SKYWARN Newsletter #247

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Hello to all..

Newsletter Covers Past SKYWARN Coordinators Meetings and December Winter storms..

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/3/07 Ice Storm..

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/13/07 Snowstorm..

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/16/07 Nor'easter..

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 12/20/07 Snow Storm..

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/23/07 Strong Wind Event..

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 12/31/07 Snow Storm..

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 1/1/08 Snow Storm..

Norfolk County SKYWARN Net Control, W1ADB-Allen Del Basio, Passed Away..

SKYWARN Coordinators Strategy Meeting Summary from November 2007..

SKYWARN Coordinators Strategy Meeting Summary from March 2007..

Newsletter Issued: 2/22/08.

Newsletter Covers Past SKYWARN Coordinators Meetings and December Winter storms..

This newsletter covers the past SKYWARN Coordinators Meeting from 2007.

It also covers the December 2007 Winter Storm activations.

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/3/07 Ice Storm..

SKYWARN was activated with Ops at NWS Taunton early Monday Morning

December 3rd as Snow, Sleet and Freezing Rain began on Sunday Evening

December 2nd. The Wintry Mix changed to rain over much of

Southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island but remained sleet and

freezing rain over portions of Northern Connecticut, Western

and Central Massachusetts, extreme Northeast Interior Massachusetts

and Southern New Hampshire.

Freezing Rain was most problematic over Hartford, Tolland and

Litchfield Counties in Connecticut with 1/4-3/8" icing. Tree and

power line damage was common over portions of Southwest and

South-Central Hartford County Connecticut with tree and power line

damage noted in Newington, Farmington, West Hartford, South Windsor

and Southington, CT. Estimates of 25,000 people were without power

in this region. Small branches were also downed in Tolland, CT

from 3/8" icing. SKYWARN was active on the KB1AEV Linked System

and the 146.790-Vernon, CT Repeater through the efforts of

Steve Williams-K1SJW, Connecticut SKYWARN Coordinator,

Roger Jeanfaivre-K1PAI, Hartford-Tolland County CT SKYWARN

Coordinator, Harvey Broverman-K1PZS, Hartford-Tolland County CT SKYWARN

Net Control, and Richard Carter-W1RWC, Litchfield County CT SKYWARN

Net Control.

Across portions of Southwest Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts

SKYWARN reported pockets of tree and wire damage in Palmer and

West Springfield, Mass. In this area, more sleet mixed in with the

freezing rain with widespread 1/4" ice accretion from freezing rain.

This mitigated more damage in this area. SKYWARN was active on the

146.94-Mt. Tom Repeater through the efforts of Ray Weber-KA1JJM and

Eric Tuller-N1QKO.

Across Southern New Hampshire, and Northern Massachusetts including

the North Shore, 2-5" of snow and sleet occurred with a light glaze

of freezing rain. In extreme Northern Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties

of New Hampshire, Snowfall amounts were higher with 8.5" in Walpole, NH

and 9.0" in Francestown, New Hampshire. No reports of infrastructure

damage occurred in these areas.

Special thanks to all those who assisted in this SKYWARN Activation!

Special thanks to those who assisted in this activation of SKYWARN!

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/13/07 Snowstorm..

SKYWARN was activated with Ops at NWS Taunton due to intense snowfall

rates at a very problematic time of day that was from midday through

early evening on Thursday December 13th. Ops at NWS Taunton were

done by Carl Aveni-N1FY and Rob Macedo-KD1CY. Several hundred reports

of snowfall were taken during this storm along with general reports

on road conditions and the impact of the storm on travel.

