, thank you for your support of the SKYWARN program, and we hope to see you at a SKYWARN Training Class near you soon.

Scott R. / Editor of The Microburst

Scott Reynolds, "Microburst Editor," assistant NWS Upton SKYWARN Program Leader
     scott.reynolds@noaa.gov

Gary Conte, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, NWS Upton SKYWARN Program Leader
     gary.conte@noaa gov 

via "Snail Mail":

National Weather Service, NOAA
     attn:  SKYWARN
175 Brookhaven Avenue, Building NWS-1
Upton, NY 11973