21ST CENTURY NWS WARNING COMMUNICATIONS: THE FUTURE OF WARNING DISSEMINATION IS HERE

摘要

The National Weather Service (NWS) forecast offices in Alabama have worked closely together to provide the newest technological advances to some of our most important customers, the emergency management community and local media. They are receiving exceptional service like never before, as a result of the combined use of 800-megahertz (MHz) communications with emergency managers, paging applications, Instant Messaging (IM) with the media, graphical product development on the local office web sites, and warnings and forecasts provided via wireless web applications such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs). The authors hope that this study will provide the necessary motivation to develop better technologies that will further enhance the warning and forecast process. Our primary goal is the protection of life and property. The sharing of this information hopefully will improve and develop more partnerships that will better protect the United States from the effects of severe weather.