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Winter and non-precip weather hazard functions go live
On October 1, 2024 Hazard Services winter weather and non-precipitation hazard functions went live in all NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Offices across the nation. GSL leads the development of Hazard Services, a multi-year, multi-phase, multi-partner effort to streamline the process to create a hazardous weather watch, warning, or advisory to improve risk communication and decision support.
The functions now available to forecasters include issuing watches, warnings and advisories for winter threats such as blizzard conditions, heavy snow, freezing rain, and ice events. These products provide critical information to core partners to help plan prior to and during a major winter event that can cause over a billion dollars of damage in just a few days.
Functions for non-precipitation threats include alerts for extreme heat or cold, dense fog and smoke, high winds, and volcanic ashfall that can last for hours or even days.
Testing of these Hazard Services functions has been done in “practice mode” at some of the forecast offices since the code was handed off in 2020. This allowed forecasters to go through the motions of issuing watches, warnings, and advisories without transmitting these products outside of the forecast office. The workflows and products can be carefully examined for accuracy, efficiency, and overall readiness, while also providing an opportunity for users to provide critical feedback to the development team.