While the December 13th storm caused little in the way of damage,

intense snowfall rates of 2-3.5" per hour were observed across portions

of Southern New England. This rate of snowfall combined with the time

of day it hit, during the midday through evening hours, severely impacted

travel over the region. Commute times despite letting people out of

work and school reached several hours even if a commute was typically

15-30 minutes in length. Snowfall rapidly accumulated 5-13" across

much of Southern New England. SKYWARN Nets across Connecticut, Rhode

Island and Massachusetts took reports hourly on most repeaters

including the 146.940-Mount Tom Repeater, 146.790-Vernon, CT Repeater,

147.225-Killingly, CT Repeater, 146.760-Scituate, RI Repeater, 145.49-

Fairhaven MA Repeater, 146.64-Waltham MA Repeater, 145.47-Danvers MA

Repeater, 146.97-Paxton MA Repeater, 147.18-Bridgewater MA Repeater,

147.225-Whitman MA Repeater, 145.390-Scituate MA Repeater,

449.375-Pack Monadnock NH Repeater, and the 146.955-Westford MA

Repeater. The New England EchoLink/IRLP reflector system, *NEW-ENG*

Echolink Conference Node: 9123/IRLP 9123 also was active with reports

and linked a few of the above mentioned repeaters including Waltham

and Fairhaven. The Connecticut ARES Snow Desk was active on HF on

3965 KHz and the Rhode Island ARES Snow Desk was active on the

146.700-Cranston, RI Repeater.

SKYWARN Coordinators involved in this activation included K1SJW-Steve

Williams, CT State SKYWARN Coordinator, K1PAI-Roger Jeanfaivre,

Hartford-Tolland County CT SKYWARN Coordinator, KB1DGY-Bernie Dubb-Windham

County CT SKYWARN Coordinator, KA1JJM-Ray Weber and N1QKO-Eric Tuller,

Western Massachusetts SKYWARN Coordinators, Martin Mendelson-N1JMA and

Bill Boyes-KB1G, Rhode Island SKYWARN Coordinators, Dave Doe-K1HRV and

Roger Turner-W1ZSA, Norfolk County SKYWARN Coordinators, Steve Schwarm-

W3EVE, ARES DEC for Field Operations, KB1KQW-Jim Palmer, North Shore

ARES Assistant SKYWARN Coordinator and ARES Emergency Coordinator,

Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF, North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator,

Terry Stader-KA8SCP, Northeast Massachusetts SKYWARN/Region 1 RACES

Radio Officer, Scott Reynolds-KC2JCB, Hillsborough County NH SKYWARN

Coordinator and Bruce Bohannon-WA1YZN, Swanzey, NH Emergency Management

and SKYWARN. These coordinators and numerous other backup net controls

and operators and several hundred SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio

Operators provided several hundred snowfall reports over the time period

given as well as general reports on road and traffic conditions to

paint a picture in words on what was happening on the storm and its

impact to the region providing good "storm gathering intelligence"

for the region. The snow-ice-rain line was also tracked by spotters

as a wintry mix of precipitation made it as far north as Central

Connecticut, Central Rhode Island and into parts of Southeast

Massachusetts with rain on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket before the

line suppressed southward and the precipitation changed back to all

snow across the region.

Media outlets in the Boston area picked up the work being done by

SKYWARN Spotters. WBZ-TV gave NWS Taunton SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur

Radio Operators credit on air for providing valuable snowfall and

condition information. Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel also

mentioned the efforts of SKYWARN and Amateur Radio on the air as he

covered the storm and the traffic issues from the city of Boston.

There will be much debate within the Emergency Management community

on how to best handle an event like the 12/13 storm and its timing

and how to release people from work and school after the significant

traffic issues that resulted from this storm. A storm with the same

intensity for a longer period of time in the timeframe this storm

displayed could cause bigger problems for the region given what

occurred with this system.

Special thanks to all those who assisted in this SKYWARN Activation!

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/16/07 Nor'easter..

SKYWARN was activated on Sunday December 16th, 2007 around 545 AM as

a nor'easter impacted Southern New England. SKYWARN was activated with

Ops at NWS Taunton by Carl Aveni-N1FY and Rob Macedo-KD1CY. Reports

of snowfall, changeover in precipitation and strong winds were handled

from the storm from 545 AM-4 PM that evening.

