Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

NWS Jackson forecasters trained together with our partners during our Winter Season Training Day on Thursday November 19th.

As part of the exercise, our forecasters assembled a briefing package for a winter weather event using our Weather Event Simulator. The next step was to deliver this briefing to a team of core partners, simulating the real life interactions which take place between an Incident Management Team and an onsite meteorologist. After the briefings were complete, all of our forecasters and our partners assembled in our operations area to talk about the exercise and the ramifications of the forecast.

One of the most beneficial parts of the exercise was hearing how our forecasts affected our partner's operations and how they would react to the information we briefed them. We also learned what works well in our briefings and what we can do better. The local relationships built in exercises like this will prove invaluable as we continue to move toward a Weather Ready East Kentucky!

We want to thank the following people and organizations for participating in our exercise:

Chris Hecker, KYEM Region 8 Response Manager
Jeannie Kennard and Gary McClure, Paintsville/Johnson County Emergency Management
Jarrod Crase, KY Dept of Public Health Region 12 Preparedness Coordinator
Cory Waddell, Kentucky River District Health Department Preparedness Coordinator
H.B. Elkins, Public Information Officer for KY Transportation Cabinet District 10
Emerson Varney, Disaster Response Specialist for the American Red Cross
Sam Stacy, City of Hazard Fire Chief

Here are some pictures from the exercise...


General Forecaster Jane Marie Wix (left) and Senior Forecaster Chuck Greif (right) briefing the team.


Johnson County Emergency Management Director Gary McClure gives feedback to the group about the briefings.	KYTC District 10 PIO H.B. Elkins explains how our forecast impacts the district's operations.

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Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

NWS Jackson Trains with Our Partners During Winter Season Training Day