The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has released dismissal and closure procedures in anticipation of the winter weather months.
OPM has announced a new policy addition to the list of dismissal options that instructs employees to stay off of the roads until a certain time because of unsafe conditions. This option was informally implemented during the 2011-2012 winter season to help ensure the safety of federal employees preparing to commute into work. Keep reading →
The National Weather Service, FEMA, and other federal agencies have come along way in using the Internet and mobile applications to inform and interact with citizens during natural disasters.
The ability of agencies and other relief organizations to rally during a crisis, however, is frequently hamstrung by technical and organizational challenges that inevitably arise in the midst of the crises. Large volumes of traffic can overwhelm or crash websites. Key personnel may themselves be unable to access networks remotely due to the impact of disasters. And data sources can also get backlogged. Keep reading →
This is the last of a four-part series on innovation at the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service has improved disaster response through a collaborative project aimed at communicating crucial weather information and helping emergency managers stay current and build networks online and onsite. Keep reading →
This is the third in a series of stories about innovation at the National Weather Service.
A new version of the well-known weather Doppler radar technology now gives meteorologists the ability to see storms from additional angles and provide a more accurate forecast. Keep reading →
This is the first in a series of stories about innovation at the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service is on a hunt for killer tornadoes, using the latest technology to warn people sooner and creating a model that could be used by other agencies to make predictions on everything from health to the economy. Keep reading →
2011 was the second costliest year for weather events with 14 disasters resulting in more than $1 billion in damages. Although there were numerous fatalities, many lives were saved as a result of better forecasts that were fed by higher quality data from observing systems on orbit, in the air column and on the ground. The bottom line is that accurate weather data saves lives and protects property.
As new weather data models emerge, however, the issue of who pays for weather observations is becoming a growing topic of debate. Keep reading →
The proposed realignment of federal agencies announced by the Obama administration would be more extensive than first announced last Friday, affecting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology among other agencies, according to a report today by Federal Computer Week.
Office of Management and Budget’s Jeffrey Zients, who earlier today was named OMB acting director, told reporters during a briefing Jan. 13, that there would be a second phase of the proposed reorganization. In the initial announcement, the White House proposed a realignment that called for merging six trade agencies into a new, cabinet-level agency to promote export and business development. Keep reading →
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new mobile product, the OSHA Heat Safety Tool, allows workers and supervisors to calculate the heat index for their worksite, and, based on the heat index, display a risk level to outdoor workers.
The app, which is available on Android devices, pulls data from the National Weather Service for it’s calculations. Keep reading →