 NWA November 2020 Newsletter
Issue 20 - 11
So now what? That seems to be a good question for this month’s President’s Message. NWA Leadership and NWA Headquarters have been so focused on dealing with the year 2020 by making adjustments for COVID-19, which included the virtualization of our Annual Meeting, that we are now left with the realization that more still needs to be done! We need to refocus on the needs of our Association in both the short and long term. The show must go on, after all. I have some encouraging news about that very subject. The NWA Board and NWA HQ have been working hard at looking forward to 2021 and beyond. Recently, the NWA Board met for two separate two-day sessions. The main topic? Strategic planning. Many of you are aware we have a current Strategic Plan. However, our recent Annual Meeting drew attention to the many opportunities and many challenges that the NWA will face in the immediate and long-term future. The future in our respective career fields is going to look very different than today in a number of ways. Rapid technology growth, communications, and human interaction in all its forms are creating interesting challenges for our work and our Association. In some ways the future may call into question some of the long-standing orthodoxies about the NWA. This in turn creates the need for us to focus on these issues to ensure the long-term health of our organization. The NWA Board is 100% committed to charting a course for our Association that will not only meet these future challenges, but also your high expectations for what the Association does. Said another way, we are laser-focused on ensuring the NWA continues to provide the high level of professional value it now provides to you as a member. The Board still has some work to do. My plan is to cross the finish line as your president in a sprint, not a jog. You are going to hear more about the NWA’s Strategic Plan in the coming months. We are excited to meet the future head on. We hope you are as well. Lastly, as we head into the holiday season, I hope that you, your families, and co-workers have a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving. I will communicate with you again in early December to provide you with more updates. Annual Meeting Registration Still Open for Members Registration is still open! This year's virtual meeting was recorded and can still be viewed in the Whova meeting app by selecting "past events." Annual Meeting rates still apply and vary in price according to member type. Members can also receive CEUs by attending and viewing sessions. Have questions? Email us at [email protected]. Registration is now free! The event is limited to 100 attendees and registration is required.
The Research Operations Nexus (RON) Meetup, December 1, 2020, is being offered as a stand-alone virtual event this year, sponsored by the National Weather Association and co-sponsored by the American Meteorological Society and Factor 110. During the meetup, groups will rotate through several virtual rooms in speed-mentoring fashion to discuss a variety of ideas and themes that could benefit forecast and warning operations. Registration is FREE. Those who have paid registration fees will receive a refund.
The virtual platform used will be Google Meet. Chairs: Questions? Contact the NWA at [email protected] or 405-701-5167.
Ron Przybylinski, the former Science and Operations Officer (SOO) of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in St. Louis, Missouri, left us the legacy of his unending motivation to interconnect weather operations and research in strong and enduring ways. Ron was a master in the transition zone, or nexus, of operations and research. Research interactions with Ron led to large field projects that provided the great benefit both to operations and the general knowledge. He inspired the idea of the RON Meetups, which have taken place at the National Weather Association Annual Meetings since 2015. Return to Top2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season takes infamous top spot for busiest on record With less than a month remaining in the Atlantic hurricane season, the formation of Subtropical Storm Theta on November 10 over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean made the 2020 season the most active on record. *** Hurricane Iota Was Second Category 4 Landfall in Nicaragua; 13 Days After Eta (RECAP) Hurricane Iota, the second Category 4 landfall in less than two weeks in Central America, unleashed destructive winds, more inundating rain and storm surge in storm-weary Nicaragua, Honduras, and neighboring countries. Read more from weather.com. 2020 North American Wildfire Season There have been 9,279 fire incidents in California in 2020 with 4,197,628 total acres burned. There have been 10,488 structures damaged or destroyed and at least 31 fatalities as of November 19. The 4.2 million acres burned in 2020 are the most in a single year since CalFire began keeping records, and more than the last three years combined. Five of the six biggest fires in California’s recent history (since 1932) have burned in 2020. Read more from disasterphilanthropy.org. *** Historic October 2020 ice storm in Oklahoma
A historic winter ice storm struck the state during the last week of October, leaving nearly 400,000 residences and businesses without power. The extreme nature of the event – arguably the most impactful early-season winter storm in the history of Oklahoma – was punctuated by heavy snow in the Panhandle and flooding rains in eastern sections of the state. *** U.S. Winter Outlook: Cooler North, warmer South with ongoing La Nina NOAA’s winter forecast for the U.S. favors warmer, drier conditions across the southern tier of the U.S., and cooler, wetter conditions in the North, thanks in part to an ongoing La Nina. Forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center — a division of the National Weather Service — are also closely monitoring persistent drought during the winter months ahead, with more than 45% of the continental U.S. now experiencing drought.
