IN THE WIND

New Equipment Offers More Timely Weather Forecasts

Public's Feedback Will Still Be Major Source For Data

Story by Tommy Robertson

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

May 20, 1992

Officials at the National Weather Service office near Weldon Spring say they will have enough new equipment and improved capabilities that they will be able to give the public more timely forecasts than ever before.

And they acknowledge that none of the high-tech equipment or the mountains of new data will replace the service's interaction with the public.

''Even with all this new equipment, we're still going to need feedback from the emergency management community, the weather spotters and the local police and sheriff,'' said James Kramper, the agency's warning coordination meteorologist.

''We can have all this information and look at the radar and see that a storm is passing through a community, but we still won't know what's really going on unless somebody calls us,'' he said.

Steve Thomas, chief meteorologist, and top officials at the St. Louis station held an open house last Thursday for reporters to tour the two-year-old facility and get background on new equipment and service changes that will make the distribution of weather information faster and more complete.

Thomas was quick to add that the key to the station's new capabilities - a new more powerful radar system - is still in the testing stage and is not likely to be commissioned before next summer.

For that reason, the station continues to rely on its radar at 4100 Mexico Road in St. Peters. But officials made it clear they are eager to shift to full-time use of the WSR-88D Doppler radar, a system mounted on a 98-foot tower and linked to the station's control room by two computer-telephone networks.

Thomas said the new radar system enables meteorologists to determine more about weather systems than ever - what's going on inside a storm, which elements of the storm are moving toward and away from the radar tracking, even isolating on small portions of a storm that may prove more damaging.

But officials agree that the new radar and other satellite and other ground systems the weather service will build in the next five years won't replace eyes-on-the-ground spotters.

Kramper said he is always on the lookout for weather spotters and is frequently in touch with a variety of law enforcement, emergency and civic groups looking for interested residents.

He said the St. Charles Amateur Radio Club has become one of the station's more reliable weather spotting groups. In cases of severe storms, Kramper said, he calls one of the ham radio operators who then contacts at least two others.

The radio enthusiasts then come into the weather service station and use the station's ham radio to contact a network of amateur radio spotters along a storm path.

''They've been very helpful because, during a severe storm, our telephone lines are vulnerable like anyone else's,'' he said.