NWS Las Vegas Dashboards for Situational Awareness and Mesoanalysis

Situational awareness (SA) plays a vital role in the day-to-day operations within a National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office. Meteorologists must maintain awareness not only of current weather conditions across their County Warning Area, but also the status of routine and hazard products, social media notifications, and incoming information from both NWS and non-NWS partners. In order to facilitate this, the NWS in Las Vegas has developed an SA Dashboard which combines data from these sources into a single, easy-to-use interactive display. This gives users access to dozens of datasets, tools, and resources at their fingertips. Criteria-based highlights and optional audio alerts aid in drawing user attention to the most critical data elements. Additionally, users have the ability to customize two of the display panes within page, allowing them to better focus on their specific role, whether that be aviation, fire weather, hydrology, verification, etc. The page has been exceptionally well received and is now utilized by the entire operational staff. Momentum from this project also led to the development of a Mesoanalyst Dashboard which combines resources from the Storm Prediction Center, local observations and other weather data resources into a single page meant to assist the mesoanalyst in describing the current and forecast mesoscale conditions in a severe weather environment. This presentation will give a brief tour of the dashboards as well as some of their features and benefits.