The full NWA Event Calendar is located in Member Connect. Have an event to include on our NWA calendar? Submit them to [email protected]! The High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter Minutes There was some discussion of having a virtual conference, but if all goes well the next conference will be at North Platte. More discussion is needed to determine if it should be virtual or in person. After the business meeting, Sam Meltzer of NWS North Platte gave a talk about blowing sand and haboobs across Arizona. Sam volunteered at the NWS Phoenix office before being hired at the North Platte office. November Webinar: President's Picks
Join us as we get to hear not one, but three topics during this months webinar, hear why President Todd Lericos chose these presentations, and get a chance to experience the Annual Meeting once more and continue to move "Forward Together" into the new year.
Congratulations to Jason Frazer on earning his TV Weathercaster Seal of Approval! Follow Jason on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. ***
Congratulations to Tony Sadiku on earning his TV Weathercaster Seal of Approval! Follow Tony on Facebook and Twitter. See all the other members who have earned a TV, Radio, or Digital Seal here, and more information on becoming a Seal Holder here. Are you hiring? Reach a variety of candidates through the NWA Jobs Corner.
Current Jobs: Land Forecast Meteorologist - CompuWeather Forecasting Team (11/20/2020)
Meteorologist - KDRV (ABC), Medford, OR (9/30/2020)
Two new NWA JOM short contributions were published in October. Ground-based corroboration of GOES-17 fire detection capabilities during ignition of the Kincade Fire by Lindley, T. T., A. B. Zwink, C. M. Gravelle, C. C. Schmidt, C. K. Palmer, S. T. Rowe, R. Heffernan, N. Driscoll, and G. M. Kent. Abstract: Corroboration of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-17 (GOES-17) wildland fire detection capabilities occurred during the 24 October 2019 (evening of 23 October LST) ignition of the Kincade Fire in northern California. Post-analysis of remote sensing data compared to observations by the ALERTWildfire fire surveillance video system suggests that the emerging Kincade Fire hotspot was visually evident in GOES17 shortwave infrared imagery 52 s after the initial near-infrared heat source detected by the ground-based camera network. GOES-17 Advanced Baseline Imager Fire Detection Characteristic algorithms registered the fire 5 min after ignition. These observations represent the first documented comparative dataset between fire initiation and satellite detection, and thus provide context for GOES-16/17 wildland fire detections. ---
Initial Assessment of Unmanned Aircraft System Characteristics Required to Fill Data Gaps for Short-term Forecasts: Results from Focus Groups and Interviews by Houston, A.L, J.C. Walther, L.M. Pytlikzillig, J. Kawamoto. Abstract: The integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the weather surveillance network must be guided by the data needs of the principal stakeholders. This work aims to assess data needs/gaps for short-term forecasts (<1-day lead time) issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) and then identify UAS characteristics required to fill these gaps. Results from focus groups and interviews of forecasters in the central United States are presented. Participant verbal responses were coded and then categorized into a set of 25 unique features. Each feature was classified according to four characteristics: 1) environmental properties that need to be measured to represent a given feature, 2) flight type (vertical profile, horizontal transect, and/or survey) 3) flight height required to measure the environmental properties, and 4) relevance of feature to the forecasting of deep convection. Findings indicate the majority of identified features require measurement of typical state variables (temperature, moisture, and wind), but more than a third require visual imagery. Almost all of the features require either survey flight operations or vertical profiles. Additionally, 96% of the features require observations collected below 1000 m. Nearly two-thirds of the features are associated with deep convection. This work represents the first step towards establishing how UAS could be used to fill data gaps that exist for short-term forecasts issued by the NWS. The results stand alone in demonstrating the potential applications of UAS from the perspective of operational forecasters and have also informed ongoing efforts to develop a nationwide survey of forecasters. --- The JOM publishes submissions in three categories: Article, Short Contribution and Commentary. The JOM is a peer-reviewed, all-electronic journal with an international scope, providing authors with the benefits of economical publication costs and rapid publication following acceptance. If you are interested in submitting a paper to the JOM, please go to the Call for Papers webpage. Thank you to the JOM authors, reviewers and editors for continuing to make JOM a success!
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