THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060534
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE HATTERAS LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
When a funding drought hit the National Weather Service earlier this year, federal forecasters shut down the World War II radar that for 40 years has guarded Virginia and North Carolina against approaching hurricanes.
But instead of accepting the government retrenchment, Dare County officials this week will install their own radar monitor that they hope will provide faster and better storm warnings for the Outer Banks and adjacent coastal areas.
``The satellite equipment came in Thursday and we'll go to Cape Hatteras on Friday to get everything working,'' said Tommy Gray, Dare County's data processing manager and computer engineer.
Operating the electronic gear will be Wallace H. Demaurice, a veteran meteorologist who has been in charge of the National Weather Service station at Buxton on Cape Hatteras for nearly two decades.
Before it was bounced out of business for lack of funds, Demaurice's old vacuum-tube radar at Buxton often reached out to put the first finger on threatening Atlantic weather.
``The Dare County commissioners and emergency managers deserve a lot of credit for their foresight in bringing the weather radar monitor to Cape Hatteras,'' Demaurice said Thursday.
The remaining two U.S. forecasters who work for Demaurice at Buxton will be transferred to other jobs this month.
Since the old radar was shut down in February, the often unpredictable Outer Banks climate has been observed by a just-installed Weather Service radar at Newport, west of Morehead City and nearly 80 miles from Cape Hatteras.
``These new WSR-88-D weather radars normally operate either at a 124-mile range or at a 248-mile range,'' said Tom Kriehn, officer in charge of the Newport weather station. ``We lose fine detail on the 248-mile range setting and the curvature of the earth means we see a lot of cloud tops.''
Another new U.S. weather radar in Wakefield, Va., 40 miles west of Norfolk and 140 miles from Cape Hatteras, guards southeastern Virginia and the mainland of northeastern North Carolina.
But when Dare County's new radar monitor goes on line, Demaurice will be able to get the same real-time weather pictures received by the powerful WSR-88-D Doppler radars at Newport and Wakefield.
``Raleigh's radar information will also be available at Buxton,'' said Demaurice.
The radar input from the various weather stations will be provided by a private contractor who, for $1,000 a year, picks up and relays via satellite any weather radar screens that might be desired by county or municipal agencies.
Similar equipment is being installed at major military bases in North Carolina. But Dare County is one of the first civilian communities to utilize combined information from several of the powerful new weather radars.
With only a few keyboard strokes on a computer, Demaurice will be able call up Newport, Wakefield or Raleigh radar screens on his new Buxton monitor.
Dare's emergency management personnel will be stationed in the old Weather Service building permanently, and will help relay emergency information provided by Demaurice.
The new equipment is a radar monitor system, not a transmitter, and it can only display weather pictures painted by the regular Weather Service radars, said Sandy Sanderson, Dare County's emergency management director.
``Wally Demaurice was very helpful - even without a radar - when we were all watching Hurricane Felix,'' said Sanderson. ``With the new monitoring equipment at Buxton, he'll receive the same information at the same time that major U.S. weather stations get it.
``Wally usually knows what those storms are going to do,'' Sanderson said.
Sanderson recently arranged for a surplus computer to be turned over to Kriehn's weather station at Newport to ``provide a weather bulletin board'' for the Outer Banks and northeastern North Carolina.
``It's working well,'' said Sanderson. ``If the forecasters at Newport think we should know about a weather development, they upload the information directly to our county computers. We get the word long before it would come over regular channels.''
In Newport, Kriehn was delighted with the way the weather bulletin board system and the new Dare County radar monitoring plans are developing.
``Whenever we get reports of tornadoes or waterspouts in our area, we'll take a good look - and that picture will be immediately available at Cape Hatteras,'' said Kriehn.
Charles Hartig, Dare County's official spokesman, said the county commissioners wasted no time deciding to install the monitoring equipment and the weather bulletin board when the National Weather Service decided to phase out most of the Buxton operation.
``Weather information can literally mean life or death on the Outer Banks,'' said Hartig. ``In many ways, the new system at Cape Hatteras will be a better source of information than the old equipment.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, Staff
Wallace H. Demaurice, of the National Weather Service office in
Buxton, unpacks a satellite dish to be used at the station.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER FORECASTING RADAR by CNB