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Severe Weather Terminology (United States)
This article describes severe weather terminology used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States, a government agency operating within the United States Department of Commerce, Department of Commerce as an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NWS provides weather forecasts, hazardous weather alerts, and other weather-related products for the general public and special interests through a collection of national and regional guidance centers (including the Storm Prediction Center, the National Hurricane Center and the Aviation Weather Center), and 122 local List of National Weather Service Weather forecast offices, Weather Forecast Offices (WFO). Each Weather Forecast Office is assigned a designated geographic area of responsibility—also known as a Forecast region, county warning area—that are split into numerous forecast zones (encompassing part or all of one County (United States), county or equivalent thereof) for issuing fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information. It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the United States Department of Commerce, Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, within the Washington metropolitan area. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1891 until it adopted its current name in 1970. The NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local List of National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices, Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). As the NWS is an agency of the U.S. federal government, most of its products are in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Pellets
Ice pellets ( Commonwealth English) or sleet (American English) is a form of precipitation consisting of small, hard, translucent balls of ice. Ice pellets are different from graupel ("soft hail"), which is made of frosty white opaque rime, and from a mixture of rain and snow, which is a slushy liquid or semisolid. Ice pellets often bounce when they hit the ground or other solid objects, and make a higher-pitched "tap" when striking objects like jackets, windshields, and dried leaves, compared to the dull splat of liquid raindrops. Pellets generally do not freeze into other solid masses unless mixed with freezing rain. The METAR code for ice pellets is PL (PE before November 1998). Terminology Ice pellets are known as sleet in the United States, the official term used by the U.S. National Weather Service. However, the term ''sleet'' refers to a mixture of rain and snow in most Commonwealth countries instead, including Canada. Because of this, Environment Canada ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skywarn
Skywarn (sometimes stylized as SKYWARN) is a program of the National Weather Service (NWS). Its mission is to collect reports of localized severe weather in the United States. These reports are used to aid forecasters in issuing and verifying severe weather watches and warnings and to improve the forecasting and warning processes and the tools used to collect meteorological data. Reports are also used by local emergency managers and public safety organizations. Skywarn consists of a network of severe storm spotters who observe weather conditions and make reports of severe weather to their local NWS offices. These spotters are regularly trained by personnel from the local NWS offices. In many areas, classes are conducted each spring in advance of the coming severe weather season. Many Skywarn spotters use methods to communicate with one another during severe storm events. A notable example of this is through the use of amateur radio nets, which is still an important method sinc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weather Radar
A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the intensity of the precipitation. Both types of data can be analyzed to determine the structure of storms and their potential to cause severe weather. During Radar in World War II, World War II, radar operators discovered that weather was causing echoes on their screens, masking potential enemy targets. Techniques were developed to filter them, but scientists began to study the phenomenon. Soon after the war, military surplus, surplus radars were used to detect precipitation. Since then, weather radar has evolved and is used by national weather services, research departments in universities, and in television stations' weather d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tornado Warning
A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a public warning that is issued by weather forecasting agencies to an area in the direct path of a tornado, or a severe thunderstorm capable of producing one, and advises individuals in that area to take cover. Modern weather surveillance technology such as Doppler weather radar can detect rotation in a thunderstorm, allowing for early warning before a tornado develops. They are also commonly issued based on reported visual sighting of a tornado, funnel cloud, or wall cloud, typically from weather spotters or the public, but also law enforcement or local emergency management. When radar is unavailable or insufficient, such ground truth is crucial. In particular, a tornado can develop in a gap of radar coverage, of which there are several known in the United States. A warning should not be confused with a tornado watch, issued in the United States by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and in other countries by applicable regional forecas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tornado Outbreak
A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same Synoptic scale meteorology, synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least two rotational locations (if squall line) or at least two supercells producing Tornado family, multiple tornadoes. The tornadoes usually occur within the same day or continue into the early morning hours of the succeeding day, and within the same region. Most definitions allow for a break in tornado activity (time elapsed from the end of the last tornado to the beginning of the next tornado) of six hours. If tornado activity indeed resumes after such a lull, many definitions consider the event to be a new outbreak. A series of continuous or nearly continuous tornado outbreak days is a tornado outbreak sequence. In the United States and Canada, tornado outbreaks usually occur from March through June in the Great Plains, the Midwestern Unit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Particularly Dangerous Situation
