Winter Full Course Coming Soon
Nov 24, 2009

All of our OK-FIRST Fall workshops have been completed.  We would like to thank all of the OK-FIRST participants who attended! 

Due to overwhelming demand, we are planning a full course at the National Weather Center for this winter.  The course will be held sometime in January or February. We have not determined a date at this time.  If you are interested in taking the full course, or know someone who is, please tell them to frequently check the OK-FIRST website.  We will announce the class on our website and will post online applications for the course as soon as the date is set. 

HAVE A SAFE HOLIDAY SEASON!

Spring 2009 Classes Completed
May 12, 2009

Thanks to all of our OK First participants who attended our classes this spring!  Each class we held was filled to capacity.  Our next class will be a 4-day full course for new agencies offered late this summer.  When the class is finalized, we will list the details here.  Please visit our site frequently for updates concerning classes and software updates. 

Have a safe spring season!!

A Note About Severe Weather Watches
Feb 03, 2008

Since Mother Nature can't decide whether it is winter or spring, I need to pass along a note about severe weather watches.  The National Weather Service has implemented
their "watch by county" approach to issuing severe weather watches.  We cannot display watches by county in the OK-First pages yet.  So, throughout
storm season, you will find watch boxes displayed on OK-First. 

As a result, I strongly urge everyone to read the text of the watches to verify that your county is either within, or out of, the watch.  The traditional watch box may be misleading, as the box may enter into a county that is not technically listed in the watch discussion.

Information is critical in making good decisions.  By reading the text of the watch products, you arm yourself with more information.  Regardless of whether or not you are in a watch, I strongly encourage everyone to read the watch products to learn more about the daily weather threats.

OK-First Full Course
Dec 02, 2007
OK-First will be holding its Full Certification Course from January 14-18. This class will give you access to the OK-First website, training materials, and mesonet data for free. It will also certify you for the next 18 months in the program. The cost of the class and travel will be covered by OK-First.

To apply follow this link.

Application

Winter Weather Interpretation Tips
Nov 30, 2007

With winter weather approaching, don't forget some of your OK-FIRST winter weather tips.

First of all, don't forget that winter weather is a tough forecast and expect it to change often. Keep checking those forecast discussions!

During the event, here are some things you can do to stay informed about precipitation type and intensity:

1. Check the critical thickness plot (the default map on Choose Your Threat: Ice & Snow). On the north/cold side of all those lines, expect precip to fall as snow. On the south side, expect liquid precip to fall from the sky (which will freeze if surface temps are below freezing!). Between all the lines: a mixed bag. (example)

2. Mesonet data is critical. Find the freezing line! Remember that you can use "disappearing wind observations" to see where our wind sensors are freezing up. The sensors are 30 ft off the ground. When our wind observations start grinding down to zero, we are loading ice at 30 ft: so power lines and tree limbs are probably loading ice too.

3. Frozen precip often looks different than liquid precip on radar. Frozen precip often has a smooth or "brushed" texture and lower reflectivities. Liquid precip (rain, freezing rain) is usually more cellular or "mottled" and has pockets of higher reflectivities (example).

4. Snow and ice can stick even when soil temps are in the upper 30s. Bridges and overpasses freeze first!

5. If you came to the fall refreshers, you got a lot of info about soundings. Use the current sounding to help diagnose precip type, but remember, it's usually several hours old and a long way from your local jurisdiction. Use Mesonet data to update the surface temps!

5b. If you are comfortable interpreting soundings for precip type, here is a useful link for forecast soundings.

Remember, the freezing line is critical at the surface as well as aloft in the atmosphere. Use the OK-FIRST winter weather cheat sheet (page 1 | page 2) to help during the winter event. Also, take a look at some examples of freezing rain, sleet and snow soundings in the OK-FIRST Winter Weather Training Materials.

OK-First Website is Moving!
Oct 10, 2007
Starting today, the OK-First website is moving!  The new URL for OK-First will be: 

http://okfirst.mesonet.org
 

For now, the old website will be redirected to the new site.

Please remember to change your bookmarks to reflect this update.  If you experience any problems with the new website, please let us know.

New Web Page Is On Line
Apr 12, 2007

The new OK-FIRST web page and WeatherScope software was released Thursday April 12.

To use the new pages, you'll need to know and do a few things:

1. The old pages will not go away ... they will still be available. You can get to them by selecting "Classic Current Weather" in the "Participant Services" menu (see attached figure). We will not remove the old pages until people stop using them.

