POP P ublic O bservation P rogram Developer Ray Young WFO Charleston, WV

Allows the general public to call in severe weather, winter weather, flooding and marine weather reports Toll free phone access Number included in products

Public/Caller is stepped through entering a report using a computer automated touch tone menu Caller puts in zip code or Lat/Lon for location Phone number is requested for possible call back Caller may also leave a voice mail with addition details Summer Menu Hail Menu

POP TEXT Weather reports are forwarded immediately to the appropriate office from the “host” location POP

TEXT POP RLX GYX GSP National (except Guam) 800 number for call in Calls rollover to up to 12 lines for simultaneous processing as needed One national 800 number 3 “host” systems, 12 rollover lines 1st 4 to RLX for distribution 2nd 4 to GYX for distribution 3rd 4 to GSP for distribution (still required) If any “host” system or local phone lines fail, the other two systems remain operational POP written in Microsoft Visual Basic – Well known, widely used language in the NWS therefore not developer dependent System is expandable Planned

POP TEXT POP PRI SEC National 800 number for call in Calls rollover to up to 48 lines for simultaneous processing as needed One national 800 number in WBC 2 “host” systems, 16 to 48 rollover lines Primary 8 to 24 rollover for distribution Secondary 8 to 24 rollover for distribution If primary “host” system fails, secondary system remains operational Ex. 24 lines 1 st 12 rollover 2nd 12 rollover

Reports are forwarded to an office through: AWIPS text products and/or a Windows PC software package ZCZC CRWADARLX SEW TTAA00 KCRW DDHHMM ***WARNING*** THIS REPORT HAS NOT BEEN QUALITY CONTROLLED *** CHARLESTON WV JUST RECEIVED THIS STORM REPORT FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC ON OUR AUTOMATED REPORTING SYSTEM (POP). THIS REPORT HAS NOT BEEN CHECKED FOR ACCURACY...BUT HAS BEEN AUTOMATICALLY FORWARDED TO YOU. THIS REPORT IS ALREADY IN THE LSR FORMAT FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA 126 PM EDT TUE APR TIME......EVENT......CITY LOCATION......LAT.LON.....DATE MAG......COUNTY LOCATION...ST.....SOURCE......REMARKS PM POSSIBLE TORNADO EVERETT 47.90N122.26W 04/22/2008 SNOHOMISH WA PUBLIC EVENT OCCURRED BETWEEN 108 PM 04/22/2008 AND 123 PM 04/22/2008 && $$ NNNN (POP) Plot, Alert, Log and Send (LSR and NWR) Reports WFO provides a basic PC Alert and Send (LSR) Reports

Windows PC software package (P ublic O bservation P rogram ) Advantages –Receive all possible information on a report including a possible call back number and voic –Report is shown on a map at the location it occurred –Multiple reports can be combined into a single LSR/PNS –Reports can be QCed before LSR/PNS transmitted –Once QCed, reports can be sent directly to AWIPS –NWR transmitter specific radio text can be created and sent to CRS –Log of calls created –POP can run in a window on “operations” PC - Reports can be sent to up to 4 IP addresses per office (one address being a dedicated PC is recommended assuring 24 hr monitoring/alerting)

Multiple phone lines answered by a computer (and number of phone lines is expandable) One toll free number for nationwide access ( ) ZIP code or Latitude/Longitude can be used by caller facilitating calls by residence or mobile users (ie. truckers, marine operators) Increased access to weather reports without overloading your staff Quick report turn around to LSR The reports come to us decreasing the often significant amount of time we need to silicate information

Improved Verification! Significant improvement shown in verification scores GYX improved FAR by 30 percent

Quick STATS 17 offices currently in operation 6338 reports summer ’08 RLX Primary server handled calls 97% of time 0.15% of time all 8 lines were in use concurrently Average call 2 minutes About 90% of calls also selected voice mail

National Start Up Costs (estimated) 2 PC servers - $5000 Installation of phone lines - $3000 Administrative (staff and travel time) - $5000

Annual parts maintenance - $ Local phone lines - $35 each/month = $840/month 800 service rollover to local numbers = $500/month.05 per call/month estimated average calls /mo National Annual Recurring Costs (estimated 20K)

Cost Assumption Each region/WFO will bare the cost of setting up a PC (if a dedicated PC is desired and one is not available) to run POP An AWIPS message can be sent in lieu of a local POP PC

POP P ublic O bservation P rogram