Data Users

Decision-Making (Examples on the use of NOAA data/products in U.S. Media decision-making)

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1. The National Climatic Data Center was contacted by Towers Productions, the producer of the Storm Stories series seen nightly on the Weather Channel, seeking weather data for the high country of Colorado in early February 2002. During this time, there was a rescue made during some extreme events including severe cold, heavy snow and high winds in the area of Winter Park, Colorado. The producer was provided information from the Winter Park cooperative site as well as data from nine surrounding cooperative sites. It was determined that minimum temperatures dropped as low as -20F with snow totals exceeding 30 inches. The comment on one cooperative station's form included the mention of a peak wind gust of 68 miles per hour. Daily weather maps and the Storm Data publication were also provided.
2. A journalist at CNN contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain climatological data for a story he is working on concerning the blizzard of November 11, 1940. The snowstorm affected Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan with high winds, sub-zero temperatures, zero visibility, heavy snow and snow drifts. Additionally, 144 people lost their lives, 69 of the victims died on Lake Michigan. Meteorological data from the publication Climatological Data of November 1940 along with the technical paper "Some Outstanding Blizzards" were provided to the writer for the period in question.
3. A reporter from the Charlotte Observer newspaper in Charlotte, NC, obtained hurricane track information for prominent historical hurricanes which severely impacted North Carolina. These included Hugo, Hazel, Fran, Bob and Bertha. The paper is developing a graphic map of major hurricanes affecting the state and needed specific track and background information on these particular historical storms. The reporter wants to compare the track information of these storms with the path of 1998 Hurricane Bonnie.
4. The "Washington Times" and ABC "World News Tonight" both contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) regarding the intensifying drought covering much of the nation, especially in the Northeast. The Times was interested in the immediate Washington, D.C. area, whereas ABC World News was interested in how this drought ranks with previous ones. After NCDC personnel had examined Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) values, both news organizations were informed that the state now being most affected by the drought is Maryland. The month with the lowest PSDI value so far in the current Maryland drought was December 1998 when the value reached -4.60. Since 1895, only two other Maryland droughts have had months with lower numbers (indicating more severe droughts) than the current one. Those occurred in 1930-1931 with an extreme value of -6.90 and 1965-1966 with an extreme value of -5.32.
5. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)'s Satellite Services Group was contacted by ABC News regarding acquisition of a series of GOES satellite images centered over central Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of fires in Mexico, which have been burning out of control due to unseasonably dry weather this spring, have contributed to massive amounts of smoke particulate matter. The series of daily visible images from May 6 through May 20 distinctly shows a large area of smoke over much of the Gulf of Mexico extending at times well into the central U.S. These images can be viewed at NCDC's web site under "Satellite Resources."
6. A researcher for NBC's Dateline News program requested data for the Cincinnati, Ohio, area regarding the flooding in that area over the weekend of March 1, 1997. The television journalist was faxed appropriate forecasts, warnings and local area meteorological summaries retrieved from NCDC's Service Records Retention System. Thanks to the swift action by NCDC personnel, the reporter received the data on the same afternoon of her request, and stated that, "NCDC has saved my job."
7. A writer with a major sports magazine contacted NCDC in order to obtain climatological data. The data are being used to explain why a professional Japanese baseball team prefers to avoid the cold Asiatic winter and hold spring training in the southwest United States. For the last few years the Tokyo Swallows have traveled to their "exhibition" site in Arizona during January and February before returning home to begin the "regular season." NCDC provided the journalist with monthly temperature data selected from the publication World Wide Airfield Summaries for Tokyo, Japan, and Yuma, Arizona.
8. An ABC News representative obtained several geostationary satellite images of the recent Pacific Typhoon Isa from the NCDC Satellite Services Group. ABC News produces a science news program titled "Discovery News" which airs weekly on the Discovery Channel. The program contains a brief "Earthcast" segment which addresses recent geological and meteorological events around the world. Four infrared satellite images of Typhoon Isa on April 17 from Japan's Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) were provided both electronically and as glossy prints for use in an upcoming broadcast.
9. A newspaper editor conducting research for a book involving the 1988 outbreak of rabies in south Texas, contacted the NCDC in order to obtain climatological data. He is attempting to correlate the rabies outbreak with a drought which occurred that same year. The author will also use the meteorological data to compare other rabies outbreaks in similar climate regimes worldwide. The NCDC provided cooperative climate records, Local Climatological Data annual and monthly summaries as well as Summary of the Day data for this area.
