National Weather Service
ABRFC - Tulsa, Okla.

158th Committee Meeting
Oct. 28-30, 2008
Catoosa, Okla.

Personnel Changes

John Schmidt, Senior Hydrologist at the ABRFC, has accepted the position of Development and Operations Hydrologist (DOH) at the Southeast River Forecast center (SERFC). John reported for duty at SERFC in early October.

Bill Lawrence, the DOH at ABRFC, has accepted the new position of Service Coordination Hydrologist at the ABRFC. The DOH position at the ABRFC is currently vacant but should be filled soon.

Service Coordination Hydrologist (SCH)

This is a management level position created at each of the RFCs designed to provide a more coordinated and consistent response in assessing customer needs. The SCH will be completely knowledgeable of new science and forecast methods as they become integrated into RFC operations. The SCH will also serve as manager of the RFC outreach programs; managing limited resources effectively to provide maximum impact in fostering relationships between the RFC and cooperating agencies and partners. Such a response methodology should provide for the creation of new products and services to meet these customer needs; and provide for enhanced means to adjust current services and products that fail to meet customer needs. It is the hope of each RFC that the needs of the weather forecast offices (WFOs), cooperating federal agencies, state agency partners, water resource managers, and the general public we serve will be effectively assessed. Communication of this information is essential to the success of the SCH position. The SCH should become a very active liaison for the National Weather Service at inter-agency and inter-jurisdictional meetings. The ABRFC Service Coordination Hydrologist can be reached by email at Bill.Lawrence@noaa.gov or by phone at 918-832-4110, ext. 324.

CHPS/FEWS

The beta testing of a new hardware/software system designed to improve National Weather Service river forecast capabilities is continuing on schedule at the ABRFC. Billy Olsen, the Hydrologist-In–Charge will be presenting more information on this topic during the AWRBIAC Wednesday morning session.

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