The USA Disaster Situation Report
About the SitRep
I have been producing the USA Daily Situation Reports since January of 2000.
At it's core the Situation Report is about collecting the best daily public
disaster forecast and reports and placing that information in a daily
report. I have asked for suggestions and criticism a number of times. And
have only received compliments and one criticism about my spelling and use
of grammar. I was very grateful for the criticism. The complements are
nice too.
Doing something every day, for about a half a year, that takes about an hour
and half every day, translates into around 270 hrs. of work. For this work,
I estimate, I have made about ten cents an hour.
What's sad about this is that I am, in part, doing it for the money.
The other reasons that I am doing this are:
That I have found, in providing coverage of USA disasters, that some
information is readily accessible only during the disaster and then gets
lost or at best, is archived at a few of the hundreds of sites that are our
sources of internet public information during time of disasters.
What I am doing is enabling hundreds of people to read the best current
public forecast information and then interact with the experience.
What does, on a personal level, it mean to experience a 2%
probability
of a tornado within 25 miles of any point?
Or why is it that a forecast of rainfall of over an inch often
means
that four or more inches of rain can fall?
When we look at the forecasts one day and then the next can
look at the severe weather reports, we start to develop an
appreciation
of the validity of such forecasts.
Part of what I am doing is creating a historical database. I think of the
SitRep as a daily USA disaster diary. This is what was forecast for this
date in our history. And this is what happened yesterday, as it relates to
disasters in the United States. I am saving the reports and hopefully at
some point will place them on line. As part of this processes I am also
saving any graphics that I create during the day. So these pages when they
are placed on the web will be illustrated.
I am learning almost every day about new sources and techniques for the
collection and distribution of information. And our public information
suppliers are improving as we learn.
The probability forecasts are a problem. What is the best way to describe
an area with a 5% probability of hail that is over a portion of a State? I
am developing a terminology for that description and at some point I hope to
be able to place it on the web. As for now, I think that most people get
the area descriptions that I use. At times I question the time involved in
providing the verbal descriptions. I have played around with the idea of
sending attached graphics along with the report, but I know that a lot of
people will object to the download time involved. The problem is that it
takes a long time to describe these areas. I could use shorter
descriptions, but then the accuracy falls out of the description, and along
with the accuracy so does the value. Are these area descriptions a value to
you the reader? Should I drop the whole probability part of the report?
There are times when I am not up to doing the SitRep. A few days ago I was
up for over 24 hrs. when I wrote one of the reports out. I did not use
spell check so I know, that you know, how poorly I spell. I suspect that
most of you already knew.
I am going to change the header format of the report :
------------------------------------------------------------
The Daily USA Disaster Situation Report
For July 4, 2000
Christopher Effgen, Editor, host{at}disastercenter.com
------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE
------------------------------------------------------------
=> USA Daily Temperature Extremes
=> Special Reports
=> Current Atlantic Hurricane Forecast
=> Current Active National Weather Service Warnings:
=> Severe Weather Probability Forecast
=> Precipitation Forcast and Excessive Rainfall Forecast
=> USA Flood Report
=> USA Fire Report and Forecast
=> USA Earthquake Report
=> Yesterday's USA Severe Weather Reports
=> Guest Column
=> Classified Ads
=> Links Area
=> How to Be Featured as our Guest Columnist
=> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
------------------------------------------------------------
SPONSORSHIP NOTICE
------------------------------------------------------------
The report will then begin.
Hopefully this format will become active in few days.
As always, any suggestions, advice and criticisms are welcome.
Christopher Effgen
The information presented here is not authoritative.
It contains preliminary and partial information reports. It is intended to serve as a general daily digest of disaster related reports. Any other use is not intended or authorized.
The Disaster Center is a partner with CASI - Central Atlantic Storm Investigators. CASI is a group of over a thousand amateur and professional meteorologists, storm spotters, and weather observers from around the world dedicated to the observation and documentation of weather events
http://www.weatherwatchers.org
The Current Report can be accessed at:
http://www.disastercenter.com/current.htm
If you wish to send a report please use our Disaster Center Situation Report Form form located at:
http://www.disastercenter.com/email/formSR.htm
To subcribe or unsubscribe to this list send an e-mail to:
sitrep-request{at}disastercenter.com
with the word
subscribe
or the word
unsubscribe
only, in the body of the message.
If you wish to contact the list owner send an e-mail to: host{at}disastercenter.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Aug 31 2000 - 21:00:22 EDT