Page 6 of WeatherReady

Building on the success of the Jetstream website http://www.srh.weather.gov/srh/jetstream from NWS Southern Region Headquarters, staff at NWS Shreveport incorporated weather information from the Jetstream website and developed it into specific lesson modules. Furthermore, the lessons are correlated to the Louisiana comprehensive curriculum for grades 4 through 12 by grade and unit of science. This coupled with activity sheets, power point presentation, teacher's guide, and test/answer key, provides a complete lesson module for science teachers.

Topics already developed include The Atmosphere, Weather Forecasting, Components of Thunderstorms, and the Oceans. Tropical Weather will be available in the near future. Eventually the lesson modules will be correlated to Texas grade standards and available on the web for download by teachers. You can now download these lesson modules at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/shv/EducationResourceLibrary/Edu-Rsc-Lib_Homepage.htm We welcome any suggestions for additional topics that you may like to see in this online library.

On the Web:
Introducing the New Graphicast

The National Weather Service (NWS) Short Term Forecast was introduced several years ago and conveys details of local weather expected to occur within the next few hours. This event-driven forecast product provides valuable information to users regarding precipitation location, type, intensity, movement, and overall trends. Short Term Forecasts can also detail certain non-precipitation phenomena such as dense fog development, strong wind shifts, sudden changes in temperature or anything else deemed of importance that cannot be described in adequate detail within the framework of the seven day forecast product also known as the 'zone forecast'.

More recently the NWS has developed the concept of the Graphicast which is basically a Short Term Forecast in Graphical format. This product allows users to view a map of current weather conditions and expected trends as a mental picture can be difficult to portray in even a detailed well written Short Term Forecast. Graphicasts typically include an overlay of radar data, frontal boundaries and/or contoured regions highlighting other weather phenomena previously discussed in this article. The software used to create this program gives the forecaster numerous options for design and coloring which can be pleasing to the eye and also easy to comprehend depending on forecaster creativity. In addition…traditional text information…similar to a regular Short Term Forecast typically is included to supplement the graphical information. This product… when issued…can be easily found on the front page of our website www.srh.noaa.gov/shv/. Simply click the Graphical Forecast picture on the upper left side after opening our webpage.