Automating Lightning Notification and Communication at Savannah River Site

The DOE/Savannah River Site (SRS) complex encompasses 310 square miles with a workforce of approximately 11,000 employees involved in diverse, wide-ranging activities. In addition to traditional employees who generally work within one of the many facility areas and in range of standard communication and safety alarm systems, a large number of remote workers within the site boundary who cannot hear an installed safety alarm system must be tracked and informed of conditions which threaten their safety. The Savannah River Site is a NOAA Storm Ready Community and resides across portions of three separate counties within South Carolina, and falls under two separate NWS County Warning Area (CWA) offices, further increasing the complexity of providing accurate information to operations managers who must remain informed of changing weather conditions. With the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Savannah River Site Operations Center (SRSOC) responsibility for tracking remote workers has increased from approximately 2,000 workers per month prior to ARRA, to more than 4,000 workers per month currently. In order to improve accurate and timely dissemination of lightning and severe weather information on site, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) / Atmospheric Technologies Group (ATG) has developed automated notifications based on the proximity of detected lightning strikes, and for the dissemination of National Weather Service (NWS) severe weather watches and warnings which include portions of SRS. Lightning occurrence is not a component of severe weather notifications provided by the NWS, however strikes within SRS can cause significant disruption to site facilities and assets as well as to outdoor related activities. Increased lead times and awareness of changing conditions can benefit site workers who need to safely complete a task, or secure a work site prior to the onset of hazardous weather conditions. Lightning strikes can occur up to 10 miles away from the area where rain is occurring, so dangerous conditions can occur even when rain is not observed at a work site. NOAA statistics show most lightning strike victims are close to safe shelter, but wait too long to get there. The location data of every lightning stroke is tested for occurrence within defined boundaries encircling the site and/or within range of various operational areas. The inclusion of strikes within a polygon boundary is used to determine if a lightning advisory is to be sent. The SRNL system disseminates SRS lightning advisories as well as NWS issued watch and warnings bulletins received via NOAAPORT which are determined to overlap some portion of the site. Communication of weather notifications is accomplished via electronic message and site pager alerts to the SRSOC and directly to remote workers. Hazardous weather events generate a lot of activity which must be accomplished in a timely fashion. Automating the process has reduced notification time significantly while increasing awareness of developing weather hazards. The development and operation of this system as well as investigation of the use of on-site field mill sensors for providing additional lightning warning lead time will be discussed