Do you have what it takes to be a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador? #WRN #Skywarn

The WeatherReady Nation (WRN) Ambassador initiative is an NWS effort to formally recognize our partners who are working with us to help improve the readiness, responsiveness, and overall resilience of people in our area against all the extreme weather that we experience.

The duties of a WRN Ambassador are pretty much what most of you do anyway - keep in touch with NWS Norman(maintain current point-of-contact and contact information), use NWS-generated information such as preparedness messages, and look for opportunities to work together on local preparedness events.

Any organization across all levels of government, businesses large and small, non-profit and non-governmental organizations, and academia can become a WRN Ambassador. Here are just a few examples of potential WeatherReady Nation Ambassadors in our area:

- city/county emergency management 

- city/county/state law enforcement

- city/county government

- fire departments and EMS

- tribes

- hospitals and medical facilities

- insurance agents/companies

- technology centers

- universities and colleges

- K-12 schools or school districts, public or private

- malls, stores, businesses

- TV and radio stations

- Skywarn storm spotter groups

- amateur radio clubs, ARES, RACES

- volunteer organizations, non-profit organizations

- faith-based organizations

- state government agencies

- zoos, amusement parks, recreational centers

- LEPC's

- military installations

- electric cooperatives, energy companies

- etc

The application process is quick and easy. Here's a link to the application, and here's a link to an FAQ list that will hopefully answer any questions you have about the program.

Thanks for your consideration!

Rick Smith - Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service - Norman Forecast Office
120 David L. Boren Blvd., Suite 2400
Norman, OK 73072 

How @WaffleHouse compares to the Automatic Packet Reporting System #ARRL #hamradio @CraigatFEMA @FEMA

If you have heard, there's a "Waffle House Index" at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Craig, KK4INZ said this about the Index, “If you get there and the Waffle House is closed? That’s really bad. That’s where you go to work.” 

However, outside the "Big City" there are not so many Waffle Houses.  There are other "disaster resilient companies" to track.

What about those places where there are no Lowes and Home Depots or they are located outside the disaster zone?

Welcome to the concept of using the Automatic Packet Reporting System to see "how bad is bad" before, during, and after a disaster.  

On a "normal day" with no power outage, tornado, hurricane, ice storm, etc., open a map.  Zoom out and one will see all manner of people and places.  

Add a disaster and the resources begin to fail.  One by one the pretty icons evaporate from the map.

Folks at the Voice Over Internet Protocol Weather Net have been using APRS, among other tools, to get data for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.  

For example, before a land-falling hurricane strikes the island of Bermuda, VOIPWX team members look at APRS to see what is in play.  A few hours after the event, another look would paint a very different story, if the disaster really takes a toll.  Similarly, internet-dependent communications such as Echolink, D-Star, and the Internet Radio Linking Project could provide planners with the "ground truth" they need to see "how big bad is".

Do you use these tools in your disaster response, recovery, mitigation, and planning programs?

Here's an APRS Tool for #Skywarn and other folks #hamradio #ARRL

I am in the process of working on a program which provides a US Weather forecast 

via APRS message. I have most of the kinks worked out and it is ready for testing

by a larger group.

Send a single character APRS message to KI6WJP and the program will respond with a 

brief forecast for your location.

You can specify "where" and "when" you want the forecast.  If you wish a full forecast

add the word "full" to your "where" and "when".  The full forecast is spread across

multiple APRS message.  The default "brief" forecast usually fits within a single

message.

"where" is any APRS callsign/object, zipcode, grid, or decimal lat/lon as long as it is 

located in a place covered by the US National Weather Service.

"when" is any day of the week with optional night.  I.e. Wednesday night

The forecast is derived from the US National Weather Service point forecast.

Usually the forecast is produced within 1 or 2 seconds, but during periods of

heavy activity, the weather service can take 20 or 30 seconds.

The latitude/longitude for the requested object is extracted from api.aprs.fi,  

As a result, anything that appears on aprs.fi is valid including 

CWOP stations and AIS ships.

Here are some example forecast requests that can be sent to KI6WJP:

Any message less than 3 characters

    Returns a brief forecast for the current location of the sending station.

Tomorrow 96067

    Returns  tomorrow's forecast for Mount Shasta, CA

Tonight

    Returns the forecast for tonight at your current location

Tuesday night full

    Returns the Tuesday night full forecast at your current location.

w1aw

    Returns the current forecast for the location of station W1AW

usna-1 Sunday

    Returns the forecast for the Army Navy football game on Sunday. 

    (Assuming usna-1 is at the stadium)

CN81uh

    Returns the forecast for the center of maidenhead grid CN81uh

36.5786/-118.2920

    Returns the forecast for the summit of Mount Whitney.

Currently the program is running on a raspberry Pi on a home dsl internet connection.

The program is single threaded and can handle a single forecast request at a time.

Things are still in development and may break at any time.  

Obviously for this to work via RF, a transmit capable i-gate is necessary.

Many thanks to Heikki for Ham::APRS::IS, Ham::APRS::FAP and api.aprs.fi that made

this easy.

For more information see: https://sites.google.com/site/ki6wjp/wxbot

Thanks to Martin, KI6WJP on the APRS reflector for this information