National Weather Service Releases New Hazard Maps

[mikegeukes]

NOAA's National Weather Service Releases New Hazard Maps

On Oct. 4th NWS released new interactive maps that display active watch, warnings and advisories issued by NWS Weather Forecast Offices.

Regular users of NWS websites will no doubt notice the change of colors on the new maps. New technology has allowed an increase in the number of colors that can be displayed on the maps, providing for more information to be conveyed to the user in a single glance.

Additionally, World Wide Web usability experts from the National Institutes of Health were consulted and provided advice to the tone and hue of the colors used in relation to the type and urgency of the specific type of event. Additional testing was done to better ensure information is not lost when the maps are viewed by users with color deficiencies.
Source:http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_story.php?wfo=crh&sid=206

Mike

 

[Morgan Palmer]

Nice... but I wonder how much of our tax money was spent on "color-correctness."

Not that I'm against NWS spending money. I would like to see that money though, say, put into more upper air releases?

mp

 

[John Diel]

I can't argue with Morgan's arguement. I'm all for NWS getting and spending more money, but let's put it into more reliable technology and getting out their products faster and more accurately.

NWS seems to be investing in Internet Technology a lot lately and it makes sense, but let's put the money where it's needed most. More stable programming and stable delivery of the products.

There's a surprising number of Emergency Operations Centers that are starting to move over to the Internet for their information. The older connections and dedicated stuff is simply to slow in getting updates. More and more (at least in this area) are starting to look at Television rahter than NOAA for their updated radar. I know of at least two occasions where NOAA servers were either down, or inaccessable for some reason or updates were coming out late and local EOC's turned to OKC Television for their information. NOAA is supposed to be the premier agency for this.

Making up 'friendly' web colors does not fall into my list of priority projects.

 

[rdale]

Same thing with the digital NDFD forecast database... Clearly something developed strictly to compete with the private sector - spending BOATLOADS of money that could have gone to better things operationally!

 

[Ryan Szekeres]

Does anyone have a list of the new colors used for each product?

 

[mikegeukes]

Ryan asks:

Does anyone have a list of the new colors used for each product?

Not off hand, but if you visit the home pages of the various NWS offices or their main NWS web page, you will find the hazard maps on the web sites. By checking it out on a regular basis, you should get to know the color schemes associated with the various warnings, watches and advisories.

Hazard Maps can be found here:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Mike

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Originally posted by Ryan Szekeres
Does anyone have a list of the new colors used for each product?

The color list is at the following:

http://webdev1.weather.gov/wwa_colors/colors.htm</url> Chris G.

 

[Ryan Szekeres]

Fantastic! Thanks!

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Originally posted by Chris Geelhart+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Chris Geelhart)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Ryan Szekeres

Does anyone have a list of the new colors used for each product?

The color list is at the following:

http://webdev1.weather.gov/wwa_colors/colors.htm</url> Chris G. [/b]

Some of those headlines sure are a hoot...

What's a Law Enforcement warning? Does that mean that law enforcement is imminent?! LOL

What's a hazardous materials warnings? Yes, I know that could be for chemical spills, etc... However, I've NEVER seen a "hazardous materials" warning issued for any chemical spill. I remember chemical releases that have caused the evacuation of severam neighborhoods and still have never seen a 'hazardous materials' warning. It seem that some of those warnings are there just to be there... Of course, there's probably a lot of politics at play, too...

 

[rdale]

Those are new - part of the NWS / EAS agreement...

 

[Chris Geelhart]

Some of those headlines sure are a hoot...

What's a Law Enforcement warning? Does that mean that law enforcement is imminent?! LOL

What's a hazardous materials warnings? Yes, I know that could be for chemical spills, etc... However, I've NEVER seen a "hazardous materials" warning issued for any chemical spill. I remember chemical releases that have caused the evacuation of severam neighborhoods and still have never seen a 'hazardous materials' warning. It seem that some of those warnings are there just to be there... Of course, there's probably a lot of politics at play, too...

Some more specifics on these "non-weather" warning messages can be found in the NWS Directive 10-518:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/010/pd01005018c.pdf

Specifically, appendix C of this directive. These are fairly recent (took effect September 8, if I remember correctly). Before this, if such messages were transmitted, it would be as a "Civil Emergency Message" (which remains a valid product).

Chris G.

 

[M Conder]

Re: Hazard maps and NDFD

I don't mean to be especially critical but the sentiments of some posts on this thread seem to be misguided. No poster has actually commented on the perceived need or appropriateness of the new colors, but instead are somehow comparing the effort to "improve" the maps to other unrelated functions of the NWS. Hopefully, no-one really believes that the time and/or money spent on changing a color scheme is even remotely comparable to that spent on observational platforms. Everybody is aware that websites are often changing their schemes and layout. The amount of development and programmer time required is a drop in the proverbial budgetary bucket.

I am also confused by Diel's post. My take is that he is "unhappy" that the NWS is investing in Internet Tech., but then he sites that techn. as the method of choice for the EOCs to get information. As for TV radar, woe be it to any entity that relies on that for critical info. Those radars have so many problems to make them unusable except for eye-candy on the 6 o'clock news.

Rdale's comment on the NDFD database is not only irrelevant to this thead, it is clearly incorrect.

 

[rdale]

"Everybody is aware that websites are often changing their schemes and layout. The amount of development and programmer time required is a drop in the proverbial budgetary bucket."

You've clearly never looked at the budget ;>

"Those radars have so many problems to make them unusable except for eye-candy on the 6 o'clock news."

I missed the smiley face in that joke... Live local radars offer a big advantage, especially when used in conjunction with NEXRAD sites. 1) Cover areas not served well at low levels by NWS 2) Rapid updates (RHI's or sector scans for new imagery every 15 seconds instead of 4-6 minutes) 3) Better resolution 4) Mini-volume scans and so on. We're talking real TV radars anyways (Barons or RadTech)

"Rdale's comment on the NDFD database is not only irrelevant to this thead, it is clearly incorrect."

Set me straight then! Is the NDFD something provided by private sector? Yep. Has the development cost a LOT of money, MUCH more than budgeted at the onset? Yep. Could that money be better spent adding more raob sites or keeping profilers alive? I think so... When's the last time you as Joe Public went to a NDFD gridded site for your forecast vs. TWC or AccuWeather.com or your local radio / TV station?

- Rob

 

[Robert Dewey]

Same thing with the digital NDFD forecast database... Clearly something developed strictly to compete with the private sector - spending BOATLOADS of money that could have gone to better things operationally!

I missed the smiley face after your joke Rob - If the NWS wanted to use that product to compete with the private sector, don't you think they would have at least made it better? I personally don't like the NDFD products, and I am sure most folks would rather watch the news or TWC for the "latest forecast" anyway...

As for the radar deal, I don't understand why Mr. Conder thinks that they are useless? Please explain further...

 

[Robert Dewey]

I just want to add that in no way am I trying to bash the NWS. I use just about everyone of their products, and without them, forecasting would be impossible (we wouldn't have the NCEP models, nexrad network, satellite, etc.), so in essence, the NWS/NOAA is one of the best advancements going for meteorology...