Inaccurate weather forecasts are on their way to becoming a thing of the past with the dedication Thursday of two new National Weather Service centers, agency officials said.
The new National Weather Service training center and the aviation weather center, both located in Kansas City, Mo., together represent a huge step toward meeting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's goal of eliminating surprises in weather forecasting, said Paul F. Roberts, NOAA's chief administrative officer.
With a new venue to train employees and a central source for aviation weather data, Kansas City "will become a weather hub for the entire nation," NWS said. Better watches, warnings and forecasts are also expected to result.
The training center offers resident courses, computer-based learning, and specialized distance training modules on engineering and electronics, hydrometeorology and management of weather service equipment. In the center's twelve classrooms and in its labs, students get hands-on experience using Weather Service systems.
The opening of the training center is timely, because in July NWS introduced a new network of weather forecasting and communications equipment that agency personnel need to be trained on. So far employees of 121 weather stations and 13 river forecast centers have gone through training in a special hydrologic forecasting system at the new center.
Other federal agencies, along with the World Meteorological Organization and countries that have cooperative meteorological agreements with the United States can also use the center's resources.
The aviation weather center serves as the primary source of warnings and forecasts for pilots, NWS officials said. Using information from a national network of radars, satellites, computers and communications systems, forecasters can develop a big-picture view of what's going on in the atmosphere and inform pilots about changing weather conditions.
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