SOP Number & Name

2110    TAF Verification

Description

Takes about 2 minutes.  You input your own TAF and verify the previous one.

Who does this procedure?

Forecaster

How often?

Every 6 hours (four times per day) unless the field is closed.

Frequency of reference to the SOP

P has referred to it a couple of times.  Once you've done it a few times, you know it.

Comments

·        Is done on time about 80 percent of the time. 

·        Sometimes you get busy, you get tired. 

·        You forget to check the home page and when you do you see that GOES isn't downloading or something and so you get involved in fixing that.

·        The OPs Assistant looks at the TAF Verifications to prepare the skill scores.

Action sequence: 

·        Prepared every six hours, with a valid interval of 24 hours.

·        Sequence:

·        day watch takes passdown.

·        Forecaster watches satellite loops for progression, movement of up to 8 hours of data.

·        Consider historical data (good for when fog burns off).

·        Looks at 0Z charts for atmospheric stability (enough lift for thunderstorms?).

·        20-30 min before TAF is due, 12Z comes in.

·        Sometimes need to change TAF on that basis.

·        Looks at models - usually 4-6 hrs after analysis time.

·        TAF itself goes into CONTEL Meteorological Workstation - one paragraph of text.

What supports the action sequence? 

What is the needed information?

Charts, Satellite, Radar, upper air soundings, forecast models (especially short-range models),upstream stations and upstream weather, previous 12-24 hours of station data.

Depends on the situation. 12-24 hour data is useful for history - finding a trend. More useful in summer than winter.

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

·        Sat pictures are easy to see - most telling.

·        Difax are B/W and printed and not so good.

·        They are actually better on a high resolution monitor.

·        Meteograms are easy to read but some need dictionary of terms.

·        They are also difficult to read because of color-coding.

·        They are still learning  to read them.

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

·        Timeliness of data, the tendency of data to be inaccurate or interrupted are real problems.

·        Nothing in the work environment informs the FDO that the task needs to be done.