Mary Meaux
The Port Arthur News
LAKE CHARLES, La. —
A 1-foot thick wall inside the kitchen at the National Weather Service-Lake Charles is the first indication that its meteorologists are prepared for some of the worst possible conditions.
Farther inside, five work stations — each featuring multiple computer screens — monitoring atmospheric conditions 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
Roger Erickson, warning coordinator meteorologist, points out the three panel graphic display screens and a fourth screen for text alerts covering 16 Louisiana parishes and six Texas counties plus 60 miles offshore.
Erickson has been pretty busy of late visiting business and industry in both states in a bid to bring about awareness to the 2010 hurricane season.
The high-tech equipment panned out thousands of miles to a hemispheric picture of the coast of Africa, the area where tropical disturbances are born.
“There are pros and cons to this,” Erickson said. “Seeing something two weeks ahead, the con is ‘where is it going to go? To the Gulf? The east coast?’”
Under normal conditions, when a disturbance is far from any land mass, updates are made periodically. As the situation changes updates are more frequent and as a storm approaches updates are made every 15 minutes, then every five minutes.
While the forecast coverage area currently experiences drought conditions, a small shower popped up on one of the screens. With swift fingers Erickson zeroed in on an area near Buna, broke down different weather elements and created a projectory. With that information a warning could be issued within one minute had the minor shower turned out to be threatening.
This scenario plays out daily at the NWS and is ramped up when necessary.
