Chance For Flurries On Christmas Eve

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The weather should remain generally calm through Friday under mostly cloudy skies, Live Doppler 10 meteorologist Josh Poland said.

Lows will dip to 20 degrees overnight Thursday, under cloudy skies.

On Friday we'll see a high of 30 degrees, Poland said.

We could see flurries overnight on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day and light snow showers through the day on Christmas.

Snow totals should stay generally light, with 1 to 2 inches of light, fluffy snow possible.

Heavier snowfall will stay to the southern portions of the state.

Once the storm system moves east, it could intensify, Poland said.

Temperatures will stay below normal through the middle of next week before warming up a bit as we head toward New Year's Day.

Stay with the Live Doppler 10 weather team and refresh 10TV.com for the latest weather information.

Christmas Emergency,agencies preparing for possible Christmas snow accumulation

Christmas Emergency,

Local emergency officials attended a National Weather Service briefing this afternoon to get information regarding the expected accumulation of snow over the holiday weekend.

According to the NWS, the North Georgia area, as defined through a line north of Rome, Canton and Gainesville, should expect a snow event beginning between 7-9 a.m. Saturday morning. Temperatures will remain above freezing most of the day, so freezing roadways won’t be a problem until 10 p.m. Saturday night.

In the worst case scenario, the area could see 3-6 inches of snow beginning around seven Saturday morning and ending Sunday afternoon. Rome-Floyd County could see some icing on the roadways and overpasses beginning around 10 p.m. Temperatures will not reach above freezing until mid Sunday morning.

Click here to see the National Weather Service website.

The NWS will hold another weather briefing Friday, December 24 at 3 p.m. At such time, local officials will release the most up to date information regarding the snow accumulation.

Scotty Hancock, Director of Floyd County’s Emergency Management Agency, advised residents to be prepared for the possibility of winter weather.

Take the following precautions to provide for the safety and security of their family and property during a winter storm:

Keep your radio or television tuned to a local station to keep informed of current weather conditions and forecasts.

Be prepared at home by keeping adequate supplies: heating fuel, non-perishable food, clean water, flashlights with extra batteries, first aid supplies, extra blankets, and a battery powered radio. A fire extinguisher is also recommended for year-round use, if needed, in your home.

Keep some kind of emergency heating equipment and fuel on hand so you can keep at least one room of your house livable in case your power is off. Keep the room ventilated to avoid buildup of toxic fumes.

Stay indoors as much as possible. If you must go outdoors, dress warm in loose-fitting, layered, lightweight clothing. Your outer garment should be water repellent. Avoid overexertion from walking to get supplies.

Driving conditions might be hazardous, so use precaution while driving.

Read more: RN-T.com - Emergency agencies preparing for possible Christmas snow accumulation

NAVTEX

NAVTEX (Navigational Telex) is an international automated medium frequency direct-printing service for delivery of navigational and meteorological warnings and forecasts, as well as urgent marine safety information to ships. It was developed to provide a low-cost, simple, and automated means of receiving this information aboard ships at sea within approximately 370 km (200 nautical miles) of shore. NAVTEX stations in the U.S. are operated by the United States Coast Guard. There are no user fees associated with receiving NAVTEX broadcasts.

Where the messages contain weather forecasts, an abbreviated format very similar to the shipping forecast is used.

NAVTEX is a component of the International Maritime Organization/International Hydrographic Organization Worldwide Navigation Warning Service (WWNWS). NAVTEX is also a major element of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS). International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) mandated certain classes of vessels must carry NAVTEX, beginning August 1, 1993.

Technical Information

NAVTEX transmissions are also called narrow-band direct printing (NBDP). The transmissions are layered on top of SITOR mode B. SITOR-B is a forward error correcting (FEC) broadcast that uses the CCIR 476 character set. SITOR-B is also used in amateur radio, where it is known as AMTOR-B or AMTOR-FEC. NAVTEX/SITOR/AMTOR broadcasts use 100 baud FSK modulation with a frequency shift of 170 Hz

NAVTEX broadcasts are primarily made on the Medium frequencies of 518 kHz and 490 kHz. The international NAVTEX frequency is 518 kHz[1], and these broadcasts should always be in English. Regional transmission of NAVTEX uses 490 kHz specifically for broadcasts in local languages. It is not used in the U.S.

NAVTEX Marine Safety Information (MSI) transmissions also take place on HF at 4209.5 kHz using FEC mode.