Snowfall amounts of 2-5" occurred across South-Central Rhode Island,

Northern Connecticut and Southeast Massachusetts before a changeover

to sleet, freezing rain and rain in this area. Across Western, Central

and Northeast Massachusetts from Norfolk County Mass. northward along

with portions of Northern Rhode Island 5-10" of snow occurred with

isolated 11-12" amounts. A mix with sleet and freezing rain occurred

over the region before a changeover to rain.

Strong winds in excess of 50 MPH were noted across portions of Southern

New England. This caused some isolated tree and power line damage

on Martha's Vineyard, Marblehead, Swampscott, and Boston during the

morning hours. With the rain that followed a wet snow and the snow

from the prior 12/13 snow storm, the weight of the snow caused roof

damage to a Mobile home in Carver, Mass. and the roof collapse of

a market in Brighton, Mass. Wind gusts of 53 MPH were noted in

Chatham, Mass. with a 52 MPH wind gust on Nantucket, a 46 MPH wind

gust in East Boston. Wind gusts of 52 and 51 MPH were record in Fitchburg

and Worcester and a 51 MPH wind gust in North Adams Massachusetts during

the morning hours of the nor'easter.

After a lull in the winds, winds of 45-55 MPH would occur late Sunday

Night into Monday Morning and was handled with a SKYWARN Self-Activation.

A 55 MPH wind gust was recorded in East Falmouth with isolated pockets

of tree damage in Northampton, and Fairhaven Massachusetts.

SKYWARN Nets across Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts took

reports periodically on most repeaters including the 146.940-Mount

Tom Repeater, 146.790-Vernon, CT Repeater, 147.225-Killingly, CT

Repeater, 146.760-Scituate, RI Repeater, 145.49-Fairhaven MA Repeater,

146.64-Waltham MA Repeater, 145.47-Danvers MA

Repeater, 146.97-Paxton MA Repeater, 147.18-Bridgewater MA Repeater,

147.225-Whitman MA Repeater, 145.390-Scituate MA Repeater,

449.375-Pack Monadnock NH Repeater, and the 146.955-Westford MA

Repeater. The New England EchoLink/IRLP reflector system, *NEW-ENG*

Echolink Conference Node: 9123/IRLP 9123 also was active with reports

and linked a few of the above mentioned repeaters including Waltham

and Fairhaven. The Connecticut ARES Snow Desk was active on HF on

3965 KHz and the Rhode Island ARES Snow Desk was active on the

146.700-Cranston, RI Repeater.

SKYWARN Coordinators involved in this activation included K1SJW-Steve

Williams, CT State SKYWARN Coordinator, K1PAI-Roger Jeanfaivre,

Hartford-Tolland County CT SKYWARN Coordinator, KB1DGY-Bernie Dubb-Windham

County CT SKYWARN Coordinator, KA1JJM-Ray Weber and N1QKO-Eric Tuller,

Western Massachusetts SKYWARN Coordinators, Martin Mendelson-N1JMA and

Bill Boyes-KB1G, Rhode Island SKYWARN Coordinators, Dave Doe-K1HRV and

Roger Turner-W1ZSA, Norfolk County SKYWARN Coordinators, Steve Schwarm-

W3EVE, ARES DEC for Field Operations, KB1KQW-Jim Palmer, North Shore

ARES Assistant SKYWARN Coordinator and ARES Emergency Coordinator,

Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF, North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator,

Terry Stader-KA8SCP, Northeast Massachusetts SKYWARN/Region 1 RACES

Radio Officer, Scott Reynolds-KC2JCB, Hillsborough County NH SKYWARN

Coordinator, Bill Ricker, N1VUX, Metro Boston Area SKYWARN Coordinator

and Bruce Bohannon-WA1YZN, Swanzey, NH Emergency Management

and SKYWARN. These coordinators and numerous other backup net controls

and operators and several hundred SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio

Operators provided reports of snowfall, changeover in precipitation

and damage reports from across the region. Massachusetts RACES was

active at the State EOC through the efforts of Dennis Brothers-N1DB

and Karen Brothers-K1KEB and monitored the SKYWARN Activation and

reports from the SKYWARN Network.

Special Thanks to all those that assisted in this SKYWARN Activation!

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 12/20/07 Snow Storm..

