The Raleigh National Weather Service publishes its newsletter "Changing
Skies" three times a year; it covers items of interest to emergency
managers, weather spotters and others. The latest edition can be seen
by clicking here.
CCS OFFERS BASIC SPOTTER
TRAINING VIA THE TUESDAY NIGHT NET
Basic
Spotter Training will be offered on the CCS Information Net on March 25
& April 1 at 9:15 PM on the 146.88 repeater. Part 1 of Basic
Training will be March 25; Part 2, April 1. The instructor
will be
Jeff Orrock, KI4KKX, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the
Raleigh National Weather Service.
To fully benefit from this training and to receive a spotter
certificate, amateur radio operators must:
A. have PowerPoint software or a PowerPoint viewer and view
PowerPoint presentations Part 1 (March 25) and Part 2 (April 1),
B. listen and check in at the end of both nets, and
C. email CCS Emergency Coordinator Virginia Enzor at nc4va@nc.rr.com
with their name, call sign, home address, mailing address, and phone
number for the NWS Spotter Database. Scanner listeners must email Virginia immediately at the end
of both nets;
they should include their name, home address,
mailing address, and phone number in 2nd email.
We realize that some folks do not have the capability to check into the
net or listen via a scanner; in such cases, we invite folks to take a
traditional Basic Spotter Class at one of the scheduled locations
within the CCS area. Current offerings may be found on the CCS webpage
or by visiting www.weather.gov/rah/skywarn.
A Spotter Certificate will be sent by the NWS to those completing the
training.
Click here
to download PowerPoint presentation Part 1 (March
25) and here
for PowerPoint presentation Part 2 (April
1).
Should you need a PowerPoint viewer, one is available at PowerPoint
Viewer.
FLOOD SAFETY AWARENESS
WEEK
Flood Safety Awareness Week is March 17-20, 2008. To better prepare you
for how floods occur, the hazards associated with flooding,
and
some ways you can protect life and property, the National Weather
Service
has
prepared a topic of interest for Monday-Friday. Topcis include the
Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS), Turn Around Don't Drown,
Floods and Droughts, Flood Insurance, and Flood Safety. To access this
information, please visit the Flood Safety
Awareness webpage. To view flooding locations in real time,
please click here.
March 2-8 is Severe Weather Awareness Week! To better prepare you
for the adversities of severe weather, the National Weather Service has
prepared a topic of interest for Monday-Friday. To access this
information,
please click on the appropriate link below.
The statewide tornado drill is scheduled for Wednesday, March 5, at
9:30AM.
WINTER EDITION OF "CHANGING SKIES" OUT
The Raleigh National Weather Service publishes its newsletter "Changing
Skies" three times a year; it covers items of interest to emergency
managers, weather spotters and others. The latest edition can be seen
by clicking here.
NEW BACK-UP FREQUENCY ADDED
Central Carolina SKYWARN is pleased to announce that it will use the
K4ITL 147.135 repeater [tone of 82.5] located in Chapel Hill as a
secondary back-up in the event of the 146.88 should not be available
for use. The primary back-up remains the K4ITL 147.105 repeater [tone
on 82.5] in Broadway; the third back-up will be WB4TQD 145.39 repeater
[tone of 82.5] in southern Raleigh. The fourth back-up will be the
Carolina 440 Link System. Those frequencies can be found at
www.carolina440.net. Thanks goes to Danny Hampton K4ITL for the
addition of the Chapel Hill repeater! We will have a "Radio Check
Night" on Tuesday, November 20, so program your radios with this
frequency and join us on the net at 9:15pm!
CoCoRaHS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
CoCoRaHS is a new program for voluneteer weather observers
that began September 1 in North Carolina. Participants
measure precipitation daily and enter their reports online.
Users of the data include the National Weather Service,
hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water
conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers,
teachers, and more. Training is availiable online at the
CoCoRaHS website. To learn more, please visit www.cocorahs.org
NEW CLOUD CHART AVAILABLE
NOAA has released a new cloud chart; to access it, please click here
.
UPCOMING
PROGRAMS ON CCS INFORMATION NETS
May 6 - "Central Carolina
SKYWARN Activation Policy and Severe Weather Criteria"
with Emergency Coordinator Virginia Enzor NC4VA.
May 13 - "Thermometer
Accuracy"
with CCS NCO Rick Barber AJ9F. To access the accompanying PowerPoint
presentation on Thermometer Accuracy, please click here
.
May 27 - "2008 Atlantic
Hurricane Season Outlook" with Warning Coordination
Meteorologist Jeff Orrock KI4KKX. May 25-31 is National
Hurricane Awareness Week.
June 3 - "Review of the
Suffolk, Virginia Tornado" with Warning
Coordination Meteorologist Jeff Orrock KI4KKX.
