**[NOAA's NWS Partners' Workshop -- Silver Spring, MD]{.underline}**

**[June 23, 2005 -- Notes and Actions]{.underline}**

**Dennis McCarthy (Director, NWS OCWWS) -- Opening:**

-   This is your meeting. We want to listen to your concerns.

**John Jones (NWS DAA):**

\- We want to reach out to you to better understand problems and work
with you to solve them.

\- NOAA is enhancing its protection of the public from tsunamis.

\- We are here to listen to you.

**Ed Johnson (NWS OSP) -- Implementation of NOAA Partnership Policy:**

\- Policy has garnered much mistrust and fear.

\- Details -- Policy now fully in place:

> \- 4 main policy directives -1-10 (umbrella policy), 2 instructions --
> 1-1001, 1-1002, and Policy 10-102.

1-1001 -- designed to make it easier to keep track of information
service changes in NWS

1-1002 -- termination -- provides partners with procedures to raise
concerns

Fears:

\- NOAA will use policy to begin an era of frank competition with the
private sector. NWS has no ulterior motive. We are not competing with
you.

\- Competition we face is other federal budget priorities. Policy
recognizes private sector role. NOAA recognizes the diversity of the
private sector.

\- Many things have gone unchanged from the past. It is just now in
writing. Policy

does not change a single NOAA product.

\- It did change NOAA's approach to managing conflicts.

\- Vision of policy is founded on better communication which should lead
to better working relationship and better service to the public. Sets a
very high standard to the NWS. This is a challenge.

\- Importance of Private Sector:

> \- NWS has accepted responsibility for health and growth of the
> private sector. NWS' job to make that happen. Private sector provides
> services beyond the capacity and capability the government can
> provide. NWS creates the market for weather information.

\- Ways NWS can help make the enterprise better:

> \- Globalweatherpages.com -- basic yellow pages of private sector
> companies by category. Replaced a list that NWS maintained on SP
> website.

\- Fire weather services:

> \- NWS provide spot forecasts only when a fire is out of control, or
> when controlled burn follows under Interagency MOU, or when a public
> official certifies it is essential for public safety.
>
> \- States are having trouble finding private sector fire weather
> service providers. Will become a category on the globalweatherpages
> site.

\- Spirit of policy requires NOAA to coordinate with the private sector
much earlier in the advances of science and technology -- opening up new
opportunities.

**Margaret Fowke (NWS OSP) - Environment and Human Health:**

\- Scientific advances bring environmental information and human health
together.

\- Opportunities where we can all support human health -- Education,
Decision support/Expert assistance, R&D, Information services.

\- Weather education in medical community -- most misunderstandings --
need your help!

-   Rip Currents -- undertow and rip tides are same as rip currents,
    don't know how to escape, don't know can occur in lakes.

-   Space Weather -- don't know origin, greatest hazards, geomagnetic
    storms, solar flares, radio blackouts.

-   Lightning -- don't know basic safety rules (e.g., 30/30 rule).

-   UV -- suntan is healthy, wearing sunscreen protects you so you can
    sunbathe much longer.

-   Hurricanes -- don't understand cone of uncertainty, how people most
    die from hurricanes, relationship between strength and size.

-   Wind Chill -- possible to get frostbite if temp is above freezing
    but wind chill is below freezing.

-   Air Quality -- ozone/particle pollution affects.

-   Seafood Safety -- don't understand methylmercury, fish sticks unsafe
    to eat.

-   Fire Weather -- believe NWS picks prescribed burn locations, safety
    if trapped in smoky environment (wet vs. dry cloths)

-   Heat -- crack the window helps ventilating, and will provide
    hyperthermia. It will not!

**Listening Session:**

Johnson: 15% of GDP spent on health care.

Jim Giraytys -- Shenair Institute at James Madison -- air quality
institute -- work with NWS in air quality areas. Partnership with U VA,
Fairfax Comm. College. Valley Air Now -- outreach program they are
developing. Develop decision support tools to make decisions related to
health care.

Joel Martin (U of OK) -- read high level statement -- NEXRAD Level II
data reliability. To be discussed further at FOS meeting in afternoon.

Clay Anderson (WRC4 -- TV, Washington, DC) -- Air and seaborne illnesses
-- is NWS/NOAA working with private sector to develop information for
the public related to homeland security concerns? Need to look into
this.

