Special Announcement: Merry Christmas/Happy New Year/Happy Holidays to All SKYWARN Spotters & Amateur Radio Operators!

Hello to all..

On behalf of the entire Amateur Radio Group at WX1BOX, the Amateur Radio station for NWS Taunton Massachusetts, and the forecaster staff at NWS Taunton, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday season. 2012 was not as historic as 2011 in terms of events, however, 2012 did have some very interesting weather events including a few historic events. Many of you provided critical reports, pictures and videos that supported and resulted in the protection of life and property and timely warnings being issued based on the surface reporting and ground truth that is so critical in confirming what the radar is or is not seeing. This information was then shared with local, state and federal emergency management and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are always looking for situational awareness and disaster intelligence to gauge the level of response and recovery required for an incident. They remain extremely impressed with all the work that all of you do and they extend their appreciation. That appreciation of the weather and damage reports is highly recognized by many of the media outlets as well who thank SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators on television and over social media such as facebook and twitter. This mission could not be done without all of your support.

A quick synopsis of 2012 reveal that while this year was quieter than 2011 in terms of historical events, there were a few significant event of note particularly toward the second half of 2012. After a very quiet winter, we had an average summer severe weather season but with a few notable events including the July 18th, 2012 severe weather event that resulted in a microburst in Arlington, Massachusetts and numerous Golf Ball to 2″ hail reports across portions of Southern New England and the North Shore and even a funnel cloud spotted by Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters over the North Shore and out over Boston Harbor. There was also the August 10th, 2012 severe weather outbreak that resulted in the first ever in recorded history tornado in Block Island Rhode Island and a 100 MPH microburst in Glastonbury, Conencticut. In early September on September 5th, 2012, the remnants of Isaac combined with a frontal system to cause a serious flash flood event in Fall River, Massachusetts.

As we moved into the Fall, two historic storms affected the region. Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy impacted much of Southern New England with sustained winds in the high-end tropical storm force range with hurricane force wind gusts particularly over Connecticut, Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts. Storm Surge flooding, the worst seen since Hurricane Bob and the Perfect Storm affected portions of South Coastal Massachusetts, and Rhode Island while the East Coast of Massachusetts saw the worse coastal flooding since the 2007 Patriots Day Storm. Widespread pockets of trees and wires down were noted with pockets of structural damage to roofs. At the height of the storm, approximately 386,000 were without power in Massachusetts, 122,000 in Rhode Island and 640,000 in Connecticut for a total of over 1.1 Million without power. Despite such a significant impact on Southern New England, it paled in comparison to the New York City, Long Island and New Jersey area which had a total of over 4 Million without power, 2.4 Million alone in New Jersey and the region is still recovering from the affects of Sandy. Federal disaster aid is flowing into New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and recently, portions of Eastern Massachusetts were added to the federal aid assistance from the impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Much more will be analyzed and researched about Hurricane Sandy in the coming months about her evolution and impacts over such a large area of the US East Coast.

Approximately one week after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday November 7th into Thursday November 8th, 2012, a powerful nor’easter impacted Southern New England. This nor’easter brought snow to portions of interior Southern New England and heavy rainfall and damaging winds to the coastline as well as minor to moderate coastal flooding. Wind Gusts as high as 70 MPH was recorded and what made the storm more damaging along the coast was the long duration of northeast winds that occurred lasting in many coastal locations for around or more than 24 hours. Scattered power outages were noted along the coastline along with minor to moderate coastal flooding in pockets. Some coastal folks noted that the duration of the strong to damaging winds made the nor’easter worse than Hurricane Sandy which had stronger winds but over a less duration of time than this nor’easter.

As we move forward in 2013, we will be continuing our commitment to SKYWARN training with planning starting in January. We will also continue to embrace new technologies while maintaining all the other technologies utilized to gather as much real-time and precise meteorological and damage report information as possible. We have more work to do in renewing our efforts to utilizing Amateur Radio HF and 6 Meters where required, Amateur Radio simplex as well as continued usage of all the SKYWARN Amateur Radio Repeaters and radio linked systems via the Internet that are at our disposal as well as monitoring of weather stations ingested over APRS and into the mesonet networks that have supported and helped with seeing what is happening on the ground. We are also looking at a new Amateur Radio technology called NBEMS, the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System, as a potential means to gather weather spotter data digitally over Ham Radio.

We continue to have our twitter feed setup and you can follow WX1BOX on twitter by following our Amateur Radio Call-Sign, WX1BOX. NWS Taunton has also setup their twitter feed recently. We also have our WX1BOX Facebook page and NWS Taunton a facebook page as well. SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators on facebook can ‘like’ these pages. They are available via the following links:

WX1BOX Amateur Radio SKYWARN Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/wx1box

NWS Taunton Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/US.NationalWeatherService.Boston.gov?fref=ts

WX1BOX Amateur Radio SKYWARN Twitter Feed:
http://twitter.com/wx1box

NWS Taunton Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/NWSBoston

We are also continuing to look at other ways to get near-real time video and pictures while also continuing to receive pictures and videos hours and days after a major severe weather event. This will further enhance our abilities to gather situatiuonal awareness and disaster intelligence information in a short period of time.

We, again, want to provide a tremendous THANK YOU to all of you that supported SKYWARN and the National Weather Service during 2012. We wish everyone once again, a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holiday Season and hope people enjoy their time with family and friends during this joyous holiday season!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://beta.wx1box.org

Hello to all..