Please
join us
each Tuesday at 9:15PM on the 146.88 repeater for the CCS
Information Net. On each net there are announcements, check-ins by
county, and often a program or training spot. If there is a program
topic you would like to suggest for consideration, please send an email
to CCS EC Virginia Enzor at nc4va@nc.rr.com.
UPCOMING
EVENTS (All Open to the Public)
Wednesday, May 7 -
Advanced SKYWARN Spotter Training, 7-9PM, Wake County, 222
West Hargett Street, Conference Room 201.
Thursday,
May 8 -
Advanced SKYWARN Spotter Training, 2-4PM (corrected time),
Wake County, 222
West Hargett Street, Conference Room 201. Monday, May 19 - Basic
SKYWARN Spotter Training, choose your session - 2-4PM or
6:30-8:30PM, both held at Durham Public Library, 300 North Roxboro St.,
Durham.
Thursday, May 22 -
Advanced SKYWARN Spotter Training, 6:30-8:30PM, Durham Public Library, 300 North
Roxboro St., Durham.
Wednesday,
May 28 - Basic
SKYWARN Spotter Training with Radar Basics, 2-4:30PM, and
Advanced
SKYWARN Spotter Training, 7-9PM, both classes held at
Wilson County Emergency Management, 1817 Glendale Drive, Wilson, NC
(Wilson County).
Thursday, June 19 - Basic
SKYWARN Spotter Training with Radar Basics, 7-9PM, Public
Safety Services Bldg, Johnston Community College, Room J1630, 245
College Rd., Smithfield, NC.
READER'S CHOICE LIST OF WEATHER
BOOKS BY NWS LEAD FORECASTER ROD GONSKI
Summary of Recommendations from July 10, 2007 CCS Net
1.The Audubon Society
Field Guide to North American Weather by David McWilliams
Ludlum, National Audubon Society (Rod describes this publication as a
"must-have" reference book!)
2. Isaac's
Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
by Erik Larson; non-fiction
3. Storm
Watchers: The Turbulent History of Prediction from Franklin's Kite to
El Nino by John D. Cox of MIT
4. North
Carolina's Hurricane History by Jay Barnes - This
publication provides perspective from the Colonial Era through modern
times.
5. How the
Weather Works: 100 Ways Parents and Kids
Can
Share the Secrets of the Atmosphere by Michael Allaby,
Reader's Digest
6. The Handy
Weather Answer Book by Walter A. Lyons (Good reference and
trivia book)
7. Hands-on
Meteorology: Stories, Theories, and Simple Experiments by
Zbigniew Sorbjan
8. North
Carolina Weather and Climate by Peter J. Robinson
9. The Ship
and the Storm: Hurricane Mitch and the Loss of the Fantome
by Jim Carrier; non-fiction
10. Tornado:
Nature's Ultimate Windstorm by Thomas P. Grazulis
11. The Children's
Blizzard by David Laskin; non-fiction NEW NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER
PRODUCT
July 16, 2007
The National Hurricance Center began posting the Hurricane Outlook
product in graphical form on their webpage on July 15. The experimental
product
allows the viewer to quickly see any areas in the Atlantic or Gulf of
Mexico that NHC is watching for possible development. For more
information, please visit Atlantic
Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook
.
LIGHTNING SAFETY WEEK -
JUNE 24-30, 2007
Summer is prime time for one of nature's deadliest weather
phenomena - lightning! Lightning causes an average of 80
fatalilties and 300 injuries each year across the United States.
For more information about how to protect yourself from this
hazard, please visit here.
NOAA PREDICTS ABOVE
NORMAL 2007 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON
According to National Hurricane Center Director Bill Proenza, "Preparation
through education is less costly than learning through tragedy."
Hurricane
Awareness Week is designed to inform the public about hurricane hazards
and provide knowledge which can be used to take action. Each day this
week the NHC provides information on a topic of interest:
For a tropical cyclone tutorial from Jetstream, please click here.
To visit the NC State Emergency Preparedness website, please click here.
To view a future worst case scenario of hurricane disaster for
North
Carolina in powerpoint format, please click here.
This powerpoint presentation, entitled "NC's
Katrina", was created by
Raleigh NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jeff Orrock.
Click here
for information about NWS Skywarn training.
Weather Maps
& Raleigh
NWS WeatherCam
Skywarn Net
Frequencies146.88
MHz (Main) 147.105 MHz
[82.5
Hz] (Backup)
147.135 MHz [82.5] (Second Backup) 145.390 MHz
[82.5
Hz] (Third Backup) Carolina 440
UHF Link
System (Fourth Backup)
NOAA ALL HAZARDS RADIO NOW ON LINE
CoCoRaHS VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
UPCOMING
PROGRAMS ON CCS INFORMATION NETS
For the full story, please click here.
HURRICANE AWARENESS WEEK MAY 20-26