SKYWARN was self-activated across Southern New Hampshire and

North-Central and Northeast Massachusetts as a moderate snowstorm

affected the region. SKYWARN was active on the 145.47-Danvers Repeater

with some activity noted on the 146.955-Westford Repeater and 449.375-

Pack Monadnock Repeater. Reports of snowfall and changeover in

precipitation were given.

Total snowfall over Southern New Hampshire and North-central and

Northeast Massachusetts was 4-8" with isolated 9-11" amounts in

Pepperell and Westford, Massachusetts as well as several locations

in Hillsborough County, NH. 2-5" of snow were noted in parts of

Central and Southeastern Massachusetts with little or no snow

accumulation over Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island

and the South Coast of Massachusetts including Cape Cod and the

Islands.

Special Thanks to all those that assisted in this SKYWARN Self-Activation!

SKYWARN Activation Report for 12/23/07 Strong Wind Event..

SKYWARN was activated with Ops at NWS Taunton on December 23rd 2007

for a strong wind event with brief heavy rain over Southern New England

with higher terrain locations and coastal areas having pockets of wind

damage and measured wind gusts greater than 46 MPH. Rob Macedo-KD1CY

activated Ops at NWS Taunton.

Measured wind gusts of 50 and 56 MPH respectively were reported in

the Marstons Mills section of Barnstable and in Marblehead,

Massachusetts. Pockets of wind damage occurred in the higher terrain

of Western Massachusetts and across portions of Eastern Massachusetts

and Rhode Island. Pockets of wind damage in Western Massachusetts

were reported in Montgomery, Huntington and Easthampton. SKYWARN

was active through the efforts of Ray Weber-KA1JJM and Eric Tuller-N1QKO

on the 146.94-Mount Tom Repeater. Pockets of wind damage were also

reported in Tiverton and Smithfield, RI. SKYWARN was active on the

146.76-Scituate, RI Repeater through the efforts of Martin Mendelson-N1JMA,

and Jim Cahill-N1TZM.

Pockets of wind damage were also reported in Southeast Massachusetts

in Plymouth, Bourne, Rochester, Freetown, Mattapoisett, Swansea,

Marion, Fall River, Somerset and Hingham. SKYWARN was active on the

145.49-Fairhaven, 146.955-Barnstable and 147.180-Bridgewater Repeaters.

Tony Duarte-N1XRS, Jeff Lehmann-N1ZZN and Mike "Sparky" Leger-N1YLQ

assisted in the activation.

Winds decreased in intensity by 1 AM securing the SKYWARN Activation

with Ops at NWS Taunton. Special thanks to all those that assisted

in this SKYWARN Activation!

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 12/31/07 Snow Storm..

SKYWARN was self-activated for a storm that started Sunday Evening

12/30 and lasted into 12/31 with a moderate to heavy snowfall occurring

across Southern New Hampshire and portions of Northwest and North-Central

Massachusetts with lighter amounts over Northeast Massachusetts and

Northern Connecticut where sleet, freezing rain and rain mixed in with

the snow making for much lesser amounts.

Bruce Bohannon-WA1YZN reported close to 10" of snow (9.8") in his area

with 5-10" across Southern New Hampshire and Northwest Massachusetts.

2-5" of snow were common over Northeastern Massachusetts and Northern

Connecticut with amounts of 3" or less in the Boston to Providence

area and points south through Southeast Massachusetts.

Roger Jeanfaivre-K1PAI self-activated SKYWARN in Hartford-Tolland

Counties Sunday Evening on the 146.790-Vernon, CT Repeater with a

net roll call at 9 PM. The net roll call was helpful in determining

more mixing of precipitation then expected and resulted in lowering

snowfall amounts in this area. In addition, across Rhode Island and

Southeast Massachusetts, precipitation remained largely rain with

just a bit of sleet with slightly more sleet in extreme northern

portions of Rhode Island and extreme northern portions of Southeast

Massachusetts.

