# March 27, 2004 Tri-State SKYWARN Coordinators Meeting, 1000 am-330 pm

Attendees:

*NWS OKX:*

Scott Reynolds KC2JCB (NWS OKX SKYWARN Program Leader)

Gary Conte (NWS OKX Warning Coordination Meteorologist)

*Coordinators:*

(Union Co. NJ) Kymm Regan KY2MMM, Jeff Regan NJ5R

(Orange Co. NY) Steve Fleckenstein N2UBP

(Putnam Co. NY) Bob Schneider KC2CWT

(New Haven/Middlesex Co. CT) Glenn Krieger N1HAW, Jim Williams N1GPB

(Rockland Co. NY) Joe LaFiandra N2LF, Alan Goodman N2CYC

(Bergen Co. NJ) Mike Adams WA2MWT, David Kozinn K2DBK, George Sabbi
KC2GLG

(Passaic Co. NJ) Paul Beshlian KC2CJW

(Suffolk Co. NY) Paul Beeman W2PB

(Westchester Co. NY) Terry Long KC2BUV

*Guests:*

Rob Macedo KD1CY, Taunton-area ARES SKYWARN Coordinator

Dennis Dura K2DCD, Chair, Mt. Holly SKYWARN Advisory Committee

Meeting opened at 1000 am by Gary and Scott with brief welcome and
introductions around the room.

Editor's Note: Please note that the majority of the notes that follow
are from notes taken by KD1CY, with some minor changes and additions.
(Thanks to KD1CY for 1) taking the notes; and 2) sharing and allowing
their redistribution. de KC2JCB)

# NWS Brookhaven (OKX) SKYWARN Training Program

NWS Brookhaven, NY Spring Training overview was completed. NWS
Brookhaven, NY had its first ever non-NWS forecaster taught class on
March 17^th^. Registration forms were sent to the NWS Brookhaven staff
and they actually issued the cards based on that training. The Suffolk
County Coordinator (W2PB) taught the class. This office has empowered
interested Coordinators to distribute the training as full-fledged
courses under NWS mandate. NWS Brookhaven is in favor of online SKYWARN
training as a refresher/reference but not for getting your Spotter ID.
They feel in-person training by either an ARES-SKYWARN Coordinator or
NWS forecasters is the way to go. They have "speaker notes" as part of
their training.

**Action item for NWS OKX for exchange of Info with NWS BOX**

**Will request a copy of the OKX Basic and Advanced SKYWARN Training on
a CD to review and compare it to NWS BOX.**

# Watch By-County Basis Issued by Field Offices

The Storm Prediction Center is working on new text products that will
forward SPC responsibility for the issuance of watches to field offices
versus the SPC issuing these watches. This will happen during the
upcoming season in some areas and OKX will go to this approach next
year.

# NWS Brookhaven, NY Discussion on the National and Local Forecast Databases

Brookhaven forecasters discussed the National Forecast Database and how
it has the following graphics in addition to text products:

-   Nationwide and regional forecast mosaic out to 7 days.

-   Max/min temp, Probability of Precipitation

-   Weather

-   Temp and Wind, Dewpoint

-   Precip Amount/Snow Amount

-   Sky cover

-   Wave Heights

In the future, Fire WX grids will be added along with Long Term and
Seasonal Forecast Grids and additional marine grids. The link the
national forecast grid web site is listed below:

<http://www.weather.gov/ndfd>

Also, discussed were local forecast grids and they are similar to the
National Forecast Database and the OKX forecasters briefly went through
the traditional text forecasts and severe weather products.

From the NWS Brookhaven product discussion, NWS Brookhaven uses the
Urban/Small Stream Flood Advisory between Flood Watch/Warnings for NYC
area.

NWS Brookhaven forecasters went over Satellite, ASOS, Mesonets, Forecast
Systems Lab in Boulder Colorado as well as Upper Air Soundings. In this
discussion, NWS Brookhaven mentioned that there is a national agreement
between NWS and AWS (Automated Weather Systems). Local TV stations in
conjunction with schools are utilizing this system.

Scott Reynolds mentioned that the new AWIPS build will have a new severe
weather scan. This has not been implemented for NWS OKX yet but will be
in the future. NWS BOX will also be implementing this in the future as
well. *(Ed. Note...new build implemented in April.)*

Scott Reynolds went on to discuss the Severe Weather Refresher beginning
with the spotter reporting criteria. NWS Brookhaven's spotter reporting
criteria mentions "virga clusters" that expand as they descend below the
cloud base as a potential downburst/microburst event that is reportable.

