Proposing and Collaborating Short-Fused Hazards at CWA Borders

Purpose:

This jobsheet will guide forecasters how to use Hazard Services to propose short-fused hazard events with neighboring WFOs along shared CWA borders.

Tasks:

AT-A-GLANCE:

  • What? Hazard Services Version 4 allows forecasters to collaborate more seamlessly with neighboring WFOs when issuing hazard events along shared CWA borders. The metadata of a proposed or issued hazard event can be used to issue or draft products for events that span across the border of multiple CWAs.

  • Why? This is particularly useful to rapidly and seamlessly join warning polygons when a storm moves from one CWA to another.

  • How? When the forecast path of a hazard impacts an area across more than one CWA, an office can draft a proposed hazard event in Hazard Services. A line of communication should be in place between affected offices to coordinate expected hazards, timing, locations, and severity of hazards before issuance.

  • Required Visible ShortFuse Site IDs. It is important to have Hazard Services configured to show other site’s short fuse hazards. This may be done by clicking the Setup icon –> Manage Settings –> Edit/Filter. A list of Site IDs should be displayed in the menu popup; these are the sites whose hazards will display in CAVE. If the site you wish to collaborate with is not visible in the Site IDs, you will need to use the Add Site button at the bottom of the menu to add the site. Clicking Save will override the Site options visible in Hazard Services.

 Follow the steps below for more detailed guidance.

  1. A hazard needs to be in either proposed or issued (including SVS) status for other WFOs to see the event populate the Hazard Services Console. With one CAVE instance open in the D2D perspective, draft a pending SV.W that spans across a CWA boundary. We will show an example using the Hazard Services Storm Track Tool with a line of storms, however tracking a single storm follows the same process.


     

  2. To demonstrate the utility of metadata in the proposal/collaboration process, we will fill out the Details section of the HID with locations and report details. Note these options will create a Destructive tag for this event.

    Source: Trained spotters reported

    Max Wind: 80 mph

    Max Hail: Half dollar (1 1/4”)

    Location(s): Columbus, York, Geneva, and Stromsburg

    Select for observed wind

    Report Details:

    “At 732 PM, trained spotters measured a wind gust of 78 MPH 5 miles northeast of McCool Junction.”


     

  3. Clicking Propose allows the hazard event to be immediately viewable in any other WFO that is configured to display hazards from your WFO in Hazard Services. Clicking Propose or Update hazard hatched area also simplifies and snaps the polygon to counties/parishes valid within your localization’s CWA.


     

  4. Open another instance of CAVE with the localization of the office that will act as the collaborator. It is possible to use service backup mode to perform the same collaboration steps; however, for this jobsheet using two separate CAVE localization instances is recommended.
     

  5. The proposed hazard is visible to the neighboring WFO along with the associated metadata.


     

  6. The portion of the hazard outside the CWA is not editable. However, to draft a polygon using the metadata of the proposed hazard, right click the highlighted event in the Console and select Copy to New Event.


     

  7. Select the event type that matches the proposed hazard that was just copied. In this case select Severe Thunderstorm Warning (SV.W).


     

  8. The HID will populate with the metadata of the proposed event. You may modify the details of the hazard within your CWA, but communication of these changes with the other WFO is strongly encouraged to ensure consistent messaging of hazards and expected impacts.


     

  9. If the proposed event’s polygon was modified from the default track-generated polygon, there will be no polygon that shows when selecting SV.W. Select Track to generate a polygon using the metadata of the proposed event in your portion of the CWA and modify this default polygon.



    A good practice is matching your polygon to the extent of the proposed polygon at the edge of the CWA.


     

  10. Once you are satisfied with the polygon and it matches the proposed warning polygon, click on Update hazard hatched area and click Propose. At this step there are two proposed polygons for the hazard that crosses the boundary of the two CWAs. Both events should be visible to each WFO. If both WFOs agree on the proposals you may click Preview, review the product text, and click Issue (1) to issue the warning.


     

  11. WFOs should continue to coordinate updates to warnings, utilizing the Propose feature in Hazard Services, to ensure the messaging is consistent until the hazard has fully moved away from the CWA border.

Congratulations, you've learned how to use Copy to New Event to match hazards that cross between two CWAs!