WMOD00218

• Contract/Permit #: #97-3
• Applicant: Western Kansas Groundwater
• Project Name: Kansas Weather Modification
• Date: 1/1/1997
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

\
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
i I
I
I
I
I
I
I

particularly useful during severe weather periods, especially when
we experience radar attenuation caused by large storms nearby. The
main weakness of the DTN system occurs when there are periods of
heavy precipitation overhead causing a blocking of the satellite
signal feed and interrupting the display. Even nearby large storms
in a direct line of sight to the satellite feed blocks the satellite
signal. In general, however, DTN has proven to be extremely
valuable and useful to us during seeding operations. The DTN service
was not made available to the Colby site this season, however, it
is recommended that it be established next year.

The most significant item relevant to our forecasting function
in 1997 was the increased utility of the Internet, just as it was
in 1996. Since 1995 we have witnessed a silent explosion of weather
data becoming available on the Internet. This year we found we could
obtain nearly every weather product we wanted or on Internet. The
end of this process has not yet arrived and we expect more and even
better products in 1998 and beyond. with Internet costs of almost
$20 per month, we can receive numerous superior products at a
fraction of the costs of previous years.

It was through the off-season dedication of meteorological
assistant, Sam Gardner, that we were able to begin the season with
a state of the art data retrieval capability which he had upgraded
between seasons. Arising from our use of the Internet was the idea
to develop and maintain our own web site Home Page. It was begun by
electronics technician, Brian Litzenberger, and streamlined further
by .our meteorological assistant, Scott Heeke. Our objective of
having a web site was to make WKWMP information accessible to the
general public in Western Kansas or to anyone else who ~s interested
in weather and weather modification. We wanted to put our radar
displays into a loop in near real-time so that regional residents
could view storm movements as desired during severe storm periods.
It was to be updated every few minutes as operations permitted. In
Colby the WKWMP meteorologist, David Beer, developed an excellent
web site for that office, similar in some respects to Lakin's. Now,
anyone with access to the Internet can see most of the same radar
data as does the WKWMP meteorologists at each radar site and view
a loop of storm movements at nearly the same time as the WKWMP
meteorologists. During severe storm periods, for those interested
in personal safety or wanting to see whether one' s crops and
property are in immediate danger, we hope this service will be
useful. Storm sequences are usually kept on, the web site for a 2 -
3 days, or longer. Scott Heeke is responsible for the present state
of our web site and has worked long and hard streamlining it as our
requirements change during and after the season. It is possible for
anyone now to link with many other sites which transmit the weather
data we use on this program. Our Internet and electronic-mail (e-
mail) addresses for both radar sites are:

15