NAVTEX Message Format

NAVTEX messages are transmitted using binary frequency-shift keying (BFSK) at 100 bit/s and a 170 Hz frequency shift. The characters are encoded using the 7-bit CCIR 476 character set and basic error detection is enabled by employing forward error correction (FEC). This is the same format as the SITOR-B (AMTOR) format.

A NAVTEX message is built on SITOR collective B-mode and consists of:

a phasing signal of at least ten seconds

the four characters "ZCZC" that identify the end of phasing

a single space

four characters B1, B2, B3 and B4 (see below)

a carriage return and a line feed

the information

the four characters "NNNN" to identify the end of information

a carriage return and two line feeds

an end of emission idle signal α for at least 2 seconds.

B1 is an alpha character identifying the station, and B2 is an alpha character used to identify the subject of the message. Receivers use these characters to reject messages from certain stations or if the message contains subjects of no interest to the user.

B3 and B4 are two-digit numerics identifying individual messages, used by receivers to keep already received messages from being repeated.

For example, a message containing B1B2B3B4 characters of 'FE01' from a U.S. NAVTEX Station indicates a weather forecast message from Boston MA.

NAVTEX message example:

(phasing signals >= 10 seconds)

ZCZC FE01

(message text ...)

NNNN

(end of message phasing signals for >= 2 seconds before next message)

Start of message

ZCZC begins the message.

Transmitter identity (B1)

This character defines the transmitter identity and its associated coverage area.

Subject indicator character (B2)

The subject indicator character is used by the receiver to identify different classes of messages below. The indicator is also used to reject messages concerning certain optional subjects which are not required by the ship (e.g. LORAN C messages might be rejected in a ship which is not fitted with a LORAN C receiver).

NAVTEX broadcasts use following subject indicator characters:

A Navigational warnings 1

B Meteorological warnings 1

C Ice reports

D Search & rescue information, and pirate warnings 1

E Meteorological forecasts

F Pilot service messages

G AIS messages

H LORAN messages

I Not used

J SATNAV messages (i.e. GPS or GLONASS)

K Other electronic navaid messages

L Navigational warnings - additional to letter A (Should not be rejected by the receiver)

T Test transmissions (UK only - not official)

V Notice to fishermen (U.S. only - currently not used)

W Environmental (U.S. only - currently not used)

X Special services - allocation by IMO NAVTEX Panel

Y Special services - allocation by IMO NAVTEX Panel

Z No message on hand

Note: Receivers use the B2 character to identify messages which, because of their importance, can not be rejected (designated by a 1). The subject indicator characters B, F and G are normally not used in the United States since the National Weather Service normally includes meteorological warnings in forecast messages. Meteorological warnings are broadcast using the subject indicator character E. U.S. Coast Guard District Broadcast Notices to Mariners affecting ships outside the line of demarcation, and inside the line of demarcation in areas where deep draft vessels operate, use the subject indicator character A.

Serial number of message (B3, B4)

These two characters define the serial number of each B2 message type (class). Generally serial numbers start with the numbers '01', however in special circumstances, the numbers begin with '00'. This forces the receiver to print the message.

Time of origin

The time of the transmission of the message is in UTC.

Message text

The full text of the message follows.

End of message

The end of the message is asserted when the characters "NNNN" are received.

NAVTEX Transmission Schedule

Each station identifier has a fixed 10 minute time slot, starting with A at 0000UTC. The time slots are repeated at 4 hour intervals. Within each time slot, a mix of navigation warnings, weather forecasts, ice information and other content may be sent, and this is normally according to a structured plan for that specific station. For example, in the first and third time slot they may decide to transmit navigation warnings, and weather forecasts in the others.

Details of all transmitting stations and their schedules may be found at www.pcnavtex.com

NAVTEX receivers

NAVTEX receivers which are approved for GMDSS contain an internal printer and/or a scrollable display, and cost between $800–$1500. A new generation of NAVTEX receivers intended for non-GMDSS applications such as the recreational community is now entering the marketplace. These receivers include features such as LCD screens and RS-232 output and have a purchase price in the $300–$500 range. In the UK they can be purchased for £115. There are also a number of NAVTEX engines available that do not have any user interface, and just output decoded data in RS-232 format, either as a simple ASCII data stream, or using the NMEA NAVTEX sentences, or their own proprietary protocol.

There are also a number of software packages available allowing messages to be decoded by a PC with a suitable receiver connected to the computer's soundcard. Any general communications receiver capable of audio reception at 518 kHz or 490 kHz single sideband can be used.

