Year 2000 (Y2K) Data Analysis and Contingency Planning to Ensure Continued International Weather Data Receipt at the National Weather Service into the New Millennium

The National Weather Service (NWS) conducted a series of integrated Year2000 (Y2K) end-to-end tests with its partners and customers. This testing was successfully concluded on March 31, 1999, and as a result NWS was able to certify the Y2K compliance of all its mission critical systems. Subsequently, the NWS turned its attention to the Y2K readiness of its international weather partners. The NWS developed a qualitative data analysis model to aid in assessing risks for international weather data receipt at the NWS Telecommunication Gateway. Since the receipt of international data is vital as input to meteorological models, the intent of the data receipt model was primarily to aid the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in assessing what contingencies for data outages would need to be developed to assure continued viability of the numerical weather models. The inputs to that model included information from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, the International Telecommunications Union, the International Civil Aviation Organization, as well as data from a Federal Communications Commission report on the Y2K status of international telecommunications. The use of the model was intended to aid the NWS in it's Y2K contingency planning and was not intended to embarrass any nation's meteorological service.

In addition to the development of this model, the NWS was also a prime participant in a number of WMO meetings and workshops specifically addressing the Y2K issue. The intent of this involvement was to develop guidance for national meteorological services on the development and implementation of national Y2K contingency plans. In addition the NWS was involved in the development of an international near-real-time monitoring and contingency plan that was designed to specify the actions to be taken in the event of various system failures with particular attention devoted to telecommunications and rectifying possible problems with missing weather data.