Self-Activation was then discussed as one of the NWS OKX ARES-SKYWARN
Coordinators from Southeastern New York asked about trying to get
activated prior to a Warning issuance for pulse type severe weather.
KD1CY shared the NWS BOX policy with the Coordinators. This appears to
be followed at NWS Brookhaven but the coordinators are not as well
versed with understanding radar as the coordinators for NWS Taunton.
Gary Conte and Scott Reynolds mentioned on a handout that we received
for the meeting that there is a link for "Radar Interpretation for
Emergency Managers" which is an online tutorial on radar. The ARES
Coordinators were very interested in that link and will most likely go
through the class to help them with activating their SKYWARN nets sooner
but at appropriate times. In addition, Scott Reynolds took an action to
get forecasters more proactive about calling coordinators if isolated
severe is occurring in their area.

The Radar Interpretation link for Emergency Managers is as follows:

<http://meted.ucar.edu/hazwx/index.htm>

Gary Conte, WCM-NWS Brookhaven, NY, gave a presentation on Conducting
Storm Surveys. First slide was the South Atlantic Hurricane preparing to
strike Brazil. Gary claimed that based on the intensity and duration of
the eye, he felt the storm was a "Major" hurricane.

The presentation was called Assessing Convective Wind Damage Patterns
and had the following as authors: Peter Capaccio, Brian Connors, Jean
Evans, Adam Leonard, Tammy Morgan, Douglas Sturm.

Key items Gary Conte mentioned in the presentation:

-   Go out there with a completely open mind.

-   Variety of different types of wind damage.

-   Straight-line winds, microburst/macroburst/downburst, Tornados

-   "Starburst/divergent pattern of wind damage" -downburst

-   Some wind damage patterns are not continuous

-   Open Fetch-Long distance where you may not have vegetation or large
    clusters of trees.

-   More vegetation/trees, force to friction increases and you'll get
    more directional variation whereas open areas are more contiguous.

-   Damage cones can form from projectiles from the tornado.

-   Discussed tornado with multiple vortices within the same tornado and
    how that affects the damage pattern.

Gary Conte states that Engineers need to be with meteorologists to make
a call on tornado classification for greater than F3 or more tornadoes.
These teams may also include other personnel to assist with damage
assessment. In discussing the rating of the Oklahoma City (OKC) tornado,
F4-F5 Tornado damage maybe classified but may have only done it for as
low as 17% of the track with more widespread lesser intensity tornado
damage during the life of the tornado. A slide was used to describe the
damage from the OKC tornado. Tim Marshall from Haag Engineering worked
with NWS Meteorologists on the assessment.

After lunch, Rob-KD1CY gave a formal presentation on the NWS Taunton
program. It was well received and several questions were asked about
where the operations were and how we maintained our operation. Taunton's
CWA covers most of MA, parts of CT and NH and all of RI.

After the NWS Taunton presentation, Dennis Dura, K2DCD, the
representative to the NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly NJ office gave an
informal presentation on the NWS PHI program. Their County Warning Area
encompasses 4 states, NJ/PA/DE/MD and 34 counties in those 4 states. NWS
PHI sees the same issues as OKX and makes SKYWARN interesting in their
area.

Dennis feels that their program needs to do a better job of SKYWARN
coordinating and spotting, as there are "dead spots" in coverage of the
program. One example of this is in Warren County NJ and Dennis is
looking for suggestions to solve it. The program received a "black eye"
from some people who were coordinating it some time ago. In addition,
there is no SKYWARN representation in parts of Maryland.

For SKYWARN Training, NWS PHI does a single course that runs 2.5-3 hours
long similar to the NWS BOX SKYWARN training sessions. Due to NWS
personnel changes due to illness and even death; SKYWARN training from
their office has been down from past years. Dennis is looking to get
training done across various counties on an every other year basis.

The NWS PHI web site used to be stand-alone because no one in the office
to maintain it. It is now part of the Mount Holly site and within the
last month its been that way, its been getting more exposure. Changes
and updates to the web site happen more frequently since they've moved
to this format because the NWS office has a Webmaster that can take care
of it quickly.