Rhode Island SKYWARN prepared to self-activate for reports and Rick

Andreano-K3OQH, Rhode Island ARES Section Emergency Coordinator was

involved in coordinating SKYWARN and ARES reporting with Martin

Mendelson-N1JMA of Rhode Island SKYWARN. Based on reports

received that evening, no activation was required for Rhode Island.

Special Thanks to all those who supported this Self-Activation of

SKYWARN!

SKYWARN Self-Activation Report for 1/1/08 Snow Storm..

SKYWARN self-activated on the first day of 2008 for snowfall reports

across the region. 2-7" of snow fell across Southern New Hampshire

with 2-5" of snow in Western, Central and Northeast Massachusetts

and Northern Connecticut with isolated 6" snowfall amounts in Franklin

County, Massachusetts. Reports were received from Amateur Radio SKYWARN

Spotters and non-Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters across this region.

SKYWARN Coordinators KA1JJM-Ray Weber, and KB1KQW-Jim Palmer provided

updates from the region along with KA1VGM-Larry Levesque from Surry,

NH. Special thanks to all those that assisted in this SKYWARN Self-Activation.

Norfolk County SKYWARN Net Control, W1ADB-Allan Del Basio, Passed Away..

Allan Del Basio, a member of Norfolk County SKYWARN, passed away on

November 11th, 2007 at the age of 56. I learned of his passing at

our November 16th, 2007 SKYWARN Coordinators Meeting and was shocked

to hear it. Allan had operated at our NWS Taunton Amateur Radio

Station, WX1BOX, in late June and did a fine job in his first stint

at WX1BOX and enjoyed operating during a Severe Thunderstorm event

that was affecting the region.

Phil McNamara-N1XTB provides more information on Allan as well as

links to Allan's obituary. Our sympathies go out to Allan's family

for their loss. See obituary links and Phil's information on Allan's

contributions to SKYWARN and Amateur Radio below:

http://www.legacy.com/BostonGlobe/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=

97893200

http://www.legacy.com/BostonGlobe/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=97893200

http://www.wickedlocal.com/walpole/news/obituaries/x9499474

He authored some interesting papers with regard to emergency planning

in connection with his job for the U.S Department of Transportation.

I think this was why he got interested in ARES. The Walpole/ Norwood

ARC hams knew him well. He was a member of the Walpole Emergency

Communication group. Ass't. RACES Radio Officer in Walpole. He was a

SKYWARN spotter. Graduated from the FEMA Community Emergency Response

Team (C.E.R.T.) program. He worked Public Service Events including

the BOSTON MARATHON and the JIMMY FUND WALKATHON.

SKYWARN Coordinators Strategy Meeting Summary from November 2007..

There were 21 people at the November 2007 SKYWARN Strategy Meeting

and they were as follows:

W1ZSA-Roger Turner Walpole EMA Director/Norfolk County SKYWARN

K1HRV-Dave Doe Walpole Deputy EMA Director/Norfolk County SKYWARN

KB1KQW-Jim Palmer North Shore Mass. ARES & SKYWARN Emergency Coordinator

N1PJ-PJ Howe Worcester County SKYWARN Coordinator

K1CJS-Chris Smith Fall River Area SKYWARN

N1HWA-Phil Knight North Shore ARES-SKYWARN

KB1OHZ-Mike Griffin North Shore ARES-SKYWARN

KB1CYO-Phil McLaughlin NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operator

N1FY-Carl Aveni NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operator

N1XTB-Phil McNamara ARES Emergency Coordinator for MARS Liaison

KA1NCF-Eric Horwitz North Shore Mass. ARES District Emergency Coordinator

K1SJW-Steve Williams Connecticut ARES Statewide SKYWARN Coordinator

KB1DGY-Bernie Dubb Windham County, CT SKYWARN Coordinator

N1XRS-Tony Duarte South Coastal Mass. Asst. ARES/SKYWARN Coordinator

W1MPN-Mike Neilsen Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Section Manager

KD1CY-Rob Macedo ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton

N1DOT-Ken Grimard NWS Gray Maine Coordinator & Taunton Mass. SKYWARN Spotter

N1PDP-Ashley Wing NWS Gray Maine SKYWARN Spotter

N1KTA-Thomas Berman NWS Gray Maine Forecaster

KB1GHX-Glenn Field NWS Taunton, Mass. Warning Coordination Meteorologist

William Babcock NWS Taunton, Mass. SKYWARN Program Leader

The first item on the agenda was a review of the SKYWARN Presentation

reviewing events from 2007 and plans going forward for 2008. The

presentation went into weather highlights which included the fairly

recent major nor'easter that was associated with the remnants of

Hurricane Noel that affected the region on November 3rd and the

Patriots Day Nor'easter that affected the region in April 2007.

