[Kevin Deitsch]
Good morning, everyone. This is the National Weather Service, Saint Louis
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
A WEATHER UPDATE FOLLOWING A NATURAL DISASTER.
WHEN COMMUNITIES EXPERIENCE EXTREME WEATHER… IT’S THESE REGIONAL OUTPOSTS THAT WORK EVERY DAY TO SERVE THE PUBLIC. THE NWS IS A BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION OR NOAA. IT’S ALSO A BRANCH THAT HAS SEEN SIGNIFICANT CUTS UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION.. AND WITH RECENT SCRUTINY OVER THE ABILITY OF FORECASTERS TO DO THEIR JOBS, ESPECIALLY AFTER DEADLY FLOODING IN TEXAS – WE WANTED TO SEE WHAT KIND OF WORK GOES ON AT A LOCAL OFFICE. AND MEASURE WHAT IMPACT THEIR WORK HAS ON THE COMMUNITY.
THESE IMAGES ARE WHAT KEVIN DEITSCH (DIE-TCH) AND THE REST OF THE STAFF AT THE ST. LOUIS REGION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DID NOT WANT TO SEE. THEY ARE THE IMAGES FROM AN F3 TORNADO THAT RIPPED THROUGH THE CITY ON MAY 16TH.
[Kevin Deitsch]
“It’s sobering you know. It’s something you don’t want to see… but at the same time we’re saving lives.”
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
ON THE DAY OF THE STORM, IT WAS ALL HANDS ON DECK… THAT MEANS ALL 25 EMPLOYEES PLAYED A ROLE IN WARNING THE COMMUNITY. THIS MEANS TWO SETS OF EYES ON EACH KEY POSITION: RADAR, WARNING SYSTEMS, FLOOD STAGES, COMMUNICATION WITH THE MEDIA… JUST TO NAME A FEW.
[Kevin Deitsch]
“It’s really important to have two people to check each other and make sure that we’re not missing anything and other big pieces is when we actual draw warnings.”
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
IT ALSO MEANS THESE SAME INDIVIDUALS VENTURED OUT AFTER THE STORM TO SEE THE DESTRUCTION LEFT BEHIND. IT’S MEMBERS OF THE NWS THAT TOUR THE DEVASTATION TO RATE THE DAMAGE LEVEL THAT CAN ULTIMATELY LEAD TO GOVERNMENT AID.
[Kevin Deitsch]
Just seeing places that you’ve been in areas that you used to be around are just devastated.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
STORM WARNINGS AND SURVEYS ARE A LARGE PART OF WHAT THE METEOROLOGISTS DO AT REGIONAL OFFICES, BUT IT’S NOT ALL.
[Kevin Deitsch]
main things that we do kind of day to day routine, we are what we call terminal, airdrome, forecast or tasks. Airport forecast for simplicity.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
THAT’S SIX AIRPORTS IN THE ST. LOUIS REGION THAT RELY ON THE DATA SHARED FROM THIS WEATHER STATION.
[Kevin Deitsch]
planes need a lot of information from the weather to the filling, right? So, you know, wind direction at night affects a lot runways.
Typically they want to land into the wind. And so they want to know visibility or they’ll be able to see you. Right. They want to know how low those clouds are, how well that column is. And so it’s a big piece of our job to give them that information. So we do this, these airport forecasts every six hours.
For Lambert Events, International Airport, a lot more traffic. We do their forecast for three hours.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
THE SUMMER MONTHS ARE PARTICULARLY BUSY.
[Kevin Deitsch]
you see here is a little box. Those are what we call our DSS or decision support service. And that’s, and what those are, are people in the community, public safety officials that asked us to kind of keep a weather watch on all those events for the day.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
ALL OF THOSE LITTLE DOTS ARE AN OUTDOOR EVENT WHERE PUBLIC SAFETY IS IN PLAY.
[Kevin Deitsch]
you might be at a concert, have no idea that the National Weather Service is involved. We’re keeping an eye on it, you know, here from the office, which is very cool.
So, the larger events we try to set aside a meteorologist, actually be on site sitting with public safety officials, to help them watch the weather and let them know that, hey, there’s a storm coming in, and we might want to think about evacuating those.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
THEY CAN MAKE THE WARNINGS AND HOPE THEY WILL BE HEEDED. AS WAS NOT THE CASE ON JULY 4TH IN TEXAS WHEN THE WEATHER SERVICE ISSUED A WARNING 90 MINUTES BEFORE THE FLOOD… YET IT WAS IGNORED
THE WEATHER SERVICE PRESENCE IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT THE WEATHER…
[Kevin Deitsch]
we will actually do hazmat support.
