SKYWARN Newsletter #269
Hello
to all..
Major
Nor'easter 12/26-12/27/10 Post Storm Report Posted..
SKYWARN
Self-Activation Report Major Snowstorm on Cape Cod - Monday 12/20/10..
SKYWARN
Training Schedule 2011 Update..
SKYWARN
Recognition Day 2010 - NWS Taunton Report..
2010
Atlantic Hurricane Season Closes - National Hurricane Center/NOAA Issues
Reports..
Newsletter
Issued: 1/3/11.
12/26-12/27/10
Major Nor'easter Post Storm Report Posted..
The
12/26-12/27/10 Major Nor'easter Post Storm Report was sent through the
SKYWARN
email list and is also posted as content on the WX1BOX web site. The
complete
post storm report can be viewed via the following link:
http://www.wx1box.org/node/496
Special
thanks to all Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters and non-Amateur Radio
SKYWARN
Spotters who gave their reports during this major nor'easter storm.
SKYWARN
Self-Activation Report Major Snowstorm on Cape Cod - Monday 12/20/10..
A
coastal storm affecting portions of Southeast New England caused greater
impact
than expected over Cape Cod and Southeast New England. This caused
a
SKYWARN Self-Activation that would become formal with Amateur Radio
Operations
at the NWS Taunton Forecast Office Amateur Station, WX1BOX,
commencing
at 7 PM Monday Evening as near-blizzard conditions affecting the
region
and strong winds in combination with wet snow causing pockets of
tree
and power line damage and power outages over portions of Southeast
Plymouth
County and into Cape Cod.
Cape
Cod ARES District Emergency Coordinator, Frank O'Laughlin-WQ1O, activated
an
hourly ARES-SKYWARN Net from 700-1100 PM that was maintained through his
Assistant
ARES DEC, Dan Howard-K1DYO on the 146.955-Barnstable Repeater.
Over 20
reports per hour were obtained including snowfall rates of 1" or
more
per hour, whiteout conditions, snowfall totals nearing and exceeding
12"
and damage reports and power outages were received from the net. Snowfall
totals
on Cape Cod ranged from 6-12" with 4-6" amounts on Martha's Vineyard
and Nantucket
Island.
Reports in S0utheast Plymouth County were in the 4-8" range with 2-5"
amounts
over South Coastal Massachusetts and up through the North Shore and
Metro
Boston area. SKYWARN Operations were active on the New England Echolink/IRLP
Reflector
System (http://new-eng.com) on *NEW-ENG* Echolink conference node: 9123/
IRLP
9123. The 145.49-Fairhaven and 146.685 Plymouth Repeaters were utilized
as well
during this storm event.
The
reports gathered from Amateur Radio Operator and non-Amateur Radio
SKYWARN
Spotters from this event was very critical in quickly upgrading
the
winter storm threat to advisories and warnings over portions of Eastern
Massachusetts.
The reports also provided rapid situational awareness to
emergency
management that the storm's impact particularly over Cape Cod
and
Southeast Plymouth County was more significant than forecast. Thanks to
the
Cape Cod ARES team and to all Amateur Radio SKYWARN and non-Amateur
Radio
SKYWARN Spotters who provided reports during this event. A Public
Information
Statement and Local Storm Report on these events can be seen
via the
following links:
http://www.wx1box.org/local/pns_12_20_10.txt
http://www.wx1box.org/local/lsr_12_20_10.txt
These
storm report statements and others from the month of December outside
of the
12/26-12/27/10 storm report info will be sent in a separate email to
the
SKYWARN email list.
SKYWARN
Training Schedule 2011 Update..
The
2011 SKYWARN Training planning has started and there are already 3
sessions
confirmed. Two of the sessions will be taught by an Amateur Radio
Coordinator
with one session taught by a NWS Taunton forecaster.
The
following are SKYWARN Training Sessions booked for 2011. A link has
been
provided along with the actual confirmed sites:
Link to
Training Schedule of Confirmed Sites:
http://www.wx1box.org/node/36
Training
Schedule - Confirmed Sites:
Saturday
April 2nd, 2011: 10 AM-1 PM:
Westerly
Police Headquarters
60
Airport Road
Westerly,
RI
Taught
by: Amateur Radio Coordinator
Registration:
Pre-registration required. Site seats 50 people. RSVP via
Rob
Macedo-KD1CY via email at rmacedo at rcn dot com or Jim Creamer-KB1MAO
at
divingdog at cox dot net
Monday
May 16th, 2011: 7-10 PM:
Morton
Hospital and Medical Center - Margaret Stone Conference Room
88
Washington Street
Taunton
Mass.
Taught
by: Amateur Radio Coordinator
Registration:
Pre-registration required. RSVP via Rob Macedo-KD1CY via email
at
rmacedo at rcn dot com
Saturday
June 4th, 2011: 1-4 PM:
Brockton
VA Medical Center - Building 22: Training Rooms 2 and 3
940
Belmont Street
Brockton,
Mass
Taught
by: NWS Forecasters
Registration:
None required.