A review of Severe Weather 2007 by the numbers was then completed. A

total of 346 Severe Weather reports were received with 320 coming

from Amateur Radio related sources which represented 92% of the total

damage and flooding reports being received via Amateur Radio. There

were a total of 5 severe weather events with 28 or more reports of

severe weather in a specific event with several events having Tornado

Warnings associated with the severe weather event.

An update was made on the NWS Gray, Maine SKYWARN Operation and its

progress over 2007. Amateur Radio Operators became responsible for

roughly 20-40% of the reports received during net activations which

is much higher than the estimated less than 10% reporting that had

been received previously. NWS Gray had an extremely active severe

weather season that was even more active then NWS Taunton. NWS Gray

recently had HF installed at their location and communication paths

are now possible between NWS Taunton and NWS Gray not just on EchoLink/

IRLP but HF as well. Contact via VHF/UHF may be possible via relays

as well as the 2 Meter Linked Repeater system that is still being

enhanced with new repeaters.

A review of the Hurricane Awareness Tour 2007 was completed and later

a video shown on the events that transpired at HAT 2007. This was

a significant PR event that went very well as Amateur Radio Operators

promoted the service while supporting NWS with the actual event.

Contact was made with WX4NHC on both HF and EchoLink by weather

forecasters, the Director of the National Hurricane Center and

Amateur Radio Operators. Contact was also made with a former

Amateur Radio Operator on the flight crew of the P3 plane who is

now a contact for working to have backup communications between the

P3 Plane/Hurricane Hunters and Amateur Radio Station WX4NHC.

The next item discussed was an update on the VoIP Hurricane Net and

its activities for 2007. Highlights of activations during the 2007

season were reviewed much of which was featured in past SKYWARN

Newsletters. Hurricane Flossie, which grazed Hawaii, Hurricane Dean,

which impacted the Caribbean, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the Yucatan

Peninsula, of Mexico, Belize and mainland, Mexico, and Hurricane Felix,

which impacted Nicaragua. Hurricane Humberto, the only US landfalling

hurricane was also discussed and how it exposed a rare quick fused

nature to having to activate the hurricane net. For 2008, the plan

will be to have a hurricane "spotter type" training class to reinforce

the types of information and criteria the net is looking for and how

to get more specific information.

As we move into 2008, the plan is to utilize the SKYWARN Program and

Amateur Radio Coordinators to distribute more of the training targeting

Amateur Radio Operators, Public Safety/CERT groups, Emergency Management

and specific organizations that may be interested in helping more

with SKYWARN. NWS Forecasters will be offering somewhere between 5-8

training sessions in 2008 focusing on the major metropolitan areas

of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield in Massachusetts, Providence, RI

and Hartford, CT. Amateur Radio Coordinators will be tasked to do

SKYWARN training across portions of the area that had normally been

done by forecasters so that other programs can be worked on by NWS

forecasters.

Along with the support of SKYWARN Training sessions over the area,

SKYWARN Coordinators will also be asked to support working through

a list of communities that are interested in becoming Storm Ready

certified. Follow-up work was anticipated after the meeting to outline

the guidelines for Storm Ready recognition, the communities that

were originally interested and how to proceed on making contact.

Additional items that will be worked over the course of 2008 include:

-Information to be posted on SKYWARN on the Mass. Volunteer Service

Alliance web page.

-Support SKYWARN Program Leader Bill Babcock on putting out Prevailing

Winds Newsletters.