2. You will need Version 1.5 of the WeatherScope software to access the new pages ... note that this is not the WxScope Plugin, which you've been using for years. The WeatherScope software will be released with the OK1 web site. You will get to the software through the Download Software link in the Participant Services menu.

3. The new website and software requires more horsepower on your end than the old site. The new software needs Windows 2000 or Windows XP. It will not run on Windows 98. If your machine is more than a couple of years old, you may not be able to use the site effectively without an upgrade. Minimum and recommended specs are listed below.

Again, the existing OK-FIRST web site that you have been using will not go away until people stop using it. If your computer can't keep up with the new pages, the existing pages are still there for you as "Classic Current Data".

For technical help installing and running the software, you can contact us or our Mesonet operators. The contact information is available at "Contact OK1" within the "Participant Services" tab

4. Some of the new software and web site features are:

... a hazards-based menu system, where information is organized by hazard type, not by data type. The menus walk through the hazard process for several different threats (severe wx, fire, flooding, winter). For each threat, there are several tabs with a specialized data arrangement: a "Plan & Prepare" tab helps diagnose the day's threats, a "Monitor Ingredients" tab, a "During Event" tab for real-time action, and an "After Event" tab for documenting the event.

... full integration with OCS's WeatherScope software. WeatherScope brings many improvements to OK1 because it is a much more powerful and flexible visualization tool. For example, you can see radar in its native resolution. Beam broadening is explicitly displayed (no more pixels!). Zooming, scrolling and looping are much smoother now.

... you can now use your entire screen to view weather data. The new layout allows radar images to fill as much real estate as your screen allows.

... several "split-screen" options allow you to simultaneously zoom into two panels (reflectivity and velocity, for example). In other words, as you zoom into reflectivity, the velocity map mirrors your actions. A cursor on the velocity map follows the location of the cursor on the reflectivity map.

... improved situational awareness, with a regional view integrated into all parts of the website.

... the ability to select multiple counties (up to five) for "alert me" functions. In other words, if you are in Delaware County, you can choose it as your "home" county, and add Adair and Sequoyah Counties, plus Crawford and Washington Counties in Arkansas.

... county roads are now available as a layer in many OK-FIRST maps.

... you can now create up to ten "custom" maps and upload them into OK-FIRST. This way, you get the chance to look at custom products that are important to your office, but keep the situational awareness and "alert-me" benefits of the big website.

Minimum Computer Requirements for WeatherScope 1.5:
Minimum system software requirements are Mac OS X version 10.4.9 and Windows 2000. Minimum hardware requirements are difficult to specify. In general, WeatherScope should run on hardware that includes a reasonably capable accelerated graphics card and supports the minimum system software requirements. The browser plugin should work with any web browser that supports the Netscape/Mozilla plugin or Microsoft ActiveX APIs.

Recommended Windows System for WeatherScope 1.5:
- Windows XP
- 1 GB of RAM
- Accelerated graphics card with 64 MB of VRAM
- Firefox 2.0.0.3

Recommended Macintosh System for WeatherScope 1.5:
- Mac OS X version 10.4.9
- 1 GB of RAM
- Accelerated graphics card with 64 MB of VRAM
- Safari 2.0.4

Daylight Savings: Windows Update
Mar 27, 2007
If the clock on your radar data is one hour behind, please check the following:

A. Make sure you have downloaded the latest WxScope Plugin (10.8.5).

B. Make sure you have updated your Microsoft Windows to use the new Daylight Savings Times.

If you have the time, go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com, and run the required security and updates (warning: if you don't update your PC automatically, this might take a LONG time!):

If you don't have the time ...

1. Go to the Microsoft download center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

2. Click on the Windows Security & Updates tab in the left menu

3. Click on the the Daylight Savings Update (#KB931836, it was released 2/7/2007)

4. Click "continue" and follow the onscreen instructions.

(note: the radar data is current, even if your timestamp is an hour behind)

List of Upcoming Courses
Feb 13, 2007
You've probably noticed that we've been busy scheduling recertification workshops and sending out reminder emails. We've tried our very best to provide a number of recertification opportunities this spring, with seven recerts available during the month of April.

We have attached the list of OK-FIRST training opportunities in coming months. Each link should take you straight to the workshop's sign-up page, where there are more details (addresses, times, etc.)

Remember, refreshers are worth 6 hrs of CLEET and OFST credit. Full course is 24 and assistant is 12.

We look forward to seeing you there! And speak of "seeing you there", drop by our booth at the National Severe Weather Workshop March 1-3, 2007!

