SKYWARN Newsletter #243

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Hello to all....

NWS Taunton SKYWARN Training 2007 Schedule Update....

National Hurricane Conference to be Held This week in New Orleans, Louisiana...

Thunderstorms with Small Hail Affect Parts of Southern New England....

Enhanced Fujita Scale Now Being Used for Assessing Tornado/Microburst Damage....

SPC Day 4-8 Convective Outlook Now Official Product as of March 22nd, 2007...

ARRL Letter/Web Article: Ham radio volunteers ready for tornado....

Newsletter Issued: 4/2/2007.

NWS Taunton SKYWARN Training 2007 Schedule Update....

No additional SKYWARN training sessions have been booked since the

last newsletter update. To check out the schedule, please visit

the following link on the WX1BOX, NWS Taunton SKYWARN home page:

http://www.wx1box.org/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=8&page_id=1

National Hurricane Conference to be Held This week in New Orleans, Louisiana...

The National Hurricane Conference will be held this week April 2nd-April

6th, 2007 at the Hilton Hotel Riverside in New Orleans, Louisiana. Amateur

Radio will be well represented with National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio

Coordinator, John McHugh-K4AG, former Hurricane Watch Net Manager,

Mike Pilgrim-K5MP and ARRL Field Services Director, Steve Ewald-WV1X,

chairing an Amateur Radio Disaster Communications Workshop from

1:30-5 PM on Tuesday April 3rd, 2007. Many other training programs

and workshops on hurricanes, preparedness, meteorology of hurricanes

and engineering of buildings and structures to withstand hurricanes

will be done throughout the conference.

In addition, Danny Musten-KD4RAA, IRLP Reflector 9219 co-owner and

IRLP Net Manager for the VoIP Hurricane Net along with John Van

Pelt-K4JVP will be at the Conference as their stormstudy program

as received a corporate sponsorship from the battery manufacturer,

Energizer. They will be at the workshop in the Energizer booth which

will be one of many booths from many vendors, non-profit organizations

and government entities that will be at the conference. Danny intends

to provide information on the conference at a future VoIP Hurricane

Net weekly net session. The net meets every Saturday Evening at 0000

UTC/8 PM EDT.

The web site for this event can be seen at the following link:

http://www.hurricanemeeting.com/

Thunderstorms with Small Hail Affect Parts of Southern New England....

Thunderstorms with small hail affected portions of Western Massachusetts

as well as Rhode Island on Monday March 26th, 2007 between 4 and 630 PM.

PJ-N1PJ who was traveling through Hadley, Massachusetts reported 1/8"

hail as thunderstorms passed through Southwest Massachusetts.

Across Rhode Island, 1/4" or pea sized hail was reported in Coventry

and Scituate RI by John Buco-N1EGS and Bill Boyes-KB1G. SKYWARN

monitored the 146.76-Scituate, RI repeater as the storms moved through

the area. No severe weather was reported.

As we move into Spring, this minor event on Monday March 26th, 2007

reminds us that severe weather season is right around corner. The

support of all SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators will be

needed as we move into the season.

Enhanced Fujita Scale Now Being Used for Assessing Tornado/Microburst Damage....

The Enhanced Fujita scale is now being used for assessing tornado and

microburst damage. The scale is very different from the Fujita scale

that was utilized. The SPC web site has an Enhanced Fujita Scale web

page as well as a link for more information regarding Enhanced Fujita

Scale training as provided by the Warning Decision and Training Branch.

Those links appear below:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/efscale/

http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/courses/EF-scale/index.html

SPC Day 4-8 Convective Outlook Now Official Product as of March 22nd, 2007...

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Day 4-8 Convective Outlook is now

an official product as of March 22nd, 2007. This product was an

experimental product that was being utilized over the course of the

past year and was now made official. To view the Day 4-8 Convective

Outlook, please see the following link:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/exper/day4-8/

ARRL Letter/Web Article: Ham radio volunteers ready for tornado....