Much like the NWS Taunton office, NWS PHI used a variety of email lists
to talk to SKYWARN personnel. The Small group that was once called the
NWS PHI "Technical Committee" has now become the NWS PHI "Advisory
Committee". Whereas this committee used to provide just technical advice
(APRS, NWS Radio requirements etc.), it has now changed to a technical,
publicity and recruitment committee. The Advisory Committee is helping
the Warning Coordination Meteorologist PHI with SKYWARN because there is
no SKYWARN Program Leader.

As far as Emergency Management, Dennis was once part of the State of New
Jersey Emergency Management Agency. For NWS PHI NJ SKYWARN, it was
fruitful because Dennis could get grant money to get communications
equipment otherwise there would be no equipment at NWS Mount Holly. The
NWS Mount Holly office has a HF Antenna but no HF rig (Rig is brought in
for SKYWARN Recognition Day and other events as needed). They also have
a Tri-band VHF/UHF radio and that radio idles on APRS. The station
reaches quite a few locations in New Jersey as there is a lot of flat
land of Southern New Jersey. They want to build out their communications
further with the setup at NWS Mount Holly. They are also in the
beginning stages of formalizing bringing operators into the office now
that the equipment is installed with a training program to be formalized
for NWS Operators.

Each of the counties has a designated SKYWARN frequency with a area-wide
net that's linked on various frequencies. The wide area network has a
regular net at 2100. It works reasonably well but has some issues
because it's a patch worked linked repeater system and because of that,
it takes a long time for the repeaters to key up and drop out. Also,
some repeater owners might rebroadcast the shuttle, NHC etc. instead of
being utilized for SKYWARN purposes. There is a primary and secondary
system wide area network system that is utilized for the region. These
systems may be reachable from other portions of New Jersey in the NWS
Brookhaven area. In addition, all County EMA offices have APRS so that
can provide an always-on communications link.

The NWS Mount Holly web site has a button for repeaters and a map of the
repeaters for SKYWARN in their area. The link is
<http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/phi> and then click on the SKYWARN button
for the repeaters and a map of the repeaters. The exact links to the
SKYWARN part of the web-site can also be seen below:

<http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/skywarn/index.html>

<http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/skywarn/freqs.html>

When Dennis was part of the New Jersey EMA role, he put part of the
trunked state police system into NWS Mount Holly. He wanted to do this
for OKX as well but it was out of reach of the system. Dennis mentioned
how he wants to have one complete comprehensive SKYWARN program in New
Jersey between the NWS programs and would want the same for Maryland as
well, which is also covered by two different NWS Forecast offices.

**Action Items for NWS Taunton and Upton**

**Need to explore options of more exposure for the SKYWARN part of the
web site. This needs to be an agenda topic for the next SKYWARN
Technical Committee Meeting.**

**Need to have NWS Taunton put SKYWARN Training at the "Top of the News
Section" until all the SKYWARN training sessions are completed.**

**Rob-KD1CY will discuss with Dennis several items and they are as
follows:**

-   **Assistance to NWS PHI on their issues where they have no coverage
    (ie: How we got coverage in similar areas for NWS Taunton.)**

-   **Ask about the 800 MHz systems since NWS Taunton may get a similar
    system from MEMA. Can we utilize Hams to monitor the system along
    with the Ham rigs?? Is that what they do at NWS PHI?**

-   **Ask about how Dennis secured grant money, as this may be needed
    for the NWS Taunton office if the proposed NWS budget cuts that NWS
    Brookhaven mentioned are true.**

Amateur Radio Operators in Southeast New York wanted to understand what
it would take to get a NOAA WX Radio transmitter on the air for better
coverage in their area. Gary Conte asked Dennis Dura to explain their
experience, as they were able to get two NOAA WX Radio transmitters on
the air within the last 3 years.

Dennis was able to secure FEMA funds to make this happen and again was
able to install two transmitters over 3 years. It took 3 years because
of state government bureaucracy and had nothing to do with money. He was
able to secure the money by identifying the needs of the state. Dennis
inherited a program that gave WX Radio alerts to schools through a
previous grant and these schools wouldn't hear the NOAA WX Radio with
the basic radios. Dennis utilized EMA/RACES to do a semi-technical
survey on WX Radio signal strength and utilized a radio propagation
software program for the areas. They also did brainstorming sessions on
locations and did a more detailed diagnosis of what state/county/private
sites were available. The locations ended up being a state site for one
transmitter and a private site for the other transmitter. This is what
took the longest time, as there had to be trade offs and benefits for
each group particularly for the private site.

