NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (NWS)

An agency of the (U.S. Department of Commerce) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the primary mission of the National Weather Service is to protect life and property and enhance the nation's economy by providing warnings and forecasts of hazardous weather, including thunderstorms, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, winter weather, and tsunamis. The primary customer of the NWS is the private weather industry whose meteorologists receive data and information directly from the NWS and incorporate it into local news reports. The NWS also operates its own radio network; the NOAA Weather Radio is the sole government radio system providing direct warnings of hazardous weather conditions and natural disasters to private citizens through a network of 390 transmitters across the nation. The NWS provides short and long-range forecasts, severe weather warnings, and atmospheric data continually to private weather vendors for a fee using a telephone data transmittal system called Family of Services. NWS Doppler radar data is provided through the NWS NEXRAD Information Dissemination Service (NIDS) and is available from commercial weather vendors under an agreement with the NWS. The NOAA Weather Wire Service is the primary NWS telecommunications network for NWS forecasts, warnings, and other products to the mass media (TV, radio, newspaper) and emergency management agencies. It consists of a satellite communications system operated under contract by GTE/Contel. In a joint effort with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), some 250 NWS manual data collection field offices will be replaced with approximately 1,000 automated data collections sites, termed Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOS), thereby greatly enhancing both the timeliness and frequency of the NWS weather reporting capabilities.