FLOOD03743

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: 25th Annual Celebration Hazards Research and Applications Workshop
• Date: 7/9/2000
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

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PPOO-15

Cynthia Ann Nelson
Senior Staff Meteorologist/Coordinator for Meteorological Programs
Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supponing Research
Snite 1500, 8455 Co1esville Road,
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Ph: [phone] x26
email: [e-mail]

ANNUAL INTERDEPARTMENTAL HURRICANE CONFERENCE

The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supponing Research (OFCM)
annually hosts the Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference (IHC) to provide a forum for the responsible Federal
agencies, together with representatives of the user communities such as emergency management, to review the
Nation's hurricane forecast and warning program and to make recommendations on how to improve the program
in the future. The 54th mc was held in Houston, Texas, Febrwuy 14-18, 2000, in part to commemorate the 1900
hurricane which devastated the GalvestonIHouston area.

The program began with a special session on Monday afternoon to commemorate the past 100 years in
hurricane forecasting. On Tuesday morning, a review of the 1999 hurricane season in the Atlantic and Eastern
and Central Pacific, and the typhoon season in the Western Pacific was conducted followed by an "impacts" panel
session which provided an opportunity for representatives from eight different agencies to describe the impacts that
1999 landfaIling hurricanes had on their individual missions and responsibilities. Including a mix of operational
and research presentations, subsequent sessions were structured around the following topics: Observations: Present
and Future; Hurricane Modeling and Prediction; Emergency Management, Public Outreach. and Communications;
and Research and Technology. On Thursday morning, workshops were conducted on Hurricane Inland Flooding,
Weather Reconnaissance of the Future, Transitioning Research to Operations, and Improving User Community
Coordination. The inland flooding workshop identified three areas where improvements need to be focused-public
awareness, products and services, and partnering and cooperation. The weather reconnaissance workshop
discussed the need to define the observations/measurements required to improve tropical cyclone intensity and
rainfall forecasts. The overall conclusion of the transition workshop was that technology transition was a
recognized problem that needs more resolU"CeS applied directly to the processes and projects designed to improve
the flow of research results into operations. A key finding of the coordination workshop was that the flow of
information from the Tropical Prediction CenterlNational Hurricane Center and FEMA's Hurricane Liaison Team
to the local warning coordination meteorologists to the local users (emergency management and the media) should
continue to be refined.

A complete summary of the results of the workshops can be found in the conference minutes. The minutes
can be obtained by sending contact information to OFCM: Ms. Cynthia Ann Nelson or Mr. Robert Dumont,
Senior Staff Meteorologists, Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting
Research. Suite 1500, 8455 Co1esviI1e Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910; Ph: [phone] x26, emaiI:
[e-mail].

The OFCM sponsored Working Group for Hurricane and Winter Storm Operations and Research
(WGIHWSOR) also met to address mC-generated action items and changes to the National HurriCane Operations
Plan (NHOP). Two key issues that are being wolked are the extension of the National Hurricane Center's
forecasting capability out to 5 days and the transition from research to operations of the Stepped Frequency
Microwave Radiometer, which remotely senses surface winds and rainfall rates. The NHOP is updated and
published annually, and the plan for the 2000 hurricane season is available on the OFCM web site at
www.ofcm.gov.