Chapter News
June 2004

WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA

AMS BANQUET MEETING
June 2004
Shawn P. Bennett, Meteorologist in Charge
National Weather Service

Our final convergence of the 2003-2004 season took place at the beautiful Tampa Bay Yacht and Country Club. The guest speaker was Shawn Bennett, the new Meteorologist- in- Charge of the Tampa Bay National Weather Service Office in Ruskin, Florida.

Chapter members gather for the annual banquet.

Once again our annual Dr. Dewey Stower's Merit scholarship was awarded. Dr. Stowers presented the $500 scholarship to Mark Burnam who is a student at St. Petersburg College.

Dr. Dewey Stowers (left) presents merit scholorship to student Mark Burnam (right)

Shawn Bennett shared his extensive experiences with NOAA, the Navy, and the NWS with the guests. His presentation focused on his most impressive work experience, which is with the World Area Forecast System (WAFS). The WAFS is a program designed to improve the quality and consistency of enroute guidance provided for international aircraft operations. This program assists in upgrading the forecasting infrastructure of developing nations around the world, acquiring and installing satellite telecommunications systems and the computer networks that could handle the data these systems provide.

Currently, enroute wind and temperature forecasts and some significant weather charts are being provided by 2 WAF Centers (WAFCs) in the UK and US. In the final phase of WAFS, enroute significant weather forecasting responsibilities will also be fully transferred to the 2 WAFCs. WAFC-Washington has responsibility for satellite data broadcasts to the Americas, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Eastern Asia backup.

WAFS Products include: Wind and Temperature Forecasts from 6 to 36 hours in the future - updated at least twice daily High-level Significant Weather Charts, updated as per ICAO requirements. (Charts are currently a combination of those produced at the 2 WAFCs and others produced at RAFCs.) WAFS products are all digital. They can be received using a Very Small Aperture Antenna (VSAT) and ground processing equipment. All model output is in WMO GRIB Format. All charts are in T4 Digital Fax format.

The availability of digital model output allows forecasters to: I) Customize products to meet individual user needs, II) Increase the level of science used in the forecasting process, and III) Concentrate on improving local forecast quality by focusing on short-range issues of immediate importance - the job they do best.

Newly installed Meteorologist-in-Charge for the Tampa Bay
National Weather Service, Shawn Bennett addresses the members.

Mr. Bennett was mainly involved in the crucial task of addressing the challenge of fostering national and international education efforts. He was in charge of training efforts on how to use the new systems and implement data sources for forecasting and research. Many of these countries have political and financial issues which hinder these efforts. It is Shawn's passion to overcome these many obstacles. The key is to "improve the infrastructure and bring education and knowledge to these regions."

Mr. Bennett then took us on a very interesting 'tour' of the various places where he worked. This included Central and South America, Mexico, India, Asia and Singapore. The main focus for success in any of these regions is communicating threat. Open exchange of data is a great difficulty in many regions due to a variety of factors, which Shawn described in great detail. Using graphics, he detailed each region, its meteorological risk factors, steps taken to improve the vital task of communicating risky situations to the country's population, and he even entertained us with photos of each area he worked in.

He impressed upon us that the realities of each of these regions will determine how applications to communicate threat are implemented; one size does not fit all. Sometimes there are major language barriers; India's West Bengal area alone has 14 languages, which poses a major problem for communicating threat.

Mr. Bennett told us a story which examples how misinformation at the government level in these countries can be deadly: In the Dominican Republic, the extreme rainfall from Hurricane Georges rapidly filled a reservoir. Officials did not have the information to make informed decisions, and opened the floodgates to the reservoir. Many poor people live in the floodplains below, and as a result there was great loss of life. He repeatedly made this point clear: communicating threat is vital to life and property. With these improved systems in place and by working together as a whole, lives and property can be saved.

All in all, Mr. Bennett's talk was extremely interesting and informative. It is good to know that the United States, along with the International Civil Aviation Organization and the WMO, cares enough to bring about such important changes in the world of forecasting. It was a privilege to meet someone with the experience and expertise that Shawn has, and with his presentation, we all got a firsthand look at the impressive work these organizations have done.---Andy Johnson.

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