The importance of web and sky cameras to complement NWS modernization

The National Weather Service (NWS) modernization effort of the 1990's has benefited operational forecasting by providing improved temporal and spatial observational capability. The broadcasting community has welcomed the implementation of the WSR-88D and ASOS programs, but their deployment has nearly eliminated the number of observations made by humans. Trained weather observers provide insight to sky and weather conditions occurring at and beyond the observing site. It is proposed that web and sky cameras can supplement the lack of human observations. The popularity and deployment of this new technology will be reviewed and a case study will be presented in which a mesocyclone was captured by KXJB-TV's sky camera. The case study will also describe how the sky camera supplemented local NWS warnings and how that information was relayed to the community.