Des Moines NWS adds SFC (with partial MN, IL, MO)

[Darren Addy]

Shane Searcy's name is now being added to the NWS ITOs THAT ROCK monument.

DMX now has the Short Fuse Composite here:
http://test.crh.noaa.gov/dmx/?n=shortfuse

As you can see, this is also good news for extreme southern Minnesota, extreme SW Wisconsin, extreme western Illiniois and NE Missouri.
(For more of western Missouri, see the Topeka SFC).

 

[Dan Melby]

Sweet, I've been waiting for this! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Jeff Duda]

That's great! I emailed Karl Jungbluth (the SOO at DMX) a few weeks ago asking him to request it be added. Looks like it happened!

 

[L.B. LaForce]

Is there somewhere where I can find a list of all the NWS FCO's that have SFC?
Also, does each only have the two maps? Thanks!

 

[Darren Addy]

Yes, the product generates two graphics each hour (at approx. 35 minutes after the hour). The links to the other stations can be found in this thread: http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20264

As of right now, the SFC is found at:
DDC (Dodge City, KS)
GLD (Goodland, KS)
TOP (Topeka, KS)
OMX (Omaha, NE)
DMX (Des Moines, IA)
and an older version of the product is installed at Rapid City, SD (UNR).
I think that is everyone I know of right now.

Links to the full size graphics always look like this:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/ddc/short/SFC1_latest.png
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/ddc/short/SFC2_latest.png

As you can see, the links above are DDC's. Just substitute the three letters of the office you want to see their's.

Currently, the entire state of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa is covered (except for the tiniest sliver of Iowa's "nose"). Between UNR and OAX over 3/4 of South Dakota is covered.
DDC and GLD give us the Colorado front range (and UNR adds eastern WY and SE Montana). I'd really like to see OUN add it next, so Oklahoma would have border-to-border coverage.

 

[Mike Umscheid]

Thanks Darren for all your hard work in helping get other offices online. This is great! I think that this can be a valuable short-fuse situational awareness tool for forecasters and storm chasers alike. Many of the forecasters at my office (WFO DDC) love it. It is not meant to replace other forms of analysis, i.e. all-important subjective hand analysis and other tools like SPC's mesoanalysis page. It is meant to compliment these other tools. The short-fuse composite is not meant to be the "silver bullet" of 1-3hr surface-based severe local storm/tornado prediction, obviously, and it does have its short-falls like any other meteorological analysis tool. In my experience, however, there are situations where the tool actually works quite well -- especially "cold core" and/or highly baroclinic environments where surface features tend to really jump out with large values of convergence, very identifiable moisture axes, and large advections of temperature and moisture as well.

Right now, you will notice on some of the newer short-fuse composite pages that OAX, TOP, DMX, etc. have set up that the surface Theta-E does not contour above 330K. This is a LAPS control file bug and I will be e-mailing these offices to instruct them on how to fix this. Obviously, this time of year surface Theta-E will routinely be above 330K!

 

[Darrin Rasberry]

Hay D, is there any other way I can learn how to use this product? I read the slideshow some weeks ago and wasn't able to do much more than look at the pretty colors - I'm sure it's not just a case of finding the best area where the appropriately directed wind gets together and the CAPE is higher (although that method does approximately work at times )

 

[L.B. LaForce]

Well, hate to resurrect a dead thread, but I have compiled a map of all the short fuse images. This map shows the regions that are covered by each SFC map, and you can click on the name of the NWS station to go to those maps.

For right now, I have it located on my site: http://lblaforce.com/wx (near the bottom of the page)

If there is any that I am missing, feel free to post a link to the SFC maps, and I will update this map. Thanks!