10. ABC News contacted National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain meteorological data pertaining to historical tornado outbreaks nationwide. This data was used in a network report about the recent tornado outbreak in Jarrell, TX. There were 27 fatalities associated with this F-5 tornado which carved out a 5-mile-long, half-mile-wide swath of destruction. The NCDC provided information from the publication Storm Data for April 1979 and May 1987 as well as data collected from the Natural Disaster Survey Report "The Widespread Tornado Outbreak" of April 3-4, 1974 which spawned 127 tornadoes. In addition NCDC selected pages from several reports authored by the Storm Prediction Center including 1997 Deadly Tornado Statistics, Monthly Tornado Statistics, the 25 Deadliest U.S. Tornadoes along with a copy of the Fujita tornado scale.
11. The Editor of an educational magazine published and distributed in Puerto Rico has asked the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for assistance in obtaining satellite photographs for use in one of its articles. Among other things, the magazine addresses certain disaster preparedness considerations, such as what precautions to take when a hurricane is approaching, and how to sterilize water after flooding has affected the island. NCDC furnished GOES satellite images of Hurricanes Hortense and Bertha as they neared Puerto Rico.
12. The Western section of the North Atlantic Ocean was a perilous place to be in late October 1991. Hurricane Grace was making her presence known in the Bermuda area, and to the north, more trouble was brewing. A storm that was to be called "The Halloween Storm" was damaging lighthouses along the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire. Waves up to 30 feet slammed into the coast, and flooded several Maine beach towns. At sea, 60 knot winds, and 33 foot swells were being recorded by ships and buoys. "Weatherwise Magazine" is doing an article on the Halloween Storm, and its interaction with Hurricane Grace. A GOES-7 infrared image depicting both storms is being furnished by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).
13. A staff editor of the New York Times, Science Division, contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Satellite Services Group for an image showing four fully formed Atlantic tropical cyclones occurring on August 30, 1995. The image will be published on the front cover of the Science News magazine, a weekly publication covering a wide range of topics. The feature story will be on hurricane preparedness as we begin the 1997 hurricane season.
14. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) was contacted by a reporter with the Chinook Observer, a newspaper located in Long Beach, WA, interested in procuring climatological data for the Long Beach Peninsula. The journalist is conducting a write-up on Festival No. 16 of the 1997 Washington State International Kite Festival. The story will focus on the previous 15 festivals in order to estimate the amount of coverage they want to expend on this year's event. Competitions will include as many as 14 teams from 9 countries vying in 25 different categories. Long Beach is slated to host the World Cup of Sport Kiting VIII scheduled for September 22-28. Long Beach is also home to the World Kite Museum and Hall = of Fame which averages 6000 visitors per year. The NCDC provided wind rose data from Astoria, OR for use in this news report.
15. The National Environmental Health Association publishes a monthly magazine entitled Journal of Environmental Health which focuses on health issues in the United States. The December issue will feature the mosquito infestation problem that resulted from the flooding from Hurricane Fran in September 1996. To highlight the story, the cover of this issue will contain a color-enhanced infrared image of Hurricane Fran furnished by the National Climatic Data Center's Satellite Services Group.
16. The National Geographic Society was provided Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) satellite images of one of the worst blizzards of the decade, and probably of this century. The best image will be used in the "National Geographic" magazine as an advertisement which spotlights an upcoming television documentary on the storm. The Blizzard of '93, sometimes called the "Storm of the Century," was one of the strongest winter storms ever to hit the eastern third of the U.S. Over two-hundred people in thirteen states lost their lives during the March 12-15, 1993, storm.
17. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) will provide several International Meteorological Climate Summary (ISMCS) CD-ROM's and jacket thermometers as prizes for North Carolina Science Fair near Raleigh, NC, later this spring. Over 500 projects are expected to be entered at the school or district level with the winners advancing to one of several regional competitions. The Raleigh local American Meteorological Society (AMS) chapter provides judges for the competitions. Usually several dozen projects deal with weather, climate, air pollution, or other related topics. The judges recognize the outstanding projects in the atmospheric and oceanographic sciences and present certificates from the national AMS to the elementary, middle and high school level "winners." This year the prizes will include contributions in the form of CD-ROM's, subscriptions to the popular "Weatherwise"magazine, and jacket thermometers.
18. On Friday, March 23, a deadly tornado struck near Gainesville, GA during the predawn hours, killing at least 11 people. The storm system moved through Hall County, then northeast across Rabun County and into North Carolina. Within four hours of the tornado touchdown, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) was downloading GOES-8 data at 15 minute intervals, and producing colorized imagery for a request from the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION newspaper. The images and accompanying story were run in the Saturday edition of the newspaper. This was the fourth deadly tornado disaster to strike the Gainesville / Hall County (GA) area this century, more than for any other area in the entire U.S. Other Gainesville disasters included 98 killed on June 1, 1903, 203 killed on April 6, 1936, and 23 killed on April 16, 1944.
