Katrina knocked out real-time weather
Connecting state and local government leaders
Real-time weather forecasts were one of Katrina's casualties, according to officials who feed data to the National Weather Service.
Real-time weather forecasts were one of Katrina's casualties, according to officials who feed data to the National Weather Service.
Internet weather service WeatherBug, which shares observations with NWS through a public-private partnership, reports that 83 percent of its weather instrument stations are not functioning, while NWS officials say most of NWS' weather radio transmitters are not sending out signals.
'We don't know if it's power, communications or an entire roof that's gone' at the stations, said John Doherty, senior vice president for professional services at WeatherBug.
Both WeatherBug and NWS officials have repair teams on-site this week.
Sensors installed atop WeatherBug's stations monitor 27 types of weather conditions, including humidity, wind direction and wind speed. Out of more than 300 stations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, only 50 are still sending data to NWS and WeatherBug.
'We want to go in and fill in the gaps. The whole purpose is to be prepared for another storm or a chemical explosion. This is more preventive than anything else,' Doherty said, adding that six employees are tasked to the project.
If a toxic cloud were to develop from an explosion, first responders would need to know the wind conditions surrounding this area, so they could relocate people, he said.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association weather radios, which typically announce NWS warnings and forecasts in emergency situations, are not working because of storm damage to the radio transmitters' communications system.
'I don't think there are a lot of relief workers getting most of this data in the New Orleans area,' said Martin Garcia, an electronics program manager for NWS' southern region.
All but one of the NOAA weather radio transmitters are not responding.
'Most of our automated stations are operational -- it just that the communications to the radios, which are Southern Bell and MCI landlines are not working,' Garcia said.
NWS workers in New Orleans anticipate they will be able to bypass landlines with UHF links and start transmitting from New Orleans as early as tomorrow. The NWS employees are waiting for military escorts to let them into downtown New Orleans.
John Duxbury, chief of the observations and facilities branch for the NWS southern region, said, 'Our equipment is fully operational, we just can't communicate with it.'
However, NWS automated weather stations in Boothville, Louisiana and New Orleans' Lakefront Airport are underwater, Garcia said. Most of the other automated stations, including the ones in Baton Rouge, Gulfport, Macomb and New Orleans Airport, are working with intermittent phone communications.
Meteorologists, contracted by the FAA, are assisting NWS with handheld weather instruments.
Duxbury said local weather information is available through the Internet, television and Hamm radios, where available.
NEXT STORY: SI nabs IPv6 transition task