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WeatherZine #2

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· 11 months ago

WeatherZine #2
Number 2, February 15 1997

"What's happening on the Societal Aspects of Weather WWW Site."

WeatherZine is a bi-monthly on-line and e-mail distribution newsletter for the Societal Aspects of Weather Site. It contains a summary of recent changes to the site (along with links to relevant sections), and news, events, and announcements of interest to the community.

WeatherZine, and its parent WWW site, accept and encourage the submission of activities, events, or links of interest to the community. You can use the on-line forms in the Feedback section or can send an email to thunder@ucar.edu with the item you would like to see posted on the site or included in the next issue of the Zine.

[1] Message from the Editor -- A Call for Feedback

Greetings from Boulder! By now you have probably realized that this WeatherZine is a recurring feature. It is a bimonthly update as to what is happening on the Societal Aspects of Weather WWW Site. The site is maintained by the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group at NCAR and its purpose is to provide a resource to those scholars in the atmospheric, oceanic, and social sciences who have an interest in the relation of society and weather. We hope the site will also be of value to policy and other decision making communities, as well as to the interested public.

As you already know, the site is still very young. In fact, it is still in what we are calling a prototype phase, in which we are experimenting with different approaches and content. This WeatherZine and the VJournal (described below) are two of our innovations. For the site to grow and to be of real value to the research community we need your feedback. Let us know what you would like to see on the site, what is useful, what is not, and please share this resource with your colleagues who might find it useful.

We are learning from the very successful Climate Network Newsletter (edited by Mickey Glantz of ESIG) and the useful Internet resources of the CU Natural Hazards Center. These resources have helped to educate and build a community of scholars in these areas. We'd like to do the same (albeit more modestly) for the community of weather impacts researchers.

Since we are just beginning, your feedback can make a real difference in how we approach the site and also in its success. So drop us an email (thunder@ucar.edu) with your comments and suggestions, submit a reference to the VJournal, but whatever you do, let us know how this site can be of greater use to you!

- Roger A. Pielke, Jr.

[2] Spotlight -- Weather Impacts VJournal

Weather Impacts VJournal

The Weather Impacts VJournal is a virtual journal that presents, on a periodic basis, a listing of scholarly publications (articles, books, reports, conference papers, etc.) relevant to the societal aspects of weather. Because scholars who are interested in society's relation with weather come from many disciplines, their publications appear in hundreds of different journals (if not more!). It is nearly impossible for one person to monitor all of these journals, hoping to catch a relevant paper here and there.

VJournal attempts to overcome this problem by providing an up-to-date listing of scholarly publications. It does not contain full-text of these resources, rather it is a list of citations and pointers (if the are available on the WWW).

The VJournal is a community effort and relies on your contributions if it is to be effective. If you know of good resources, you can submit them by email to thunder@ucar.edu (please include full reference information).

Contributions are collected and verified before they are posted at the VJournal web. Items contain full citations, information on how to obtain the item (if it is not a journal), and occasionally a brief description.

An archive and current listing of the contents of the VJournal are maintained on the web page at all times. However, if you subscribe to the VJournal e-mail distribution list, you can receive periodic e-mails of new citations without having to continuously monitor the web page.

With your help, we hope to simplify the task of becoming aware of first rate scholarship that might not otherwise come to your attention.

To Subscribe to the VJournal email list:

Send an email to majordomo@ucar.edu and in the body of the message include:

SUBSCRIBE vjournal <<your email address>>

* do not include the <<>>'s; Majordomo will ignore the subject line.

You will then be automatically added to the distribution list and receive the next distribution of the VJournal. You can unsubscribe whenever you wish.

[3] Community News -- Eugenia Kalnay Receives Presidential Award

The Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Achievement was presented to Eugenia Kalnay, director of the National Weather Service's Environmental Modeling Center (EMC). The Center is one of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and works to improve weather, marine, and climate predictions for the nation.

Kalnay, one of five Department of Commerce recipients of this annual award, was honored for her leadership in improving the computer models which are the foundation of accurate and timely weather forecasts.

* The American Meteorological Society puts out a monthly newsletter with scientific, government, and other news happenings of interest to the community. It is available at: http://atm.geo.nsf.gov/AMS/newsltr/

[4] New Additions to the WWW Site:

Winter

Cyberspace Snow and Avalanche Center (www.csac.org/) Contains current snow conditions, avalanche education and research (including bibliographies and other publications), archived avalanche bulletins, summaries of avalanche incidents, professional resources (including lists of research centers, weather resources, conferences, and additional avalanche Web sites), and other snow and avalanche information such as statistics and personal accounts of disasters.

Eye on the World Violent Planet (www.iwaynet.net/~kwroejr/violent.html) Their Blizzards & Snow Section contains links to newspaper articles (on-line), photos, and general interest sites.

