Anne Arundel County, Maryland

William E. Smith, W3NWS - Coordinator

Introduction

The purpose of Anne Arundel County Skywarn Subnet is to feed information on weather conditions to The National Weather Service Office in Sterling, VA. Skywarn observers provide "ground-truth" and supplement the data received from Doppler radar and other tools. Although the subnet is responsible for Anne Arundel County, in Maryland, the subnet will accept any storm reports from nearby locales as well.

The main Skywarn net will be activated when severe weather is in the Baltimore-Washington forecast area. The county subnet will be activated only when severe weather is occurring in, or is approaching, Anne Arundel County, so as not to unnecessarily tie up the local repeaters. The subnet will be activated at the request of The National Weather Service, the Northeast Maryland net manager, or by the county coordinator when severe weather is actually present.

The role of Skywarn is not to provide forecast products to other amateur operators or the general public. There are better channels of communication to provide that information.

Procedures

The Maryland Mobileers 2-meter repeater (146.805+ PL 107.2) is the primary repeater. The Davidsonville 2-meter repeater (147.105+ PL 107.2) of The Anne Arundel Radio Club, along with the north county machine (147.075+ PL 107.2), are used for back-up.

When the net is activated, the net control operator will establish another station as an alternate net control. The net criteria will then be announced and check-ins will be logged. All check-ins will be accepted even if they are untrained and/or unregistered Skywarn observers. The National Weather Service values all observations. Observations are then recorded. The net will be handed off to the alternate net control while the primary reports to The NWS. The alternate will take observations and then report, etc.

Reports to The National Weather Service Office in Sterling, VA, are made directly to the 147.300+ repeater, through AOL Instant Messenger, e-mail, or by telephone.

Weather conditions should be monitored by net control using either TV or the internet. Once severe weather has moved out of the county, the subnet will be closed. If a watch or warning is still in effect for the county, it will be announced that the net may come up again if conditions warrant.

If there is a concurrent ARES or RACES net, Skywarn will be operating as another resource to ARES / RACES with operating more or less in the Report Mode, with ARES / RACES NCS taking the calls and passing them over to the Skywarn NCS.

Observers should not proceed to locations where severe weather is occurring to collect data, nor should they be encouraged to do so.

Reports may also be sent via the WXSpots software. My UID is Bill-W3NWS and the group is MD ANNE ARUNDEL.

Weather Reports

Observers should give their Skywarn ID (if assigned), and location (this includes city AND state, nearest town, road or intersection). Landmarks should not be used as a method of location. Major highways are acceptable. Observers should not check-in if they have nothing to report.

During the summer months, The National Weather Service is interested in the following weather phenomena:

Tornadoes, funnel clouds or rotating wall clouds.
Hail (size in terms of U.S. coins: e.g. dime size, quarter size, etc.)
Wind gusts in excess of 50 m.p.h.
Flooding of streams, creeks or rivers.
Roads or streets that are made impassable due weather conditions
Rainfall in excess of 1 inch/hour as measured in an approved rain gage
Any damage caused by wind or lightning
Downed trees, large branches or power lines

In the winter months, they include the above conditions and:

Wind gusts in excess of 35 m.p.h.
Snow accumulation in inches
Any ice accumulation on trees, streets or power lines
Sleet or freezing rain

Net Control Operators

Any licensed amateur radio operator, with a knowledge of general net operations and Skywarn, may volunteer for net control.

Bruce Becker, N3KNP - Certified Skywarn Observer
Glen Bock, N3USP - Certified Skywarn Observer
Kurt Fritsch, WA3TOY - Certified Skywarn Observer - Skywarn Asst. Coordinator
Chuck Hutchinson, KB3UDJ - Certified Skywarn Observer
Nick Lomangino, N3CK - Certified Skywarn Observer
Bill Riley, N3SNU - Certified Skywarn Observer
William E. Smith, W3NWS - Certified Skywarn Observer - Skywarn Coordinator

NOAA Weather Radio

The following is information for the local NOAA Weather Radio stations:

**Local NOAA Weather Radio Stations**
Location	Call Sign	Frequency
Baltimore (Pikesville), MD	KEC83	162.400 MHz
Manassas, VA	KHB36	162.550 MHz
Sudlersville, MD (Eastern Shore)	WXK97	162.500 MHz
Washington, DC	WNG736	162.450 MHz

**SAME Codes for the Local Area**
Anne Arundel County	024003
Baltimore City	024510
Baltimore County	024005
Calvert County	024009
Charles County	024017
Howard County	024027
Prince Georges County	024033

History

A formal request for the use of The Anne Arundel Radio Club Davidsonville Repeater was made on December 4, 2006.
Formal permission was granted by The Anne Arundel Radio Club for the use of their repeaters on January 29, 2007.
Anne Arundel County Skywarn was activated at 8 AM EDT on September 6, 2008 to take spotter reports during Tropical Storm Hanna.
Skywarn was activated during the evening of June 26, 2009. At 8:37 P.M. EDT, a report of dime to penny sized hail near Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, MD, was received from an amateur radio operator. This was passed on to the NWS Office in Sterling, VA. At 8:42 P.M., Severe Thunderstorm Warning #159 was issued for the area.
In September 2011, the primary repeater was moved to The Maryland Mobileers machine (146.805+ PL 107.2). It was felt that this repeater would better serve the county.