NWS National Seasonal Safety Campaign: Preparing the public for hazardous weather year-round

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) wants you to be prepared for hazardous weather year-round. The aim of the National Seasonal Safety Campaign is to build a Weather-Ready Nation, one that is prepared for extreme weather, water, and climate events.

Each campaign includes seasonal resources that provide information that is vital to keeping you and your loved ones safe. These materials include websites, articles, social media, infographics, videos and other content around the weather hazards most common during the current season.

ARATS Members are qualified storm spotters, Members have Weather ID numbers and work under the direction of the Buffalo Weather Service. Members can be activated for Severe Weather outbreaks for the purpose of gathering information and reporting weather conditions back to the Weather Service Coordinators, some of ARATS members are also CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hall & Snow Network) Spoters/Reporters for the Weather Service.

Members take daily 24 hour precipitation reports from their rain gauge cylinder, Rain in summer and Snow in winter then log the reports in on the CoCoRaHS page. These reports help the weather service for updating the public on current conditions in their area, as well as providing local TV stations with up to the minute forecasting.

A New, More Timely Approach to Weather Preparedness

NWS chose to replace national safety awareness weeks with a year-round approach for a simple reason: bad weather happens year-round. For example, severe weather can occur anytime - it does not wait for a single week in March. With the National Seasonal Safety Campaign, we seek to inform the public about seasonal weather hazards during the time they are most common. This is a 365-day a year effort and can’t be confined to a single week.

Partner Support

While NWS will no longer lead national weather awareness/preparedness weeks (with the exception of Hurricane Preparedness Week), it will continue to support pre-existing awareness/preparedness weeks such as Rip Current Awareness Week and Lightning Safety Awareness Week.

In addition, NWS actively works with partners such as FEMA to provide consistent messaging on weather preparedness. Together with Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors, NWS strives to communicate the importance of being prepared for extreme weather. We can’t do it alone! It takes all of us, working together, to build a Weather-Ready Nation.

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WEATHER INFORMATION PAGE:

SATURDAY APRIL 27th, 67 AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS- SUNDAY APRIL 28th, 68 SUN/CLOUDS- NONDAY APRIL 29, 69 SUN/CLOUDS- TUESDAY APRIL 30, 66 SUN/MORNING RAIN SHOWERS- WEDNESDAY MAY 1st, HIGH 72 SUN/MORNING COLUD COVER 29%- THURSDAT MAY 2nd, HIGH TEMP 77, CLOUD COVER 84%- FRIDAY MAY 3rd, HIGH 66, RAIN 66%- SATURDAY MAY 4h, 59 SUN

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Active Hurricane Season Predicted for 2024 04/27up weather/2024 Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers predict an active Atlantic hurricane season (June 1 to November 30) in their initial 2024 forecast. ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, attended the National Hurricane Conference in Florida in late March, where the CSU prediction was issued. “The common discussion at the National Hurricane Conference this year was the potential for a very active year, and the forecast from CSU enforces that thought,” said Johnston. “Several of the forecasters were pointing to indications that we are moving from an El Niño to a La Niña and that could potentially cause a more active season.”
The CSU Tropical Weather & Climate Research team predicts 23 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. Of those, researchers forecast that 11 will become hurricanes and five will reach major hurricane strength, as measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The prediction is above the 30-year average for hurricanes and storms and is above the total of 20 storms, seven hurricanes, and three Category 3 or higher hurricanes in 2023.
Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at CSU and the lead author of the report Phil Klotzbach said, “So far, the 2024 hurricane season is exhibiting characteristics similar to 1878, 1926, 1998, 2010, and 2020. Our analog seasons were all very active Atlantic hurricane seasons.”
The team predicts that 2024 hurricane activity will be about 170% of the average season from 1991 - 2020. By comparison, 2023’s hurricane activity was about 120% of the average season. The report also includes the probability of major hurricanes making landfall, including a 62% probability for the entire US coastline. The average landfall from 1880 - 2020 was 43%. The report also indicates increased landfall probabilities of 34% for the East Coast of the US, including the Florida peninsula (the average from 1880 - 2020 was 21%); 42% for the Gulf Coast, from the Florida panhandle westward to Brownsville (the average from 1880 - 2020 was 27%), and 66% for the Caribbean (the average from 1880 - 2020 was 47%).
The National Weather Service (NWS), National Hurricane Center (NHC), and Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) are prepared for an active hurricane season. Amateur radio operators can take part in activations on 14.325 MHz during the day and on 7.268 kHz at night. As propagation changes, the HWN may operate both frequencies simultaneously.
At the Florida conference, Johnston also highlighted the relationship between ARRL and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as ARRL’s position as a net control station within the SHAred RESources High Frequency Radio Program (SHARES) managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
“Now is the time to prepare for emergencies of any type by building relationships, training and refreshing skills, and testing and preparing equipment,”

ARATS W2VCI