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 Previous: Working AO-51 Calls for Courtesy, Common Sense |  Next: The Amateur Amateur: Net (Controller) Quake |
 The predicted track of Hurricane Frances as of 0000 UTC on September 1. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 31, 2004--The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) has announced plans to activate on 14.325 MHz at 1200 UTC Wednesday, September 1, in response to the threat now posed by Hurricane Frances. The dangerous Category 4 storm is forecast to be near the Turks and Caicos Islands by midday Wednesday, September 1. The National Hurricane Center forecast as of 0000 UTC on September 1, reported Frances 150 north of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and 315 miles east-southeast of Grand Turk Island.
"Unfortunately, the forecast track takes it squarely over San Salvador, Cat Island, Eleuthera, Great Abaco, and Grand Bahama islands by Friday evening, with possible landfall later in the weekend along the US Atlantic Seaboard," HWN Manager Mike Pilgrim said Tuesday evening. The National Weather Service indicates that Frances could make landfall in Southern Florida on Saturday.
Frances was packing sustained winds near 140 MPH with higher gusts and moving toward the west-northwest at nearly 15 MPH. Forecasters say if the storm maintains its present course, it will pass near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Southeastern Bahamas during the next 24 hours. A hurricane warning was up for those locations as of 0000 UTC September 1.
Pilgrim says the HWN plans to remain in operation until 0300 UTC on September 2 and repeat that operating schedule on September 3.
 A view of Hurricane Frances as seen earlier this week from the International Space Station. [NASA Photo] |
"Net operations on Saturday will be determined late in the week, depending on requirements expressed in the ensuing advisories," Pilgrim said. "We ask assistance from the Intercontinental Net and the Maritime Mobile Service Net (14.300 MHz) to please inform persons in the affected to come to the HWN net frequency with their inquiries and/or offers of measured, observed weather data, which will be of interest to the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami."
During hurricanes and severe weather emergencies, trained HWN members work in cooperation with WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center to provide observed or measured weather data and damage reports via Amateur Radio for relay to forecasters. The ground-level weather data assist NHC forecasters in predicting a storm's path and behavior. WX4NHC also gathers similar data via the Internet from non-Amateur Radio sources. The HWN also provides essential communication support to WX4NHC, which disseminates storm updates via the HWN.
The Hurricane Watch Net activated briefly earlier in the week in response to Tropical Storm Gaston. Although that storm did not become a hurricane, it did cause severe flooding and power outages in parts of the Carolinas and in Virginia.
| Previous: Working AO-51 Calls for Courtesy, Common Sense | Next: The Amateur Amateur: Net (Controller) Quake |
