[warn-news] After Action Report - 4/7/2006

[Steve Lewis N8TFD]

Thank you for the "heavy" level of participation during yesterday's WARN 
activities.  It was the highest level in probably 4 years.  (Then again, not 
much severe weather has happened in the last 3!)



Here's what worked:

- short transmissions
- your patience with the coverage of our backup repeater
- we heard NO "from the media" or "from the scanner" reports.  Those reports are 
not useful to us because our value to the NWS is a "dialogue" -- that is, if 
they have questions or want a later update, we can assure them we can get 
answers.  We can't do that on items "from the media" or "from the scanner".
- we heard NO "power outage" reports and very few "it's sunny here" reports
- we did activate 145.19- as a "backup" to solicit reports from rural SE Indiana 
and rural northern KY (none heard)
- Warren County fed us good reports from their RACES/ARES net



Here's what can be improved upon:

- "I know this doesn't meet reporting criteria, but:"  Take notes, keep 
observing, and make your report when it does!
- "where's the watches and warnings?"  We try to read them as they come out -- 
yesterday we were forced to abbreviate the verbiage because there were too many 
products coming out in short bursts.  Even if that's not the case, NOAA weather 
radio, the internet, and the media are sources for continuous updates.  The 
purpose of the net is to collect ground-truth reports on weather and damage, not 
to supplement or replace sources of broadcast news.



FYI, yesterday's event is documented at:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/060407_rpts.html

Further, it seems that things will be quiet for a while (note this product is 
EXPERIMENTAL):  http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/exper/day4-8/



Thanks for your support of the SkyWARN program yesterday and in the future.

-73- de N8TFD/Steve