On behalf of the entire Amateur Radio Group at WX1BOX, the Amateur Radio station for NWS Taunton Massachusetts, and the forecaster staff at NWS Taunton, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday season. 2012 was not as historic as 2011 in terms of events, however, 2012 did have some very interesting weather events including a few historic events. Many of you provided critical reports, pictures and videos that supported and resulted in the protection of life and property and timely warnings being issued based on the surface reporting and ground truth that is so critical in confirming what the radar is or is not seeing. This information was then shared with local, state and federal emergency management and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are always looking for situational awareness and disaster intelligence to gauge the level of response and recovery required for an incident. They remain extremely impressed with all the work that all of you do and they extend their appreciation. That appreciation of the weather and damage reports is highly recognized by many of the media outlets as well who thank SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators on television and over social media such as facebook and twitter. This mission could not be done without all of your support.

A quick synopsis of 2012 reveal that while this year was quieter than 2011 in terms of historical events, there were a few significant event of note particularly toward the second half of 2012. After a very quiet winter, we had an average summer severe weather season but with a few notable events including the July 18th, 2012 severe weather event that resulted in a microburst in Arlington, Massachusetts and numerous Golf Ball to 2″ hail reports across portions of Southern New England and the North Shore and even a funnel cloud spotted by Amateur Radio SKYWARN Spotters over the North Shore and out over Boston Harbor. There was also the August 10th, 2012 severe weather outbreak that resulted in the first ever in recorded history tornado in Block Island Rhode Island and a 100 MPH microburst in Glastonbury, Conencticut. In early September on September 5th, 2012, the remnants of Isaac combined with a frontal system to cause a serious flash flood event in Fall River, Massachusetts.

As we moved into the Fall, two historic storms affected the region. Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy impacted much of Southern New England with sustained winds in the high-end tropical storm force range with hurricane force wind gusts particularly over Connecticut, Rhode Island and Eastern Massachusetts. Storm Surge flooding, the worst seen since Hurricane Bob and the Perfect Storm affected portions of South Coastal Massachusetts, and Rhode Island while the East Coast of Massachusetts saw the worse coastal flooding since the 2007 Patriots Day Storm. Widespread pockets of trees and wires down were noted with pockets of structural damage to roofs. At the height of the storm, approximately 386,000 were without power in Massachusetts, 122,000 in Rhode Island and 640,000 in Connecticut for a total of over 1.1 Million without power. Despite such a significant impact on Southern New England, it paled in comparison to the New York City, Long Island and New Jersey area which had a total of over 4 Million without power, 2.4 Million alone in New Jersey and the region is still recovering from the affects of Sandy. Federal disaster aid is flowing into New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and recently, portions of Eastern Massachusetts were added to the federal aid assistance from the impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Much more will be analyzed and researched about Hurricane Sandy in the coming months about her evolution and impacts over such a large area of the US East Coast.

Approximately one week after Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday November 7th into Thursday November 8th, 2012, a powerful nor’easter impacted Southern New England. This nor’easter brought snow to portions of interior Southern New England and heavy rainfall and damaging winds to the coastline as well as minor to moderate coastal flooding. Wind Gusts as high as 70 MPH was recorded and what made the storm more damaging along the coast was the long duration of northeast winds that occurred lasting in many coastal locations for around or more than 24 hours. Scattered power outages were noted along the coastline along with minor to moderate coastal flooding in pockets. Some coastal folks noted that the duration of the strong to damaging winds made the nor’easter worse than Hurricane Sandy which had stronger winds but over a less duration of time than this nor’easter.

As we move forward in 2013, we will be continuing our commitment to SKYWARN training with planning starting in January. We will also continue to embrace new technologies while maintaining all the other technologies utilized to gather as much real-time and precise meteorological and damage report information as possible. We have more work to do in renewing our efforts to utilizing Amateur Radio HF and 6 Meters where required, Amateur Radio simplex as well as continued usage of all the SKYWARN Amateur Radio Repeaters and radio linked systems via the Internet that are at our disposal as well as monitoring of weather stations ingested over APRS and into the mesonet networks that have supported and helped with seeing what is happening on the ground. We are also looking at a new Amateur Radio technology called NBEMS, the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System, as a potential means to gather weather spotter data digitally over Ham Radio.

We continue to have our twitter feed setup and you can follow WX1BOX on twitter by following our Amateur Radio Call-Sign, WX1BOX. NWS Taunton has also setup their twitter feed recently. We also have our WX1BOX Facebook page and NWS Taunton a facebook page as well. SKYWARN Spotters and Amateur Radio Operators on facebook can ‘like’ these pages. They are available via the following links:

WX1BOX Amateur Radio SKYWARN Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/wx1box

NWS Taunton Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/US.NationalWeatherService.Boston.gov?fref=ts

WX1BOX Amateur Radio SKYWARN Twitter Feed:
http://twitter.com/wx1box

NWS Taunton Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/NWSBoston

We are also continuing to look at other ways to get near-real time video and pictures while also continuing to receive pictures and videos hours and days after a major severe weather event. This will further enhance our abilities to gather situatiuonal awareness and disaster intelligence information in a short period of time.

We, again, want to provide a tremendous THANK YOU to all of you that supported SKYWARN and the National Weather Service during 2012. We wish everyone once again, a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holiday Season and hope people enjoy their time with family and friends during this joyous holiday season!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://beta.wx1box.org