Preparing and communicating forecasts of high-impact weather information using GIS and mashup technologies

National Weather Service weather forecast information has always been available to users in a variety of data formats. The diversity of data formats available mirrors the diversity of users the NWS serves its mission to. As computing and Internet mapping technologies have steadily advanced, the ability to deliver and communicate NWS weather forecast information in new formats has also steadily advanced. These advances, combined with the increased availability of weather forecast information in gridded formats, makes it easy to use tools, like desktop GIS platforms, to prepare datasets of high-impact weather. Server-based GIS platforms can then serve these datasets to be consumed by hungry NWS users. Web-based mapping technologies can ingest these grid-based NWS data services so that they can easily be communicated and “mashed up” using geospatial display tools available and increasingly familiar to large segments of NWS users.

The focus of this presentation will be on sharing examples of how specific NWS forecast weather information are processed and prepared using GIS desktop and server tools, and made available as consumable geospatial services. I will show examples of how these weather forecast information services, when combined with other base datasets in mashups, can facilitate the communication of past, present, and future high-impact weather events.