To be effective Emergency Managers we must have access to the latest, most accurate information available on the weather and how it might affect our community. We live in an area where the weather is very difficult to predict.
Severe weather is common in and around Fort Collins, and changes can occur rapidly.
For those reasons, we need timely access to the most current weather discussions and reports. The intention of the National Weather Service is to make their weather satellite information directly available to local emergency managers, who in turn can transmit the information to other private and public agencies, or to the community at large. During the development of potentially dangerous weather situations we can be alerted to weather warnings and watches, even when we are in the field. The Office of Emergency Management in Fort Collins receives the weather datatstream directly from the GOES satellites circling the earth in geosynchronous orbit. Information is uplinked to the satellites from the NOAA Command and Data Acquisition Station on Wallops Island, Virginia.