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Guymon to have up-to-minute weather reports
Guymon Herald, Guymon, Oklahoma. July 11, 1997. Linda Holbert, Managing Editor
Guymon now has OK-FIRST which will provide up-to-the-minute weather information for Texas County.
OK-FIRST is Oklahoma's First Response Information Resource System using Telecommunications and is designed to place critical weather information in the hands of Emergency Management officials (formerly Civil Defense).
The program is a computer linkage between Guymon and the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma using resources of Oklahoma's new OneNet system.
The system was introduced at the city council meeting Wednesday by City of Guymon's Emergency Management official Dennis Moore.
The weather data is provided through a combination of 14 NEXRAD Doppler radars located in and around the state, the Oklahoma Mesonet - a statewide network of 114 automated observing stations, plus important details from the latest computer forecast models of the atmosphere.
Delivery of this information will speed responses to severe weather, range fires, hazardous material spills and other weather-related emergencies.
"As a result of this," Moore said, "emergency management managers in Oklahoma have been equipped with new informational technology that is second-to-none worldwide."
Moore was one of twenty-two emergency managers from across Oklahoma recently who participated in a unique educational outreach program at OU.
OK-FIRST was funded through a $549,910 grant from the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program, and agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Matching funds for the program were donated by OU, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and Unisys Weather Information Services of Kennett Square, P.A.
Participants were chosen through a competitive process from over 65 applicants.
The program will enable Moore to provide more extensive knowledge to the 20 weather spotters in the area every time severe weather or the hint of severe weather approaches.
"We can determine the vortex of tornadoes, dewpoint, cloud direction, moisture content of the air, the dryline and we can track snow storms in the winter," Moore said.
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