Severe Winter Weather Bulletins (ws321.uncc.edu/data/Severe_Weather_Bulletins/winter/)

The Blizzard of '96 (met-www.cit.cornell.edu/blizzard96.html) The Northeast Regional Climate Center maintains this page with links to press releases and snowfall amount maps on the Blizzard of '96.

NSSL Bibliographic Database (doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/projects/nbd/) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) maintains this on-line, searchable bibliographic database. Currently, only references related to hazardous winter weather are included in the database; although there are plans to add references on tornadoes, lightning, and meteorological uses of satellite data in the near future.

FEMA provides the following fact sheets: Winter Storms (www.fema.gov/home/fema/stormsf.html) Winter Preparedness Safety Tips (www.fema.gov/home/fema/wntsft.htm)

If you have or know of any resources related to winter weather, please let us know through email to thunder@ucar.edu.

Tornadoes

Index to Tornado information from USA Today (www.usatoday.com/weather/wtwist0.htm)

Tornadoes (cc.usu.edu/~kforsyth/Tornado.html) A very simple and straightforward "primer" on tornadoes.

National Severe Storms Laboratory (www.nssl.uoknor.edu/) One of NOAA's Environmental Research Laboratories, dedicated to improving the Nation's severe weather warnings and forecasts.

National SKYWARN Home Page (www.skywarn.org/) A nation wide program of the NWS, SKYWARN promotes the identification, evaluation, and reporting of dangerous weather by storm spotters across the country.

Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association, Inc. (www.execpc.com/~svoros/)

The Tornado Project Online! (www.tornadoproject.com/index.html) The Tornado Project has been locating, organizing and publishing information on tornadoes since 1970. Their web site contains a lot of interesting on-line information on tornadoes including: tornado myths, tornado oddities, personal experiences, tornado chasing, tornado safety.

FEMA - Fact Sheet on Tornadoes (www.fema.gov/home/fema/tornadof.html)

Are you ready for a tornado? (St. Petersburg Times) (www.times.st-pete.fl.us/weather/SP.5.html)

New Links on the Site

Data

Annual Death & Damages Statistics- USA Historical Tornado Data Archive (www.nssl.ou.edu/~spc/archive/tornadoes/index.html)

Historical Hail Data Archive (www.nssl.ou.edu/~spc/archive/hail/index.html)

Historical Convective Wind Data Archive (www.nssl.ou.edu/~spc/archive/wind/index.html)

Agriculture

Weekly Weather and Crop Report (www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf/wwcb.html)

Bibliographic

Bibliography on Environmental Risk and Decision making with GIS (www.idrisi.clarku.edu/risk/rskbibl.htm)

Risk Prediction Initiative Bibliography (www.bbsr.edu/agcihome/lit/gen.html)

Water Resources Bibliography (USGS) (webserver.cr.usgs.gov/public/Bibliography.html)

Natural Disaster Reference Database (ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/ndrd-cgi/ndrd) Annotated Bibliography of Hurricane Andrew's Societal Impacts (gopher://gopher.ucar.edu:70/00/ncarucar/esig/Roger%20Pielke%20 Hurricane%20Andrew%20Bibliography)

National Severe Storms Laboratory Bibliographic Database (doplight.nssl.uoknor.edu/projects/nbd/)

Emergency Management

Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association, Inc (www.execpc.com/~svoros/)

EmergencyNet News Service (www.emergency.com/)

Emergency Resource Directory (www.clarknet.com/erd/)

Alachua County FL, Hazards Analysis Tables (www.co.alachua.fl.us/~acem/hazards.html)

Disaster Research Center at University of Delaware (www.udel.edu/DRC/)

Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership(www.partner.org/)

EmergencyNet News Service (www.emergency.com/)

[5] Subscribe Now!

The WeatherZine is produced as a Web site and an email message. Subscribing to the WeatherZine will add you to our distribution list and you will receive email messages whenever the WeatherZine is released.

To subscribe to the WeatherZine, use the on-line form at: www.esig.ucar.edu/socasp/forms/join.html, send an email to thunder@ucar.edu and include the following information:

Name
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Email Address
Interests & Needs

or send an email to majordomo@ucar.edu and in the body of the message include:

subscribe weatherzine <your email address>

* do not include the <>'s. Majordomo will ignore the subject line.

For additional information, please contact thunder@ucar.edu

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weather Impacts Group
Societal Aspects of Weather
Environmental and Societal Impacts Group
National Center for Atmospheric Research
US Weather Research Program

Societal Aspects of Weather Web Site: www.esig.ucar.edu/socasp/
WeatherZine: www.esig.ucar.edu/socasp/zine/