A PDS tornado watch issued on December 14, 2022. In weather forecasting in the United States, "particularly dangerous situation" (PDS) is the wording used by the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center to convey special urgency in watch or warning messages for unusually extreme and life-threatening severe weather. It is used in the format "This is a particularly dangerous situation..." at the discretion of the issuing forecaster. A watch or warning bearing the phrase is referred to as a PDS watch or PDS warning. First used by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), a national guidance center of the National Weather Service, for tornado watches, the phrase was later applied to other severe weather watches and warnings by the agency's regional forecast offices. It is most commonly used for major tornado outbreaks or long-lived, extreme derecho events, and has been used for non-convective weather hazards such as exceptional flash flooding, or a wildfire. PDS watches an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman () is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,026 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County and the second-most populous city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area after the state capital, Oklahoma City, 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Norman. The city was settled during the Land Run of 1889, which opened the former Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory to American pioneer settlement. It was named in honor of Abner Norman, the area's initial land surveyor, and was formally incorporated on , 1891. Norman has prominent higher education and related research industries, as it is home to the University of Oklahoma, the largest university in the state, with nearly 32,000 students. The university is well known for its sporting events by teams under the banner of the nickname "Oklahoma Sooners, So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustics, acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundershowers. Thunderstorms occur in cumulonimbus clouds. They are usually accompanied by strong winds and often produce Heavy rain (meteorology), heavy rain and sometimes Thundersnow, snow, Ice pellets, sleet, or hail, but some thunderstorms can produce little or Dry thunderstorm, no precipitation at all. Thunderstorms may thunderstorm training, line up in a series or become a rainband, known as a squall line. Strong or #Severe thunderstorms, severe thunderstorms include some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Some of the most persistent severe thunderstorms, known as supercells, rotate as do cyclones. While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tornado Watch
A tornado watch ( SAME code: TOA) is a statement issued by weather forecasting agencies to advise the public that atmospheric conditions in a given region may lead to the development of tornadoes within (or near) the region over a period of several hours. In addition to the potential for tornado development, thunderstorms that develop within the watch area may contain large hail, straight-line winds, intense rainfall and/or flooding that pose a similar damage risk as the attendant tornado threat. A watch must not be confused with a tornado warning, and encourages the public to remain vigilant for the onset of severe weather, including possible tornadoes. A tornado watch does not mean a tornado has been observed or ''will'' occur, just that favorable conditions increase the likelihood of such storms happening, and may be issued several hours ahead of the formation or arrival of potentially tornadic thunderstorms. Definition A ''tornado watch'' indicates that atmospheric condit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NOAA Weather Radio
NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards, is an automated 24-hour network of Very high frequency, VHF Frequency modulation, FM weather radio stations in the United States which broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Service office. Its routine programming cycle includes local or regional weather forecasts, synopsis, climate summaries or zone/lake/coastal waters forecasts, and can be shortened to specifically include hazardous weather outlooks, short-term forecasts, special weather statements or tropical weather summaries during hazardous weather events. It occasionally broadcasts other non-weather related events such as national security statements, natural disaster information, environmental and public safety statements such as AMBER Alert, AMBER Alerts, civil emergencies, fires, evacuation orders, and other hazards sourced from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Emergency Alert System. NOAA Weather Radio u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specific Area Message Encoding
Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) is a Communications protocol, protocol used for framing and classification of broadcasting Emergency population warning, emergency warning messages. It was developed by the United States National Weather Service for use on its NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) network, and was later adopted by the Federal Communications Commission for the Emergency Alert System, then subsequently by Environment Canada for use on its Weatheradio Canada service. It is also used to set off receivers in Mexico City and surrounding areas as part of the Mexican Seismic Alert System (SASMEX). History From the 1960s to the 1980s, a special feature of the NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) system was the transmission of a single attention tone prior to the broadcast of any message alerting the general public of significant weather events. This became known as the Warning Alarm Tone (WAT). Although it served NWR well, there were many drawbacks. Without staff at media facilities to manual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
