AEDC officials, National Weather Service preparing for stormy weather

  • Published
  • By Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Officials at AEDC use every tool available to keep base personnel safe, especially when the weather takes a turn for the worse.

One of those tools is the National Weather Service. Emergency Management Lead Daryl Justice says he and Emergency Management Coordinator Brad Walker can always get in touch with weather service officials when the weather gets bad, and they tend to talk quite a bit during this time of year.

Spring is the most dangerous time of year when it comes to severe weather, but November serves as a secondary season. This is also a La Nina year, which is a phenomenon caused by colder ocean temperatures in the Pacific near the equator.

"What that means to us is in the southeastern United States, the weather's going to be a little warmer and a little wetter in winter," Justice said. "And historically during La Nina, they have the more powerful tornadoes occur."

Tom Johnstone, the warning coordinating meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Nashville, says looking back to 1950, he couldn't find one strong La Nina event that did not have a significant tornado in Middle Tennessee.

"It's limited data, but it's certainly something that has my attention," Johnstone said.

There were several weather watches and warnings across Middle Tennessee on Oct. 26. Luckily, Justice says there were only a few downed trees and no injuries in Coffee and Franklin counties.

"We dodged a bullet," Justice said, but that's one of several that the base has dodged in the last few years. Because of that, Justice says are always looking for the latest weather information as a preventive measure.

That's where the weather service comes in.

As soon as the potential for any kind of bad weather arises, the weather service contacts several agencies to let them know the time for a conference call where officials will brief them on weather conditions. Those briefings occur well in advance of storms arriving in the area, which Justice said is vital to base operations that include everything from testing to routine maintenance work.

"What the National Weather Service does for us is they give us a 12- to 24-hour window," Justice said. "That gives us a precious bit of time if we have some kind of vital test going on."

The briefings also give them information that isn't necessarily given by television meteorologists, like details on potential for dangerous straight-line winds and flooding.

"Part of the idea is we get a lot deeper into the details of the forecast than they get on TV," Johnstone said. "We really tailor those for emergency managers."

Johnstone said communication between his office and emergency management agencies is crucial to the safety of everyone who could be impacted by severe weather. The weather service has a dedicated Internet chat room for instant updates with EMAs, and they're always a phone call away in case of an emergency.

Now, emergency management officials at AEDC are trying to take preparedness a step further by working toward a National Weather Service StormReady recognition. StormReady is a recognition program for communities who have gone through several steps to be prepared for bad weather.

Justice says it would serve as a badge showing AEDC is as ready as can be.

"It's more like a confirmation that we have all the people trained and in place, we've got equipment for response ... that we've done everything we can do to prepare to respond to natural disasters," Justice said.

The StormReady recognition is given to communities based on three key components: preparedness, a way to communicate lifesaving warning information and a good working relationship with the weather service.

There are currently 14 StormReady communities in the Middle Tennessee area. Johnstone wants to see AEDC on the list sometime in 2011, a goal he thinks is entirely possible.

"For some communities and for some StormReady bases at other locations, it's a lot of work. I don't think that's going to be the case at Arnold. I think there's a high level of awareness and preparedness," Johnstone said. "There's going to be work to do, but I think they have a head start on a lot of our folks."

Part of the StormReady program is having personnel attend a storm-spotting class. One is scheduled for Nov. 18 at the AEDC fire department.

The weather service uses the roughly two-hour class to teach the visual cues of life-threatening cloud formations, and people in the class also learn how to use the weather service to warn their fellow citizens. Johnstone said there are about 7,000 trained spotters in Middle Tennessee, and the majority of them are citizens.

"We try to get people who are either vulnerable to the weather or are out in the weather to be the primary reporters," Johnstone said.

The Nov. 18 class is intended for people who would not be in an on-site shelter during a storm, such as security and firefighters. The class is close to the desired capacity, but Justice says anyone on base who is interested in attending can e-mail him at daryl.justice@arnold.af.mil. If there is enough interest, Justice says more storm spotting classes can be scheduled.