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<br />WKWMP operational activities divide into four major categories: <br /> <br />A. Weatherforecasting/operational planning/data collection <br /> <br />B. Weather surveillance - radar, satellite, TV and visual <br /> <br />C. Aircraft seeding operations and maintenance <br /> <br />D. Administrative and public relations <br /> <br />A. WEATHER FORECASTING/OPERATIONAL PLANNING <br /> <br />Both the Lakin and Colby meteorologists prepare daily weather forecasts concentrating <br />each target area of primary responsibility as well as for the larger region which includes the <br />WKWMP target area. Most weather data used by the WMWMP originates at either the National <br />Weather Service, National Center for Atmospheric Research or universities and is processed <br />before it is disseminated to the public over the Internet by various government, private and <br />university groups. <br /> <br />The Internet continues to increase its dominance in providing our weather information. <br />Since 1995 .the explosion of weather data available to the general public on the Internet has <br />become all we could have dreamed for, and more, just a scant few years ago. Both radar sites <br />have an Internet provider and maintain a home page on its web site. <br /> <br />An experimental system was put into operation in early August, a system called <br />"POPEYE." It is a 450 MHz computer having 15 GB storage, 256 K RAM with a 21" display. <br />The large display screen can be set up as a multi-tasking system running several weather products <br />singularly, or in loops which continually update in the background while awaiting the next display <br />command of whatever product is desired. This system is particularly useful during fast-moving <br />operational periods. <br /> <br />With respect to the various media distribution of weather products: The Weather Channel <br />(TWC) generally does an excellent job of providing 24-hour-a-day non-stop television weather <br />updates when viewed on local TV cable, presenting frequent regional radar, forecast and satellite <br />information. TWC is monitored by WKWMP personnel at home and in other places, but not at its <br />field offices since local cable lines do 'not run to either ofthe airports. In mid- summer both the <br />Lakin and the Colby offices acquired a new service called WeatherTap, an Internet-based service <br />providing a variety of important information such as current NEXRAD data for any National <br />Weather Service radar sites in the USA, satellite and lightning data from around the USA, <br />forecasts, current observations, DUATS service and other data. Most of the data received could <br />also be put into a looping sequence. In fact, WeatherTap provided enough data to us that we <br />ended up terminating our Data Transmission Network (DTN) service used since 1994. <br /> <br />15 <br />