🚀 go-pugleaf

A ways back, Chris asked about SKYWARN setups in "big cities," but I
only just saw that post on the list digest. Well, I live in Arlington,
Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington, DC, and I guess the
DC metro area qualifies as a big city with a population of something
like 5 million or so.

I've been a SKYWARN spotter since June 1993, trained at the weather
forecast office at Sterling Virginia, where I've taken their 3-hour
basic course, their 3-hour advanced course, and their 2.5-hour winter
storm course. My regular job is computer specialist at the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (when I'm not furloughed, anyway). I
don't have a meteorological background and I don't chase (maybe
someday, ;-) ), but I have a long interest in the weather, I've
learned a lot from WX-TALK, and I've just installed my Christmas
present of a Peet Bros. Ultimeter 2000 weather station. (And real
happy with it so far!) I don't do radio, although I'm beginning to
think about it.

I think the people at Sterling WFO are great and are doing a good job
with their program, which I believe may only be about five years old.
Sterling handles a large area that ranges from dense urban around DC
and Baltimore to sparse rural, from tidal to mountainous up to around
4,000 feet in elevation. As you know, conditions here in the East are
real different. We don't get a huge amount of severe weather, and most
all of the strong storms are HP, and lines of sight are usually
obstructed by trees and/or buildings. And there's lots of traffic in
the urban/suburban areas. In most places around here, safe chasing is
out of the question. But we do get some severe weather, and in fact
Virginia and Maryland have seen tens of tornadoes in the last 5 years
or so, including killers like the F4 that destroyed the Walmart near
Petersburg, VA in 1994. We also get the occasional major snowstorm
like the Blizzard of 1996 (17.5" here, plus 8.6" more over the next
five days), and a lot of ice storms that create very hazardous driving
conditions. And I will be the first to agree that many DC-area drivers
do not know how to drive in snow or ice (or dry pavement, either, now
that I think about it). And our local governments are not well-
prepared to handle big storms.

So, how does SKYWARN operate here? My impression is that the Sterling
spotters are maybe half radio folk, and half folks like me who just
phone in reports to their SKYWARN phone number. They have a local
number and a 1-800 number designated for spotters. Sterling does not
appear to want to mobilize spotters in severe weather, but rather just
have us spot from where we are. I think this makes sense, because the
visibility is almost never there, and too often there wouldn't be a
safe chance for a mobile unit to move out of harm's way. The radio net
activates when severe weather is starting or about to start up, and
they announce "SKYWARN is activated" over weather radio. Sorry, but I
don't know how the radio net operates.

Maybe because there is a higher population density across much of the
forecast area, and so a higher density of spotters, my impression is
that Sterling gets pretty good data from their stationary spotter
network, with reports coming in both from radio and telephone. We
might be at home or at work when an event occurs. I know we've helped
verify warnings and ground truth WSR88D data.

About the only criticism I have relates to a point you've often made,
Chris, and that is that in the basic and advanced spotting courses
I've taken, they used almost no video material that could help us
visualize what we were looking for. I have a pretty good idea of the
"still images" but not of what circulation looks like in a
mesocyclone, rotating wall cloud, or funnel cloud. Again, though,
visibilities are usually so bad, due to heavy precip and obstructed
sight lines, that often we wouldn't be able to see a tornado anyway.
We're likelier to report high winds, hail, heavy precip, and storm
damage -- which we are asked to do. And in winter we report snowfall
and ice buildups.

Finally, since I have pretty good Internet/Web access, my fantasy is
to have real-time access to the forecast office's WSR88D data. Yes, I
may be stationary, but I'd still like to be able to predict what's
going to hit *here* when the weather is getting severe, and aged
images just don't help much. I'd like to see the NWS figure out a way
to make real-time Doppler data available over the Web, at least to
their spotters!

I hope this helps, and let me know if I can answer any questions any
of this raises. Cheers,

        Steve Young
        young.steve@epamail.epa.gov
        Message to politicians: "Three furloughs and you're out!"
        (OK, personal opinions only. Usual restrictions and suspects
        apply. Prohibited where void.)