Severe Weather 8/9/2000

[Michael Nie]

Wow!  Talk about jinxing yourself.  I was considering sending a message to
the WARN list telling everyone that we are still here, but due to the lack
of severe weather there wasn't anything to send to the list.

Obviously, that all changed today.  I have been out of town in
Reynoldsburg,
OH (east of Columbus, OH), for training for my job, for the last two
weeks.
Leaving to come home today at 11:30am, I got in the car just in time to
see
a decent storm move through.  Very impressive!  Listening to the local
net,
it seemed to be pretty hefty.  Heading south on I-71, I got close enough
to
Cincinnati just in time to hear the Cincinnati WARN net close.

In the evening, we were activated again.  This time I was able to follow
the
entire net.  I was pleasantly surprised by how well the net was conducted.
I expected many reports not meeting our criteria.  We got some, but not
near
as many as I thought we would get.  Maybe it's because these storms
actually
contained so much that actually qualified as valid reports.  It seems that
heavy rain and hail were the predominant culprits this time.  While some
wind damage reports were received, at this time it did not seem to be very
widespread.  (Maybe we just didn't hear about it.)  Time will tell.

For the most part, good job!  Of course, until we have a perfect net,
there
is always room for improvement.  We did hear some non-valid reports of:

- Frequent lightning
- Power outages

We ask that Cincinnati area hams occasionally check our web site at
http://www.warn.org and review our reporting criteria.  Anything else is
not
helpful, wastes air time and resources, and will NOT be relayed to the
NWS.
By way of reminder, NWS is looking for these criteria:

- Hail 1/2" in diameter or larger.
- Rain 1" per hour or greater
- Wind 50 MPH or greater
- Persistent rotation in a storm
- Any flooding in roadways or streams out of banks

I won't elaborate any more here, but would ask once again that you review
the reporting criteria on the web site.  We also received a couple
requests
for weather forecasts or information.  Our net control operators rightly
referred these people to NOAA weather radio or broadcast sources.  Please
do
not be offended if you ask for weather information and we refer you to one
of these sources.  We frequently do not have as much information as you
can
get from these sources.  We also are not qualified to forecast and do not
have direct contact with a meteorologist.  We ask that you not ask us to
provide weather information.  If you listen to the net for a while, you'll
hear everything we do.

All in all though, it was a pretty good net.  Special thanks to our net
control operators who put in a pretty long evening (and day), Bob Kaegi -
KB8TPC and Dave Stuart - KB0SLY (who are still at it as I write this).

That's all for now.

Mike Nie - KB8VMX
Public Information Officer
Weather Amateur Radio Network


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