Additional
areas being considered for training by NWS forecasters include
the
following:
Methuen-Andover-North
Andover
Concord-Lincoln-Weston
Millis-Medfield
Northbridge
Sturbridge-Warren
Gardner
(in order to draw from surrounding towns)
Orange
Milford
NH / Peterborough NH (actually we want the towns in between)
Marthas
Vineyard
Willimantic
CT
Bristol-Middletown-Jamestown
RI
Additional
areas being considered for training by Amateur Radio Coordinators:
Swansea,
Mass
Acushnet,
Mass
Barnstable
County
Hingham,
Mass
Amesbury,
Mass
Mansfield
Mass (Probably in the fall similar to 2008 and 2009)
The SKYWARN
email list and the SKYWARN Training Schedule link will keep
people
updated on training opportunities. Please forward to new people
interested
in taking SKYWARN Training classes from around the region. Also,
a
reminder that for those that are already trained, a refresher class can
be
taken online and the links to the refresher class and the training quiz
can be
obtained off the main menu of the wx1box.org web site and via the
links
below:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/officePrograms/skywarn/webSkywarnRefresher/
http://business.tmlp.com/nwsbox/skywarnTrainQuiz.php
SKYWARN
Recognition Day 2010 - NWS Taunton Report..
SKYWARN
Recognition Day 2010 (SRD’10) at the NWS Taunton Massachusetts
Forecast
Office under call-sign WX1BOX was very successful. There were 12
Amateur
Radio Operators that participated in SRD’10 and they were as
follows:
W1EAV-Chris
Washburn
KB1G-Bill
Boyes
KB1REQ-Jeremy
Breef-Pilz
KB1KQW-Jim
Palmer
W1VFB-Greg
Glynn
KB1NCG-Marek
Kozubal
KB1SVB-Nick
Weber
K5MLK-Matt
Kuhl
N1FY-Carl
Aveni
KD1CY-Rob
Macedo
N1YLQ-Mike
“Sparky” Leger
N1PJ-PJ
Howe Jr.
There
were 376 total contacts made with 333 unique contacts made to 56
different
NWS Forecast offices earning the operation the ‘F3 Tornado
certificate’.
These numbers were higher than 2009 where the SKYWARN
Coordinators
meeting took place on the same day but lower than 2008, when
the F5
Tornado Certificate was earned by that SRD operation. For this
year,
Bill Boyes-KB1G, who has brought over a different HF rig each year
for SRD
operations, brought a Heathkit Elecraft-K3 HF Radio. The radio
performed
extremely well and was able to cope with the high noise floor
from
all of the computers inside the NWS office. This radio was used in
lieu of
the Alinco DX-70TH radio that is installed at the weather office.
Band
conditions on HF started slowly but improved significantly during the
day.
Bill Boyes-KB1G operated the HF station for about one hour and then
Jeremy
Breef-Pilz-KB1REQ, as he did last year during SRD, managed a several
hour
pile-up on HF on 20 Meters along with contacts on 40 Meters. Jeremy
continues
to be active in Amateur Radio and SKYWARN and was involved in a
few of
the SKYWARN Activations in the NWS Taunton County Warning area
during
2010. We also had a number of contacts via Echolink/IRLP on the
*WX_TALK*
Echolink conference Node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system and the
New
England Reflector system *NEW-ENG* Echolink Conference Node: 9123/IRLP 9123.
As in
past years, several of the operators at WX1BOX roved through a
schedule
of the local area SKYWARN repeaters making contacts with local
Amateurs
who have assisted the NWS Taunton office with critical surface
reports
from across the region during severe weather situations.
We also
managed net control for WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the
National
Hurricane Center in Miami Florida on the *WX_TALK* Echolink
conference
Node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system and fielded check-ins for 2 hours
for
WX4NHC. Close to 100 stations are typically gathered for WX4NHC during
SRD’10
during the 2 hours WX4NHC is scheduled to be on the system. It is
noted
that NWS offices work scheduled 1 or 2 hour time slots on that system
during
SKYWARN Recognition Day every year since 2004.
We were
very pleased with the results from SRD’10 and we are looking
forward
to another successful SRD in 2011! Thanks to all who supported this
event!
2010
Atlantic Hurricane Season Closes - National Hurricane Center/NOAA Issues
Reports..
The
2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season closes and it was a very active season
despite
no direct landfalling systems into the United States. Below are links
to
reports issued by NOAA and the National Hurricane Center on the 2010 Atlantic
Hurricane
Season:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20101129_hurricaneseason.html
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2010/tws/MIATWSAT_nov.shtml?
Respectfully
Submitted,
Robert
Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES
SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern
Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home
Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data
#: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work
Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email
Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
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