So you think of, you know, if there’s a chemical spill or, you know, there’s like an acid, God forbid, leaking into the atmosphere, we can provide first responders with a plume of where that’s going to go, and not just where it’s going to go now, but for first responders. And they’re trying to figure out where to evacuate.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
WE ASKED DEITSCH WHETHER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COULD EVENTUALLY TAKE OVER. WHILE SOME AUTOMATION IS ALREADY IN USE, HE SAYS IT’S THE HUMAN JUDGMENT THAT MATTERS MOST… LIKE COORDINATING WITH ROAD CREWS DURING A SNOWSTORM, OR DECIDING WHEN TO CALL IN THE NATIONAL GUARD FOR DISASTER CLEANUP. THOSE AREN’T DECISIONS A-I CAN MAKE FROM DATA ALONE. A-I ALSO CAN’T SEND UP A WEATHER BALLOON… COLLECT THE DATA… THEN DECIDE WHAT PIECE OF THE WEATHER PUZZLE FITS INTO A FORECAST. A-I SIMPLY SPITS OUT DATA.
[Kevin Deitsch]
we rely so much on our, our partners, our TV meteorologists to convey that information for us, but we’re kind of the ones in the background, you know, diagnosing the radar using the scientific research knowledge that we have to put those warnings out and, and really try to find that balance of not
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
WITH ALL OF THESE LEVELS OF PUBLIC SERVICE, STARTING SALARY? 30 GRAND. THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO MAKE SURE YOUR PLANES TAKE OFF SAFELY TOP OUT AT 100-THOUSAND. SO WHY DO THEY DO IT?
[Kevin Deitsch]
I’m. I’m blessed in the sense that I’ve known I’ve wanted to be around since I was six years old.
This is not a job. This is a passion. It’s a calling.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
CONGRESSMAN MIKE FLOOD OF NEBRASKA IS AMONG A COALITION ON CAPITOL HILL WORKING TO PROTECT THE JOBS OF THOSE WORKING IN PUBLIC SAFETY.
[MIKE FLOOD]
it’s a core public safety function of the United States government. It is one of the most trusted agencies by Americans, in this era of very divisive, divisive issues.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
WHICH IS WHY CONGRESSMAN FLOOD WANTS TO MAKE SURE THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND IT’S PARENT… NOAA… NOT ONLY RECEIVE A DISTINCTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY… BUT ALSO STAY A PART OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
[MIKE FLOOD]
“If you were to privatize this, think about how, we’d have trouble with accountability because what the National Weather Service does is it ripples through aviation.”
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
IN JUNE, THE CONGRESSMAN INTRODUCED THE “WEATHER WORKFORCE IMPROVEMENT ACT… A BIPARTISAN BACKED BILL THAT GRANTS THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE THE ABILITY TO HIRE POSITIONS BASEDON THE NEED FOR PUBLIC SAFETY.
[MIKE FLOOD]
the act basically classifies them as public safety, and it will go a long way to give the agency more options, to maintain its workforce when, when a federal, buyout or, job cuts are looming, as directed by the executive branch.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
A COMMITMENT THE CONGRESSMAN IS WILLING TO STAND UP FOR.
[MIKE FLOOD]
we take accurate weather forecasting for granted, because we’ve had it so good for so long, and we’ve even let some of our radar systems kind of, you know, fall into disrepair. We need to make sure we’re investing. We have the best radar and we have the best, technology.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
AND THE PEACE OF MIND THAT THE PEOPLE PREDICTING STORMS WHILE WE SLEEP AT NIGHT HAVE A PASSION TO PROTECT.
[Kevin Deitsch]
There are still people my age that don’t know what they want to do for a living. I’ve known since I was a kid. So I get to do my hobby as a job. It’s pretty awesome.
[CRAIG NIGRELLI]
HOUSE REFERENDUM 3809 CURRENTLY SITS IN THE HOUSE- SCIENCE, SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AND SERVICES THEY PROVIDE, DOWNLOAD THE STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS APP.