NAVTEX via Internet

Some organisations have gateways through which web users can access the NAVTEX bulletins using a browser:

Greece (Hellenic National Meteorological Service HNMS) (click on Maritime Bulletin)

JCOMM official web site provides the marine weather information broadcast via Inmarsat-C SafetyNET

Worldwide NAVTEX messages Messages from live receivers across the world including Japanese language messages

Messages from a live receiver in Suffolk, England.

Messages from a live receiver in Suffolk, England. sent via Twitter!

(source:wikipedia)

Desktop alert

Desktop alerting is a relatively young sector of information logistics, where information is sent to an application that displays its content directly on the user's computer desktop. Typically, the alert is delivered to a client computer from a central provider. The client is either an opt-in software product, for example an RSS reader, or an Enterprise-Class software product in a local area network (LAN). As a workplace tool, desktop alerting can serve as tool for reliable information distribution. Desktop alerting has become popular among administrative, corporate and academic organizations.

Conceptual

A desktop alert is an electronic message sent to computers over a local network or over the internet. Techniques used to deliver the message vary, but the end result is usually the appearance of a message on the end-user's desktop. Each recipient's computer typically has a client application installed and running during the entire user session. Targeting recipients can be accomplished by LDAP/active directory integration in a corporate environment or by subscriptions for private users.

Can be from a commercial or corporate point of view, desktop alerting offers some advantages over email and telephone communication. In many cases, the client application can be configured to start automatically with each user session and often is subject to administrative rights only. This offers the advantage over corporate email solutions, that the recipient doesn't have to take any action in order to be able to receive messages. Compared to telephony, a larger number of recipients can be informed in less time, because messages can be sent instantly to hundreds or thousands of users. These benefits have promoted the use of commercial solutions in companies that need reliable methods of one to one and one to many communication, including in emergency management.

Technical

The centrally composed messages are sent over a computer-network to a client computer. The transport protocol depends on the application. In earlier versions of Windows operating systems, the NET protocol was able to deliver desktop alerts in corporate networks by using the command Net send.

Modern mass-alerting applications use IP based protocols, such as UDP or TCP. The delivery of the message can be accomplished by two methods: PUSH and PULL.

PUSH: A concurrent network connection is established between the involved devices. In case a new message or command must be sent from either device, then the sender can instantly deliver the data. The principal benefit of PUSH is that the delivery can be accomplished at near real-time speed.

PULL: The involved devices establish a temporary connection in a specific interval. In case of an RSS-like service, the recipient queries for new data while the connection is established. Although this method is slower than PUSH, it is very common for services provided over the internet, whereas the PUSH method is the preferred method for services in corporate LANs.

Fields of application

Desktop alerting has several fields of application. Commercial applications can be used to deliver important corporate information, for example important notifications from a Service Desk to users in a corporate network or advertisement to consumers. Desktop alert messages can also be used for important employee communications that need higher message cut-through than email messages or the intranet (for example, an important business announcement or product update). Also very popular are RSS feeds, that deliver information on the recipient's personal interest, e.g. sports or economic news. Another field of application is the delivery of information in emergency management.

(souece:wikipedia))

Winter weather advisory U.S.

Profile Facts- Dec 23, 2010 at 8:51 PM CST

For the latest closings, here for Snowman 6!

Wintry weather will make its way into the region late in the day on Friday (Christmas Eve), prompting a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY for most of Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri. This advisory will go into effect on Noon Friday and continue through Noon on Christmas Day.

While snow showers are expected across all of the area Friday night into Christmas Day, accumulating snow will be more likely along and northwest of the Ohio River. 1-3 inches of snow is expected in the advisory area. An inch or less is expected in areas South of the Ohio River, including the Purchase of Western Kentucky, NW Tennessee, and the Missouri Bootheel.

The Kentucky Department of Transportation has been pre-treating roadways in Western Kentucky in advance of the wintry weather as heavy travel is expected during the holiday weekend. They encourage motorists to allow extra time during inclimate weather.

Stay tuned to Local 6, the Weather Authority, for the latest on local road conditions and forecast updates.

To find out what road conditions are while traveling over the holiday weekend, use the following numbers:

Kentucky: 511 or 1-866-737-3767

Illinois: 1-800-452-4368

Missouri: 1-800-222-6400

Tennessee: 511 or 1-877-244-0065

See also 

Emergency Response centers in United States