KC0BXH
Northern Hills Amateur Radio Club
Lead SD

Our EMWIN station is up and running!

EMWIN stands for Emergency Management Weather Information Network.

This is, as far as we can determine, the first system in South Dakota. EMWIN is a system that allows all forms of weather related information to be downloaded direct from satellite. The information includes NEXRAD radar data, watches and warnings, storm system movement and so on. One person even said "We could probably get the heat signature from a South American swamp rat with this!"  That may be stretching things, but the amount of information is amazing.

Why did we feel the need for this system?

Good question. We are only about 50 miles from the NWS office in Rapid City, SD. But the difference in climates is amazing. We can be sunny and 50 degrees in the winter, and it can be foggy and 20 degrees in Rapid City. The reverse can also be true. One storm dumped 110 inches of snow on us in the northern BLack Hills, while Rapid City only recieved an inch, and had sunshine for most of the duration.

While it is true that this information is available on the internet, you have to use phone lines to use the internet, and that has been a source of concern in the Black Hills area. Between lines to an ISP being used for people camping on the lines for email, to local and statewide outages caused by construction or computer glitches, we thought this was a more prudent way to go.

That and we are a bunch of weather nuts!

Here is an article about the system that was in the Black Hills Pioneer:
 

Emergency weather center up and running in Lead

By SCOTT RANDOLPH
Staff Writer

Weather in the Northern Hills can change as quickly as the blink of
an eye causing inconvenience at the least and, in an emergency
situation, possible life-threatening consequences.
Flood, blizzards, storms and dangerous fire conditions are only a
few of the situations that effect emergency personnel creating the
need for the best and latest weather information available as they
help and protect the public.
To combat the fickle attitude of Mother Nature, the Lead
Volunteer Fire Dept. and Northern Hills Amateur Radio Club are in
the process of putting together an extensive emergency weather
monitoring station.
Already up and running is an EMWIN (Emergency Management
Weather Information Network) satellite fed data system that allows
an information feed directly to the Lead Fire Dept. offices of the
latest National Weather Service forecasts, watches, warnings, and
images.
The satellite dish and equipment to decode the data into a computer
in the Fire Hall were provided by the Radio Club.
“We are downloading, in real time, the very latest information from
the Weather Service allowing us to keep track of quickly changing
weather conditions either in an emergency situation or during
weather conditions that could, all by itself, cause an emergency
situation,” said Assistant Fire Chief Jerome Harvey.
Soon to be added to the weather center will be an on-site weather
monitoring station that will add the actual weather information in
Lead to the information available.
This will allow emergency personnel to know exactly what
micro-weather conditions are hitting the local area such as when a
storm front has moved in, is going through or past the area.
“Although the weather information from the Weather Service is
important, nothing can beat knowing exactly what atmospheric
conditions are doing right here, the moment they happen,” said
Harvey.
Plans are in the works to allow all of the weather data collected at
the Fire Hall to be sent over short-wave radio to emergency
workers in the field on a real time basis.
A “packet radio” system is already in place at the Communications
Center at the Fire Hall which is a joint venture of the Radio Club
and the Fire Dept.
With amateur radio operators providing the crucial link in severe
emergencies when other means of communication go down, this
will allow even more information to be shared through out the
region and with operators working directly with professional
emergency personnel in a crisis, explained Harvey.
 

Updated 01-29-00