Virtual Office Tour - Emergency Communications

Several communication systems are in place to support special communications of emergency information to our customers. Our primary contacts for dissemination of severe weather information are the State Warning Points for Florida, Georgia and Alabama, and the various County Emergency Managers. These officials then ensure that other state and county agencies are informed of the weather hazard. The handset on the far left is the Hurricane Hotline. This hotline is administered by NOAA and is used as our primary internal coordination tool during Hurricane Season. This system allows forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami to coordinate their forecasts, watches and warnings with the many NWS Forecast offices that may be impacted by any given tropical storm or hurricane. Regional and national forecast centers such as the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC), as well as forecasters at our East Coast Naval bases, and representatives from the Dept. of Homeland Security participate in these conference calls. The system on the right is a satellite based phone system called Southern Linc that we use to communicate with our Alabama county energency managers. This system will be expanded to include our Georgia emergency managers in the future. The black telephone in the background on the left is called ESATCOM. ESATCOM is a simplex satellite system that allows us to communicate severe weather information to our Florida counties. We also occasionally use the National Warning System, or NAWAS (not pictured). NAWAS is a communications system administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It is used solely for emergency communications between government agencies. NAWAS is the system used by most other NWS offices to contact their various state emergency management agencies. This workstation is manned by an extra meteorologist during severe weather or tropical events. This individual, often one of our managers, fosters communication of critical information between the warning forecasters and our first responders in the emergency management and media communities. The screen on the left shows the office web pages with its display of watches, warnings and advisories. The screen on the right shows some radar imagery that the coordinator can use during briefings. The screen in the middle is a dedicated chat room we use to communicate with local media outlets, both television and radio.     Welcome Introduction Entrance Local Management Collaboration Doppler Radar Upper Air Program ASOS Satellite Operations Forecasters Hydrology HMT CRS Comms HAM/SKYWARN ETs Goodbye

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