19. A journalist representing a well known syndicated show carried by the Fox and NBC networks contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain climatological data for use in an upcoming broadcast. The gentleman was researching rainfall during Oscar night. The NCDC provided daily precipitation data from the publication Climatological Data for California covering the period 1929-1946 along with selected rainfall data from NCDC's homepage.
20. A writer associated with the staff of the periodical Lawyers Diary and Manual, requested updated information on the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to be included in an upcoming edition of their annual publication scheduled to be available in the fall of 1998. This nationally distributed compilation consists of a series of annual legal reference works and is used by thousands of legal professionals. The NCDC provided an updated list of all meteorological data sets which will be added to the "sources for obtaining weather records" section of their publication. Included, for the first time, was the NCDC World Wide Web address.
21. American Express' "Travel" magazine requested help from the National Climatic Data Center in obtaining normal monthly precipitation data for several sites in the Greek Isles. A search by magazine personnel for data on the Internet had provided nothing. Monthly data derived from the World Meteorological Organization's "Climatological Normals (CLINO) for the Period 1961-1990" (WMO No. 847) for stations at Milos, Naxos, and Paradissi on the Isle of Rhodes were faxed to the magazine so that their production schedule could be met.
22. Stefan Dujarric with ABC News requested temperature normals and extremes for Moscow, Russia, to use in a segment on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Summarized data tables for Moscow were extracted from the National Climatic Data Center's (NCDC) International Station Meteorological Climate Summary CD-ROM to put the recent cold wave into climatological perspective.
23. On December 3, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) was contacted by NBC Nightly News to provide climatic information for that evening's broadcast. NBC was interested in the recent warmth from a historical perspective. NCDC scientists highlighted that 10-20 daily record high temperatures had been set each day for the past week, with several cities establishing all-time monthly records for December. Most of the records were concentrated in the upper midwest and Ohio Valley regions, but the large departures from normal were expanding into the northeast and southeast. The area west of the Rockies has experienced more seasonal temperatures.
24. NCDC was contacted on January 12 by a local television station, ABC affiliate WLOS, for information on a report they received regarding job layoffs at the Center. WLOS was referred to Orkand Corporation, NCDC's support services contractor, for a statement since they were in the process of reducing staff. Orkand's personnel reductions are a result of cuts being made to their contract by NCDC in response to Center budget problems. WLOS aired a brief segment on the Orkand job cuts that night on their nightly news program.
25. The gardening editor for the Charlotte Observer newspaper contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) to obtain monthly temperature data for the winters of 1997-1998, and thus far in the winter of 1998-1999. The editor has noted the advanced state of vegetation in her area and wishes to compare the current winter's temperatures with last year's, and to compare both with normal values. Data from monthly issues of the Local Climatological Data publication for Charlotte were faxed to help the editor answer her questions. Phenomenally warm temperatures have prevailed in both winters, with monthly mean temperatures in Charlotte averaging as much as seven degrees above normal.
26. The front pages of the Denver Local Climatological Data publication for the winter months of 1997-1998 and unedited versions for 1998-1999 were faxed to the NOAA Office of Public Affairs. The office had received questions from the Rocky Mountain News regarding a comparison of last year's average wind speeds versus the average wind speeds for this year in the Denver area. As the newspaper reporter had suspected, this year's average winds in the Denver area were higher than those reported last year.
27. A publisher with Popular Science magazine contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain satellite images for a new science book. This publication is the second in a series of Popular Science books (the first was entitled The Universe Revealed), which will be aimed at people with an interest in, but not necessarily a prior knowledge of, science. The compilation, which is divided into climatic zones, explains complicated atmospheric processes in an easy to understand way, with the help of satellite images. The NCDC provided several satellite images of India, in a normal monsoon season, taken by the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) in September of 1997.
28. A writer with The Oregonian, a newspaper published in Portland, OR, contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain meteorological data which will be used in an upcoming article. Apparently a husband and wife were snowmobiling in the Wenatchee Mountains in central Washington this past winter when they encountered mechanical problems with their vehicle. Stranded in the wilderness for an eleven-day period from January 27^th through February 7^th, they attempted to hike to the nearest town. During the trek back to civilization they encountered a blizzard, whereupon the wife perished due to exposure. The NCDC provided the journalist with meteorological data from NCDC's homepage, where he obtained Storm Event information pertaining to the blizzard in Chelan County, Washington along with cooperative climate records from Leavenworth, WA, for the period in question.
