Sub-Regional Forecaster produces forecasts for the Gulf of Pascagoula

Action sequence:

·        Conducted Sunday and Wednesday nights

·        Forecasts cover two-hour periods and are updated every few hours

·        Are just for point-to-point flights and involve weather over four areas--West, East, Local, and North Gulf.

·        (Produce 24 hour forecast for north and south Gulf, and a 72 hour outlook)

What supports the action sequence? 

What is the needed information?

Flight Weather Briefer using Microsoft Access.

Front Page Express and usual tools for forecasting: Sat, models, three day forecast. Models are more for reference.

Flight-level winds, sky conditions, Sat, charts, models, temperatures, seas.

The SOP is in hardcopy and is available on the web.

What is good or useful about the support and the depiction of needed information?

·        The briefs are not "official," but saves effort in having to do on the order of 800 DD-175-1s.

·        Good standard operating procedures support.

·        Front Page Express is easy to use with little training needed.

·        This and internet is good for providing information remotely.

·        They used to have to drive to Pascagoula to deliver the forecasts, then they sent via email and telephone.  Now, they can put the information on the web.

What about the support or information depiction makes the action sequence difficult?

·        Sometimes it does not make it to the home page. 

·        You have to put the forecast in a text file and ftp it to the home page.

·        The SOP is clear on how to do this, but it is somewhat cumbersome.