-Potential support for a NOAA Weather Radio Event that could be done

in 2008.

-Assist with Lat/Lon database entry for spotters in the NWS Taunton

SKYWARN program.

-Continued enhancements of the NWS Taunton Operations Desk and support

function with new operators and additional tools.

-Put together a SKYWARN Tri-Fold Brochure.

-Continue execution of damage assessment/investigation work.

-Continue PR for SKYWARN and Amateur Radio's role in the program.

Once the presentation was completed, a tactical discussion of some

items through the SKYWARN Meeting agenda followed on how to support

the items presented to the coordinators at the meeting. For NWS Taunton

Ham Operation enhancements, an action was taken to get with Mike Esip

on installing the Icom IC-735 HF Radio and to also look into the

EVDO Router/Cell Phone Air Card setup for the station.

Plans were made for SKYWARN Recognition Day 2007. Those plans were

executed well and a follow up report was featured in SKYWARN Newsletter

#246.

Bill Babcock provided an update on Online SKYWARN training. That will

be done using a commercial program and an off site trip to Norman

Oklahoma will be done to perfect use of the software and the ability

to do the training online. SKYWARN training online will only be offered

to those who have already taken the class in person first. This may

be changed later but the current policy will be to offer it as a

refresher class first and will be reviewed for its effectiveness

over the next couple of years. The online class is expected to be

online in the mid-2008 timeframe.

A discussion then ensued on whether Marine Weather Spotter classes

will be done in 2008. This was something that Glenn Field, Warning

Coordination Meteorologist was going to review Marine Focal Point,

Frank Nocera.

Liaison paths to NWS Gray Maine were updated. HF testing was done

several times before the Coordinator's Meeting and was done again

during SKYWARN Recognition Day 2007. HF will be an option along with

EchoLink/IRLP. A VHF/UHF path either direct or through liaisons will

be the next item to be worked on as we get into 2008.

Following that meeting, Rob Macedo with a presentation provided

by Ray Weber-KA1JJM, discussed the work Ray has been doing on a

volunteer basis working with radar high resolution enhancements

and using SKYWARN reporting to verify that the new algorithms are

effective. The presentation showed images of the radar enhancements

and Rob described how the new enhancements and sensitive algorithms

were effective in some situations but ineffective in others and how

that was fed back to those working on the enhancements. The presentation

was well received.

An overview of Netlog was then presented by Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF,

North Shore ARES DEC. Eric has authored this program and has been

working on it for over 3 years as a general purpose logging tool for

SKYWARN reporting, public service events and ARES activations. Eric

presented the usage and status of work on the program at a previous

SKYWARN Coordinators' Meeting and provided an update at this meeting

along with updated software to those interested in utilizing the

program.

A brief review of the SKYWARN operations Manual was then completed to

assure the documentation was correct. After that, a tentative meeting

date of Saturday March 15th was given for the next SKYWARN Coordinator's

meeting.

SKYWARN Coordinators Strategy Meeting Summary from March 2007..

There were 23 people at the March 2007 SKYWARN Strategy Meeting

and they were as follows:

W1ZSA-Roger Turner Walpole EMA Director/Norfolk County SKYWARN

K1HRV-Dave Doe Walpole Deputy EMA Director/Norfolk County SKYWARN

KB1KQW-Jim Palmer North Shore Mass. ARES & SKYWARN Emergency Coordinator

N1PJ-PJ Howe Worcester County SKYWARN Coordinator

WD4JZO-Jim Blaine Hillsborough County NH ARES Emergency Coordinator

KB1MRH-Matt Dempsey North Shore Mass. Assistant ARES-SKYWARN Emergency Coordinator

N1VUX-Bill Ricker Metro Boston SKYWARN Coordinator

KB2SAE-George Bourassa Berkshire County SKYWARN Coordinator

N1QKO-Eric Tuller Western Massachusetts Assistant SKYWARN Coordinator

N1FY-Carl Aveni NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operator

N1JMA-Martin Mendelson Rhode Island SKYWARN Coordinator

KB1EJB-Duffy Egan Rhode Island SKYWARN

KB1G-Bill Boyes Rhode Island SKYWARN Coordinator

KB1DGY-Bernie Dubb Windham County, CT SKYWARN Coordinator

N1XRS-Tony Duarte South Coastal Mass. Asst. ARES/SKYWARN Coordinator

K1XTB-Steve Silvestre NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operator