The following ARRL Letter/web article concerns a tornado outbreak

that occurred in New Mexico and Amateur Radio's involvement and

preparation for that tornado outbreak:

==>HAM RADIO READINESS PROVIDES SAFETY MARGIN IN NEW MEXICO TORNADO OUTBREAK

Dozens of Amateur Radio volunteers in New Mexico did what they do best

Friday, March 23, when nasty weather threatening eastern New Mexico

eventually spawned 13 tornados, from Tatum to Logan. A day before the

storms, SKYWARN Coordinator and National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist

Keith Hayes, KC5KH, at the Albuquerque NWS office (WX5ABQ) warned New

Mexico's Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) district emergency

coordinators and county emergency managers of the potential for severe

weather. ARES teams and SKYWARN weather spotters consequently were already

in the field and ready for action when the string of tornados struck. The

early warning, aided by trained spotters' accurate minute-by-minute reports

to the NWS and local authorities, provided an additional margin of safety

for residents.

"The teamwork by the ARES teams, support from the surrounding county

emergency managers, the NWS forecasts and real-time radar support, WA5IHL's

Mega-Link [repeater system] and numerous SKYWARN observations saved lives,"

Jay Miller, WA5WHN, observed. During the weather emergency, Amateur Radio

volunteers relayed real-time weather information to NWS offices in

Albuquerque and in Midland, Texas.

After Chaves County District Emergency Coordinator Alf Lindsey, W5ALL, took

note of darkening skies early Friday afternoon, he opened a SKYWARN net.

More than 30 hams in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas relayed their

weather observations through the net to the Albuquerque NWS office. Robert

Tice, W5TIC, reported in with a tornado spotting west of Tatum at about 5

PM. Jim Morrison, KM5BS, observed a large tornado on the ground just south

of Roosevelt County at about 5:45 PM. That prompted the first of many

tornado warnings for the counties along the Texas-New Mexico state line.

The city of Clovis was especially hard hit. "We have always trained for a

single tornado, but not eight of them at the same time," Blaine Smith,

KB5UOT, in Clovis commented afterward. The NWS issued the first tornado

warning for Clovis at about 7:30 PM, and a tornado struck the city about 15

minutes later. Saundra Creiglow, KC5EGP, handled net control duties in

Clovis as the storms approached. The Eastern New Mexico Amateur Radio Club

had three teams operating in and around Clovis before and after the

twisters.

Using the KK5OV EchoLink node, hams in Clovis established a backup

connection with Jory McIntosh, KJ5RM, at the Fort Worth National Weather

Service Office. McIntosh was able to pinpoint the exact course destructive

tornados that hit the city.

The New Mexico State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the Bernalillo

County EOC activated. During the tornados, however, the state EOC lost

contact with Clovis, Logan, Texico, Carlsbad, and Portales. Sandoval County

DEC Mike Scales, K5SCA, was able to relay information from hams in

tornado-stricken areas to the state EOC via the state-wide Mega-Link

repeater system. Scales also kept the state EOC up to speed on localized

flooding in Carlsbad.

The American Red Cross requested Amateur Radio assistance to staff shelters

in Logan and Clovis. John English, WB6QKF, was on the air from the

Albuquerque Red Cross office to assist in setting up those shelters.

The tornados carved a 4.5 mile swath across Clovis. Thirty-five residents

were injured badly enough to need hospitalization. In Logan, two-dozen

mobile homes were destroyed. Tatum experienced four tornados in the span of

a half-hour. Electrical power and telephone outages were reported.

Interstate 70 was shut down between Portales and Clovis.

More severe weather popped across eastern New Mexico and western Texas over

the weekend. Spotters were active early March 25 near Lubbock, Texas, as

possible tornados were reported. Showers and thunderstorms were in this

week's forecast for West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. -- New Mexico

PIO Charlie Christman, K5CEC, and other reports

That's all for this edition of the SKYWARN email Newsletter!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)

ARES SKYWARN Coordinator

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator

Pager #: (508) 354-3142

Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)

Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)

Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)

Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com

http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo

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