Identification

Title

Use of information by National Weather Service forecasters and emergency managers during CALJET and PACJET-2001

Abstract

Winter storms making landfall in western North America can generate heavy precipitation and other significant weather, leading to floods, landslides, and other hazards that cause significant damage and loss of life. To help alleviate these negative impacts, the California Land-falling Jets (CALJET) and Pacific Land-falling Jets (PACJET) experiments took extra meteorological observations in the coastal region to investigate key research questions and aid operational West Coast 0-48-h weather forecasting. This article presents results from a study of how information provided by CALJET and PACJET was used by National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and forecast users. The primary study methodology was analysis of qualitative data collected from observations of forecasters and from interviews with NWS personnel, CALJET-PACJET researchers, and forecast users. The article begins by documenting and discussing the many types of information that NWS forecasters combine to generate forecasts. Within this context, the article describes how forecasters used CALJET-PACJET observations to fill in key observational gaps. It then discusses researcher–forecaster interactions and examines how weather forecast information is used in emergency management decision making. The results elucidate the important role that forecasters play in integrating meteorological information and translating forecasts for users. More generally, the article illustrates how CALJET and PACJET benefited forecasts and society in real time, and it can inform future efforts to improve human-generated weather forecasts and future studies of the use and value of meteorological information.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7zw1m4d

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2007-06-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2007 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-17T17:01:46.599213

Metadata language

eng; USA