PRINCE GEORGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE NEWS

A look inside the National Weather Service office in Wakefield, Va.

by Laura Emery, Field Editor eff Orrock, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office in Wakefield, Va., is in the business of keeping an eye on the sky. The NWS office is located on General Mahone Highway, between Prince George Electric Cooperatives headquarters and the Wakefield Municipal Airport. A 120foot-tall, 5,700-pound, 700,000-watt dual-polarization Doppler radar dome towers above the building that houses the weather authority for all of eastern and central Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. The NWS is responsible for severeweather advisories and alerts that are broadcast through the media, including radio, using emergency systems such as the Emergency Alert System that breaks

PRINCE GEORGE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE

Main Ofce: 7103 General Mahone Hwy. P.O. Box 168 Waverly, VA 23890-0168 Customer Service Ofce: 5718 Courthouse Road Prince George County 24-Hour Emergency Service 804-834-2424 Website: www.pgec.coop Ofce Hours: M-F, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Chief Executive Ofcer M Dale Bradshaw

into regular programming. When you hear that familiar digitalized voice come through the radio in the middle of your favorite song that weather warning is coming from here, says the bespectacled weather-guru. Orrock has been at the helm of the NWS in Wakefield since June 2011. We like to provide the most up-to-date information and data here, reaching out to folks showing them what is available and how to use it, the Florida State University alumnus says. There are so many things I like about my job and disseminating important information to the public is one of them. The 16 meteorologists on staff at Wakefield are charged with the responsibility of dissecting an endless stream of radar information and evaluating complex weather data on a continual basis, in order to accurately detect weather events in the areas covered by the Wakefield office. We cover 66 jurisdictions, Orrock points out. We cover most of northeastern North Carolina and central Virginia, including the Richmond metro

Above: Jeff Orrock, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office in Wakefield, Va., has been at the helm since June 2011. Inset: The 16 meteorologists on staff are charged with the responsibility of dissecting an endless stream of radar information and evaluating complex weather data on a continual basis in order to accurately detect weather events in the areas covered by this office. area and the Virginia and Maryland Eastern Shore. Not only does the office serve as the land-weather authority (most news stations base their forecasts on NWS data), it also handles marine forecasting as well. The NWS-Wakefields area of marine responsibility covers south of the Potomac River out through the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, along with the Rappahannock, York, and James rivers. We have your forecast for land, which is temperature, precipitation, humidity,
Prince George Electric Cooperative

18

Above: The NWS office is located on General Mahone Highway, between Prince George Electric Cooperatives headquarters and the Wakefield Municipal Airport. Right: A 120foot-tall, 5,700-pound, 700,000-watt dual-polarization Doppler radar dome towers above the building that houses the weather authority for all of eastern and central Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

and cloud cover, and we actually do that over the waters as well but most critical for marine forecasts are wind speed, wind direction and wave height, he explains. When the skies over eastern and central Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina are ready to rumble, the 23 staff members of NWS in Wakefield are busy at work behind the scenes. We know full-well that the information we release affects so many different aspects of peoples lives. And thats why we try to be as accurate as possible with our alerts, warnings and forecasts, Orrock says. In the event of a severe thunderstorm (58 mph or greater winds or hail that is quarter-size or larger) or hurricane, the Wakefield office becomes a sort of roundthe-clock weather-command center. For more complex storms, we do a lot of conference calls and work directly with folks to make sure they understand how a storm is going to play out, what were sure about, and what were not sure about, and how it might relate into what they see impact-wise ... road hazards and power outages, for example. The Wakefield meteorologists issue forecasts every three hours updating the National Digital Forecast Database. We use a digital graphic editor and we edit the data for all the weather elements out through seven days. Then we send the forecast data up to a MOSAIC database as a part of the national database. When you go to www.erh.noaa.gov and click on the map, it pulls all the data off that point and creates the forecast for you. So
September 2013

the words you read are really being created by a server. Forecast weather data is being extrapolated into words, says Orrock. So how does the information available through the NWS differ from the 6-oclock news forecast? Their systems are designed for onair graphics and are more packaged data. We, on the other hand, get the raw data and can get very complex in how we analyze the atmosphere, Orrock says. In a nutshell, most weather data backing up forecasts presented on the news or on weather websites in some way emanates from the NWS. So youre essentially getting your weather information right from the source. The biggest difference is how the data is presented. Theres so much information on the radar that you have to know what youre looking for and how to present it, Orrock says. Knowledge of what the end user needs from a weather forecast has to be taken into account to present the information in a useful and understandable way. The NWS puts out marine, fire and aviation forecasts, warnings, meteorological products, climate forecasts and information about meteorology. The NWS also works closely with national, local and federal forestry services on events like controlled burns. Certain criteria need to be met in the atmosphere for prescribed burns to take place. For big burns or wildfires, well dispatch a meteorologist to be on-scene. If fires are big enough, theyll create their

LAURA EMERY PHOTOS

own weather, he says. The NWS issues fire-weather forecasts four times a day. These are specialized forecasts for minimum humidity during the afternoon and maximum humidity at night, wind at different levels of the atmosphere (which determines fire behavior should a forest fire occur), transport winds (smoke dispersion) and instability (how much upward current you have even before a fire starts). The NWS, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 22 offices throughout the country. The Wakefield office is considered the state liaison for Virginia. The NOAAs mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earths environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage the nations coastal and marine resources.
19