In the administration’s race to cut government NOAA/NWS could be on the chopping block. See:
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/27/layoffs-hit-noaa-national-weather-service
I understand that a federal judge may have blocked the actions. However, this is a matter of public safety that can affect every United States Citizen and visitors to our country.
On December 7, 2024 Centre County ARES/Skywarn operators in cooperation with the State College National Weather Service Office participated in Skywarn Recognition Day 2024. Greg Guise, K3HOT; Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ, and Elden Wood, KF0JZM staffed the VHF/UHF stations in the NWS office. Carmine Prestia, K3CWP was to operate a portable HF station outside the NWS CTP office. Unforeseen circumstances forced Carmine to operate from his home station. Operations were conducted from 09:00 to 12:00 Local Time on Saturday. Continue reading
Between 10:00 and 12:00 on Saturday the nineteenth of October, Western Pennsylvania amateur radio operators cooperated with the National Weather Service offices in State College and Pittsburgh to test amateur communications capabilities throughout the ARRL WPA Section. It turned out to be a very successful drill confirming the ability of the State College NWS office (NWS CTP) to communicate over a wide area, including contact with the Pittsburgh office (NWS PBZ). Continue reading
If you are interested in greater participation gathering weather data for the National Weather Service you might want to look at the CoCoRaHS program for reporting precipitation totals to NWS. As the name implies CoCoRaHS seeks to record accurate daily precipitation data for the NWS. Click on this sentence to find out more information.
Bob Fenner, K3RDF, an NWS Employee provided a number of links to weather information that is of interest to Skywarn Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators in General. You can find them by clicking on “Links” in the menu above.
Thank you Bob!
As announced a Skywarn was conducted from the National Weather Service State College Office (NWS CTP) on January 24th at 19:00. NCS used the NWS CTP call sign WX3CTP. Carmine, K3CWP and Greg, K3HOT staffed the station.
Nineteen stations checked in from seven counties as listed below. The showed that the coverage for W3GA will be useful for Skywarn activations should other local repeaters fail. Thank you to the stations who checked in. They are listed below. Continue reading
A link has been added to the Link Library for the National Weather Service Skywarn Spotters Field Guide.
Opportunities for public service yet this year. If you want to volunteer for any of the events not coordinated by Nittany Amateur Radio Club contact Carmine at k3cwp@arrl.net.
Watch this space for more information, especially how to sign up to help.
On Saturday October 2, 2022, five Centre County Amateurs participated in the Annual ARRL Simulated Emergency Test from 13:30 UTC (09:30 Local) to 14:30 UTC (11:30 Local). This year’s drill simulated a major snow and cold weather event over the Western Pennsylvania section:
“A massive snow event and below zero temperatures have blanketed the entire Western Pennsylvania Section, downing power lines, blocking traffic and necessitating the
evacuation of large numbers of people to shelters in every county in the the Section.”