Posted on 08/22/2003 6:43:17 PM PDT by Milwaukee_Guy
NWS Davenport, Roof Damage, No injuries.....
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Davenport, IA, Aug. 21 --Being part of the agency that forecasts weather didn't protect NOAA's National Weather Service Quad Cities forecast office in Davenport, Iowa, from severe damage caused by a Wednesday evening thunderstorm and high winds.
According to Meteorologist in Charge Jim Belles, the forecast staff passed operations to the Des Moines forecast office under Weather Service backup procedures when a strong wind gust damaged about half of the building's roof. The area was being pummeled by 40-50 mph winds, Belles said, when a 77 mph gust hit the building at 7:01 p.m., causing serious damage to the roof structure.
There were no injuries to forecast staff members, who had to shut down all electronics equipment to prevent water damage. The Des Moines forecast office assumed back up responsibility immediately, using the Quad Cities WSR-88D radar, which was still operating.
"This isn't a case of the roof being gone to where you can see sky from inside the building," Weather Service Central Region Director Dennis McCarthy said from his office in Kansas City, "but there was enough significant damage to roofing material to let water pour into the operations area and several offices. All the equipment in the operations area and most offices was shut down to prevent further water damage. There was damage to some of the computers and systems, but we don't yet know the extent. The telephone system is out of service.
"Fortunately, the computer console that controls the radar was on the side of the building that didn't have roof damage, so it continued to operate throughout the night. That enabled our forecasters in Des Moines to monitor the weather situation and keep Quad Cities area emergency managers, media and the public informed of what was going on and what would be happening in the immediate future. Des Moines will continue to use the Quad Cities radar for local data and storm tracking. Being able to perform backup like this is a great public safety asset."
Building owner Phil Scott was on site shortly after the damage occurred, according to McCarthy, and led a work crew in placing a temporary covering over the roof. The National Weather Service leases the building from Scott. McCarthy said there was no estimate on when the repairs would be completed and the office could return to normal operations.
According to Belles, once a chance of thunderstorms passes this afternoon, Quad Cities area residents shouldn't have to worry about severe weather for a few days, at least. The area weather forecast calls for skies to be mostly clear through Aug. 27.
Belles said staff members had been successful in bringing some computers back on line and were able to issue climate products Wednesday night and to communicate by e-mail with media . "We're assessing damage to the Automated Weather Information Processing System (AWIPS), and hope it can be functional today. If so, we'll take back services and be back in operation. Phil patched the roof and the air conditioning came back on early this morning, so things are starting to dry out. We're hoping for the best." (Source NOAA 8/23)
MASA End of Feed.
As Net Control one has responsibilities to manage and gather all the real time amateur radio spotter reports from all the "ham" radio VHF/UHF county repaeaters in the County Warning Area that a NWS office serves. We operate right in the NWS Operations Center and literally hand the spotter reports to the meteorologists. In SE WI that's about 20 counties or so. On a big storm day we may have 100 - 200 spotters ready to report severe weather.
The NWS has a very robust and redundant network of offices around the country. Notice, in the article above, how one NWSFO (National Weather Service Forecast Office) can hand off control of it's own radar to another office hundreds of miles away while the originating's office has been crippled.
When a severe event is heading directly at a NWSFO I have witnessed the office deliberatly disconnect from the main power grid and go to the two car garage sized generator in order to forestall any unanticipated power interruptions. Think about this, a modern WSR-88D radar kicks out rughly 3/4 million watts of effective radiated power. Add to that all the computers and communications equipment, a blackout or surge would be a definate problem in the middle of a severe weather event.
As a taxpayer I think the NWS is a good investment that has proven it's ability to get the word out during severe weather.
I personally would question the contractor who built a roof that could not withstand 77 MPH winds. :-O
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