KA1JJM-Ray Weber Western Massachusetts SKYWARN Coordinator

W1MPN-Mike Neilsen Eastern Massachusetts ARES Special Advisor

KD1CY-Rob Macedo ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton

N1DOT-Ken Grimard NWS Gray Maine Coordinator & Taunton Mass. SKYWARN Spotter

WE1U-David Lowe NWS Gray Maine SKYWARN Coordinator

KB1GHX-Glenn Field NWS Taunton, Mass. Warning Coordination Meteorologist

William Babcock NWS Taunton, Mass. SKYWARN Program Leader

Since a number of the meeting topics from the March 2007 meeting were

superseded by the November 2007 meeting, this meeting summary will

highlight the relevant items from the March meeting and have bulletized

points on those items that were superseded by the March 2007 meeting.

The first part of the meeting was centered around a SKYWARN Presentation

on events from December 2006 through early March 2007. This included

a review of the December 1st 2006 Severe Weather/High Wind Event, the

January 15th, 2007 Ice Storm that affected Southern New Hampshire

and Northern Massachusetts from the Route 2 corridor north, the

Valentine's Day 2007 Snow and Wintry Mix Storm, and the March 2nd,

2007 Snow/Ice/Flood event. A review of severe weather 2006 was

completed which highlighted the high level of severe weather seen

in the 2006 season. An update on NWS Gray, Maine, WX1GYX, Operations

was also provided as well as an update on the VoIP Hurricane Net and

plans for the 2007 SKYWARN Training season and updates to the NWS

Taunton SKYWARN Operations Manual.

The following additional items were discussed:

-Plans for the Hurricane Awareness Tour 2007 that was held in Rhode Island.

-Southern New England Weather Conference date for 2007 and list of

speakers and topics.

-Update on Online SKYWARN Training Refresher Course (Still being

worked on by NWS Forecasters)

-SKYWARN Training planning for 2007.

-Review of Liaison paths between areas within the NWS Taunton

County Warning Area and outside of the County Warning Area.

-Review of NWS Taunton Operations concerning the move of equipment

and attempting to enhance Internet access.

-Review of contact information for the NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operations

Manual.

Several additional presentations were given:

Mike Neilsen-W1MPN gave a presentation on the meteorology of the

Valentine's Day Storm. This presentation went into the details on

the evolution of the storm and analysis of offshore buoys and

weather models and how they depicted the storm. Mike then went into

a presentation on how SKYWARN Coordinators can keep themselves briefed

through NWS products and monitoring trends with radar, satellite and

model data available via the Internet. The presentation was very well

received by the coordinators present.

Ray Weber and Jim Palmer gave an overview of the WX-MSG Client software

and how it can be utilized for warning information that is only a few

seconds delayed from the receipt of transmission and is faster than

most Internet web site that carry NWS information. They explained how

the program would be utilized for NWS Taunton SKYWARN Operations and

how certain NWS products could be printed as they are issued which

would be of great benefit to Ham Operations at the NWS office after

the move of the Ham station is completed to its new location. Due

to web server constraints, this program and access to it has been

limited to a few of the SKYWARN Coordinators for the NWS Taunton and

Gray offices. Access will be slowly rolled out to other SKYWARN

Coordinators as web server constraints permit.

The last topics reviewed was elements of a presentation on the new

Enhanced Fujita scale and damage assessment work. Glenn Field and

Bill Babcock walked folks through a presentation on what the new

Enhanced Fujita Scale means and how it applies to the damage assessment

schemes so that Ham Coordinators helping with gather information for

the damage assessment could apply the data to the new scale. This

completed the March 2007 meeting.

That's all for this edition of the SKYWARN 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://ares.ema.arrl.org

http://www.wx1box.org

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