Ian Miller (TWC) -- Frustration with pace of completion of projects
(VTEC). Is a process going to be put in place to assign resources more
effectively to finish projects on time?

John Jones -- we face challenges within the Federal government. FY06
budget - \$50M taken out of NOAA budget to go to DoJ. We do not have a
boundless basin of resources. We need your help to find ways to meet
these challenges. We are trying to take care of a wide spectrum of
products. Dennis -- we are frustrated too! Our staff are handling
multiple projects and putting out fires.

John -- we take a serious look at all our projects and resources based
on budget. NWS sustained \$37M cut in FY05 in non-labor. Labor resources
will remain unchanged.

Deirdre Jones (OST) -- OSIP process -- project out resources for new and
existing process. Corporate process overseen by John Jones.

Rich Okulski -- Is TWC using VTEC? Ian -- yes, but implementation has
been hard. Look at other options/vehicles like XML. Project has taken so
long; we now have better ways to accomplish the project.

John Jones -- we need to find better ways to communicate, and take a
look at past decisions based on your input. Ed -- Most Federal agencies
are not agile. NWS considered a best practice federal agency. Since lack
of agility and federal budget process, it makes it difficult to work
together. Need to find ways to accommodate differences in timescales
between us. Difficult to reallocate resources once allocated. Current
NWS budget planning is for FY08!

Steve Smith (AccuWeather) -- XML gets developed and completed before
VTEC. Both ways to disseminate critical information. Why can't we work
together on things like this? When is the message from meetings like
this going to go to the WFOs? Can we redeploy staff and bend to meet the
goals? Ed -- we can do better with this. Institute approaches to make
objections more visible. Need to have more of a culture of how our
decisions and products affect the private sector enterprise. We are not
doing a good enough job in looking at strategic decisions. Need to focus
as a whole community on what is important. We welcome your challenges of
our process and decisions.

Joel Martin -- the SP of the NWS doesn't seem to mesh well with the DoC
SP.

Steve S. -- how do you make the linkage between what we are doing in HQ
and meetings like this to the WFO?

Jim G. -- Local communities/governments are very important. They are the
decision makers on land usage, road decisions, etc. They are critical to
the overall weather enterprise. They distribute information. We need
some sort of relationship with them. They are currently not part of the
weather enterprise. Ed -- we do have good relationships with local EM
community. We do need to expand relationships with zoning boards,
planning commissions, etc. Jim -- there are state and private sector
resources which can be tapped to help NWS.

Paul Pisano (Fed. Highway Admin.) -- Need advancements from public and
private sector and work with transportation community to find integrated
solutions to highway issues (travel deaths related to weather, etc.).

How does NWS make decisions on priorities? John -- highest priorities
are those related to our mission of protecting lives and property. Done
on a case-by-case basis. Just recently submitted priorities for FY08-12.

**Breakout Session Summary:**

Glenn Austin -- Digital Services:

-   More and more folks using our data.

-   They want more communication on our future plans.

-   Efficiency of the data exchange is an issue. How do customers know
    when updated information is available? Is NDFD data going to be
    available via NOAAPort? Have new distribution methods (i.e.,
    Unidata). Will evaluate best means to make available.

> \- People want GIS vision (action Bob Bunge). XML transition. Will it
> become operational (action Bob Bunge)

Mike Campbell -- Observations/Surface Weather:

-   Data quality is a big issue.

-   Latency of observations -- need higher resolution data.

-   Discussion on Ridge radar display. Some suggestions made to make it
    better.

-   Development of ISOS and its tie in the US system and GEOS.

-   NERON update given.

-   Need augmentation of ASOS data.

Mark Tew -- Severe/Watch by County/Dissemination:

-   VTEC key milestones were discussed, along with plans for Nov. 1 (9
    products to be turned on).

-   Strict assessments made. 97.1% for Nov 1 OT&E. Most errors due to
    post editing.

-   Positive feedback on headline standardization.

-   Warning by Polygon -- we still warn by counties. Polygons are area
    of maximum threat. Dissemination is big limiting factor (via NWR and
    text).

-   GIS also came up -- what is NWS role?

**Next Meeting -- February 2, 2006 (during AMS meeting in Atlanta).**
NWS would like to try to nail day down for meetings here in Silver
Spring. Open this up for an email discussion (second or third Thursday
of June? -- Action -- John Simensky).

We will be building a website for the Partners. Will be done within the
next few days. All meeting notes and presentations will be posted on the
site.