29. The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) was contacted by two prominent New York journal publishers who are writing articles on hurricanes. One publisher from Natural History Magazine was writing a story on the upcoming hurricane season and the second publisher representing Maxim Magazine, was corroborating an article about a ship which became entangled with Hurricane Mitch. The two publishers discovered the NCDC's popular on-line images web site and selected several of the best satellite photographs for reproduction
30. A journalist with the Litchfield County (Connecticut) Times obtained cooperative climate records for 1999 for three selected stations near Litchfield County. Diana Jones, a reporter for the newspaper, used the meteorological data to demonstrate the differences in precipitation for drought years, such as 1999, and earlier wet years. To answer her questions, monthly precipitation data were provided using the annual editions of the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) publication Climatological Data: New England for the period 1989-1998. The web page address for the most recent Palmer Drought Index charts from the Climate Prediction Center was also supplied to the reporter.
31. A writer affiliated with "Harper's Magazine," contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain meteorological data for selected U.S. cities. The gentleman was given a list of the top 17 U.S. locations with the highest average wind speeds through 1998, derived from the publication "Comparative Climatic Data" (CCD). Though nicknamed "The Windy City," Chicago does not appear in a recently compiled list of the windiest locations in the United States. Blue Hill, MA, took top honors at 15.4 mph, followed by Dodge City, KS, at 13.9 mph. Additionally, the writer used the web accessible online issue of the "Comparative Climatic Data" for confirmation and expansion of the initial "Top 17" list supplied to him.
32. Producer Alan Gold, reporter Jim Axelrod, and a camera crew from CBS News recently visited the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). They were filming a story on unusual weather and climate events. NCDC Director Tom Karl was interviewed for the story. The crew also shot footage of the computer room, tape archives, NEXRAD computer and also did some outdoor shots of the Federal Building. The CBS Evening News is planning to feature a series of articles on unusual weather and climate during the week of March 27-31.
33. A father, whose young daughter was the victim of child abuse, contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in order to obtain hourly temperature data for Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood, FL. The location of the crime scene is a park approximately midway between the aforementioned sites. The perpetrator allegedly burned the child's finger tips off with a cigarette lighter. The defendant claims that he held her hands on a cement park bench and the heat emanating from the bench burned them off. The father, who is a researcher for a Florida newspaper, acquired engineering data from a local concrete company on the thermal conductivity of cement. He will use this information along with certified copies of the hourly surface weather observations to prove that the defendant's testimony was false.
34. NCDC provided information to the National Geographic Society regarding the rainiest location in the continental United States, in terms of mean annual rainfall. It's a cooperative station 20 miles north-northeast of Aberdeen, Washington, with a 1961-1990 normal annual value of 133.15 inches. The National Weather Service Office with the highest average is Quillayute, Washington, with 105.18 inches. National Geographic plans to use the figure in the question and answer column of an upcoming issue of its magazine.
35. Staff at the USA Today newspaper contacted the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) for additional information and web links related to Tech Report 2000-01, "The 2000 Olympic Games-A Climatology for Sydney, Australia." USA Today used the report on its web site, with climatological data for Sydney and links to numerous web pages with additional information. USA Today is providing extensive coverage of the Games, and frequently links to and/or uses information provided by NCDC
36. The National Geographic Society (NGS) contacted the National Climatic Data Center to obtain a unique series of Doppler radar images over central Texas for June 29, 1999. The radar images show several clusters of bats emerging from nearby known bat caves and converging on high densities of insects, their primary food source, near San Angelo, Texas. These images will appear in an upcoming NGS magazine article on the habitats of bats in southern and Central Texas.
37. Outside Magazine recently contacted the National Climatic Data Center to obtain historical weather observations for the New York City area in the winter of 1935. The magazine was doing a feature article on the harshness of this specific winter in the region. Data from the Central Park Observatory were provided which showed over 25 inches of snowfall in January 1935 with negative, single digit temperatures in the later part of the month.
38. An editor for The Bowwave sailing magazine recently contacted the National Climatic Data Center to obtain historical climatic data for Sequim Bay, Washington. The magazine is sponsoring the Lido 14 International Class Championships which is a sailing event that will take place there this August. The regatta and related events will be held over the period of August 11-15 at the Sequim Bay Yacht Club, with sailing races to be held on the waters of Sequim Bay adjacent to the John Wayne Marina. In preparation for the event, the magazine wants to publish data on typical weather conditions in Sequim Bay.