Another big headache was from a technical standpoint. There were several
options to procure equipment but at the time only one type of radio
transmitter (Krem) could be used and it costs around 50K. He also had to
get the specifications for the transmitter and it was difficult because
sales people for the company changed rapidly. At this point, Dennis had
money and a site but getting the transmitter was very difficult. Since
Dennis did this work, there are now multiple acceptable suppliers of
NOAA WX Radio transmitters. After the transmitters were installed, there
were some issues with spurious transmissions, intermod etc. and they had
to play detective on some issues to avoid paying for something that
wasn't their fault.

In the handout package, the Tri-State SKYWARN Coordinator's manual was
briefly discussed. Scott Reynolds asked for input into the document as
it's currently a draft document and Scott will need a month to complete
it and put appendices into the document. The document is intended to
formalize things a bit more.

**Action Item for ALL...**

**Review the Tri-State SKYWARN Coordinator's manual and provide
feedback.**

The SKYWARN Web-Site in Upton, NY was briefly discussed. The link
appears below:

<http://www.erh.noaa.gov/okx/skywarn/skywarn.html> The Long Island
ARES-SKYWARN Coordinators asked to have their email addresses added to
the contact list for the web site.

Storm Assessments by SKYWARN Coordinators was discussed. Gary Conte
asked if anyone could do a preliminary storm assessment based on his
20-minute basic assessment on convective wind damage. The ARES-SKYWARN
Coordinators said they were willing to do it but much of Gary's
presentation was aerial and they need more ground level type information
to feel more comfortable in doing the surveying. Gary Conte will add
more ground level information to the website for the coordinator's to
review. The New Haven/Middlesex County Coordinators offered to do the
surveying work on a preliminary basis for NWS Brookhaven. Rob-KD1CY
offered Ray Weber's assistance for parts of that area of CT when needed.

The next item discussed was the new Crank-up tower on the way (Date of
installation, unknown). It should be roughly 85-90 feet. Needs more
cable because the new tower will have an extra 35-40 feet of length to
it. One antenna will need to be replaced if its not a bad connector on
the cable. Scott KC2JCB wants to put together a crew to do the ground
level work and/or utilized the N2NFI crew if there isn't another crew
among the ranks of the SKYWARN Coordinators.

# Network Discussion

After much discussion, the following modes and methods will be
attempted/utilized depending on timing and installation of the new tower
at NWS Brookhaven, NY.

1.  One of the coordinator's suggests that NWS utilize a remote
    transmitter on the same site of the NOAA WX Radio in Long Island,
    NY. There is a window of opportunity to complete this because of
    work being done on the NOAA WX Radio per Gary Conte. There needs to
    be a technical advisory committee to write up the requirements
    document so that it can be done in a couple of months and the
    coordinator that suggested this idea will write the document.

2.  Utilize a RF linked repeater network that may also have an IRLP and
    Echolink node as part of the system.

3.  Put a HF antenna up at NWS Brookhaven and test out the range of the
    system.

4.  Discussion on utilization of both the beam and vertical antennas on
    the new tower system.

5.  Inter-NWS Office communications using the 147.505-East Haven, CT
    Repeater as its connected to the Echolink-IRLP New England Network.

Activation procedures were discussed. For now, NWS Brookhaven will
utilize more frequent HWO updates in addition to their email system. The
more frequent HWO updates will be done starting in May. NWS Brookhaven
will also look into their AWIPDS LDAS system of BBS, Faxes and Paging to
see if that can be utilized to notify the SKYWARN Network on activation
as well as their Special WX Statement Severe Weather Outlook as means to
help with more frequent activation.

Last item concerned NWS Brookhaven Improvements to the program. Ideas
from the Coordinators included:

-   Keep the SKYWARN link as the top headline so its seen more easily on
    the website.

-   Make sure the SKYWARN link is on club and section web sites for
    better publicity.

-   Keep the system for intercommunications of coordinators simple.

-   Try and have National NWS HQ put some PR together for the national
    media.

-   Make sure a Public Information Statement is issued for training.