------
Assistants Course (Norman) Feb 26, 2007
Full Course (Norman) Mar 13, 2007
Refresher Course (Fairview) Apr 02, 2007
Refresher Course (Burns Flat) Apr 03, 2007
Refresher Course (Ponca City) Apr 09, 2007
Refresher Course (Pryor) Apr 10, 2007
Refresher Course (Hugo) Apr 17, 2007
Refresher Course (Ada) Apr 23, 2007
Refresher Course (Norman) Apr 24, 2007

New Webpage & Lots of Refreshers
Jan 30, 2007
We are just days away from beta-testing the new OK-FIRST website, and just a few weeks from releasing it for everybody's use. We're really proud of the design and it will allow you to do a few new things, like select multiple "home" counties, immediately open OK-FIRST maps in a stand-alone tool, upload your own maps. Our favorite new feature allows you to do a side-by-side "cursor tracking" comparison of two different maps ... for example, if you click and zoom on a reflectivity map, a "ghost cursor" in the next window's velocity map will follow along exactly (useful for comparing reflectivity features to velocity features!).

We will schedule at least six refreshers during the month of April. Check the Upcoming Events for the dates of these refreshers.
These will all be "on the road" in regional technology centers. We encourage you to attend, because we'll be going over the new software, the new web pages and a couple of severe weather scenarios. We anticipate heavy participation in these refreshers, and if six isn't enough to meet demand, we will schedule more.

Also, we've scheduled a full course in Norman March 13-16 and an assistants' course in Norman February 26-27.

We hope to see you soon!

Refresher Schedule Underway
Oct 09, 2006
Andy, Nick and I are in the process of scheduling recertification/refresher courses for the rest of the fall. These courses are important to attend because we will be going over the next generation of OK-FIRST web pages. These pages are based on the next generation of OCS visualization software (it's awesome ... like WeatherScope that interacts with your browser).

We will only be able to schedule three or four recerts in the fall because the late move into the National Weather Center pushed back the completion of our classroom. However, we will aggressively schedule recerts in the spring of 2006. Several of them will be here in the NWC and several will be traditional "on the road" workshops.

So, if you are interested in playing with the new software and shaping the direction of the OK-FIRST web pages, please watch the "Calendar" section of the OK-FIRST web site for a recert near you!

Mesonet Operations move notice
Sep 22, 2006

Details Regarding NWC Move
Aug 22, 2006

New Plugin Available
Aug 20, 2006
UPDATE: A new WxScope plugin has been released that allows the viewing of lightning data. Please download plugin version 10.8.1 through the "Download Software" link on the OK1 Particpant Services page:

http://okfirst.ocs.ou.edu/participant_services.php

Due to a change in the Windows XP operating system, some OK1 participants may not be able to see lightning in the plugin. This will especially affect people who automatically download Windows XP Updates.

An updated version of the plugin is being tested right now and should be available within a day or two, perhaps as early as Monday. When it is available, we'll alert you in this space and in the scrolling banner.

IE Changes Plugin Behavior
Apr 18, 2006

From Tom Merrill, Cordell Fire Dept.
Mar 15, 2006

Fire Service Training CEUs Available
Mar 09, 2006

Altus OK1 Office Engaged with Community
Feb 11, 2006
Altus Emergency Management has put together a week of events to help inform their citizens about their role in public safety. Monday the 13th and Tuesday the 14th, will feature live radio appearances on KWHW. They will follow up on Thursday the 16th on KEYB's morning show. Finally, on Thursday evening, Norman WCM Rick Smith will be the headline speaker for their Spring Awareness Program, which is open to the public. Rick will provide a presentation on severe weather including pictures and videos, and will be available for questions afterwards. Hey Jackie, be sure to give OK-FIRST a plug on your many radio appearances!

OK1 Hires New Student Assistant
Feb 07, 2006

USDA Grants for Rural Public Safety
Jan 25, 2006
The USDA Rural Development program announced a round of its Community Facility Loan and Grant program, which is designed to "assist in the development of essential community facilities in rural areas and towns of up to 20,000 in population."

Their primary objective:

"Community facilities such as health care clinics, police, fire stations, voluntary or rural fire departments, schools and child care centers are essential to the quality of life in any rural community. USDA Rural Development is striving to ensure that such facilities are readily available to all rural Americans. The commitment of USDA to this effort is at the core of its mission and its promise to help build stronger, more vibrant rural communities across the nation"

Projects will be selected based on a priority point system. Projects that will receive priority are those that: Serve small communities - with the highest priority going to projects located in a community with a population of 5,000 or less, and are for First Responders, Rural or Volunteer Fire Departments, and Healthcare Facilities.