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NOAA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES HELP EVERYONE —INCLUDING SANTA —
DURING THIS BUSY HOLIDAY SEASON

The National Weather Service Kansas City/Pleasant Hill, Missouri, office was not spared from the recent winter storm.December 21, 2006 — NOAA has a variety of products and services that are especially useful during the holiday season. Holiday travelers can obtain critical weather information from the NOAA National Weather Service to help ensure a safe and efficient journey. NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards units can alert you when threatening conditions arise and make great gifts for your friends and family. The NOAA North Pole Web cam and Arctic theme page provide insight as to what it is like at the North Pole. NOAA even predicts which parts of the country are likely to have a white Christmas. NOAA also helps the North American Aerospace Defense Command (also known as NORAD) track Santa en route on Christmas Eve.

Holiday Weather Information for Travelers
Travelers, including Santa, need to be updated on the weather conditions during their travels this busy holiday season. Whether you are traveling by land, water or air, NOAA has the weather products and services you need to stay informed — and safe.

Most people are familiar with NOAA weather products and services pertaining to the land and sea, but did you know that NOAA also provides aviation weather information and forecasts as part of the National Airspace System. The NOAA National Weather Service collects meteorological data, supplies the Federal Aviation Administration with aviation weather forecasts and warnings, and supports air commerce through the collection and dissemination of aircraft/pilot reports.

View of the P-3's cockpit in action.Each day of the year, weather conditions can delay or cancel flights across the country. Economic losses due to aviation delays caused by weather are estimated at more than $1 billion per year. Therefore, timely and accurate aviation weather warnings and forecasts are critical to the protection of life and property. Fortunately, the NOAA National Weather Service uses a combination of advanced technology and skilled meteorologists to develop aviation weather products (forecasts, warnings and analysis) for flight operations in the United States, and global coverage for higher altitude air traffic around the globe — including Santa’s journey across many parts of the globe on Christmas Eve.

The NOAA National Weather Service issues an average of nearly 4,000 aviation weather forecasts each day, including both airport (terminals) and en route flight forecasts. Additionally, NOAA meteorologists, positioned at 21 FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers across the country, provide in-person weather guidance to air traffic controllers whenever threatening weather conditions occurs.

The Alaska Aviation Weather Unit issues forecasts and warnings for Alaska and portions of the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean, extending to the North Pole and a large area of northeast Russia. It is likely that Santa will be seeking critical weather from the AAWU before he leaves the North Pole on Christmas Eve.

An assortment of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards.NOAA Weather Radio: An Essential Item On Every Holiday Wish List
Shoppers scurrying for holiday gifts are encouraged to purchase a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards unit for everyone on their list. A wide variety of NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards units can be purchased for $40 to $70 dollars at many electronics and department stores or via the Internet from many online merchants.

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards units provides immediate 24/7 broadcasts of weather warnings and civil emergency messages to give those in harm's way critical lead time to respond and remain safe. These messages include tornado warnings, flood warnings, Amber Alerts, chemical spill notifications and many others. NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards units also provide up-to-the-minute routine weather information to help you plan your holiday activities.

If you decide to purchase a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards unit, NOAA recommends that you look for one with a Public Alert logo and/or the following features:

  • Tone Alarm: An Emergency Alert System tone precedes each emergency message to gain a listener's attention (even when the radio’s volume is turned off). This is especially critical when severe weather strikes at night when most people are sound asleep.
  • Size: Units are small (about the size of a clock radio) and require little space on a nightstand or table.
  • Battery Backup: A battery backup (and a connection for an external antenna) ensures continued service should the power go out.
  • Customization: Models featuring SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) technology can be programmed to sound only alerts for desired areas.
  • Portability: Units can travel (vacations, relocations) and broadcast the signal received from the nearest transmitter—more than 950 transmitters cover most of the United States and its territories.

"Public Alert" receivers and other select units also can accommodate connections for external alerting devices for the hearing or visually impaired, including strobe lights, pagers or bed shakers.

"NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is a critical beacon that warns of potentially life-threatening weather and human-caused events," said Brig. Gen. David L. Johnson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), director of the NOAA National Weather Service. "NOAA Weather Radio is of value throughout the year. It is truly a gift that will keep giving."

Sun low in the sky as Fall Equinox approaches.NOAA’s North Pole Cam and Web Site
The NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory’s North Pole Web cam site, has offered live images of the North Pole for most of the year since April 2002 (the Web cams operate from April to October and are redeployed each spring, following the Arctic’s winter darkness.)

"The images from the Web cam track the North Pole snow cover, weather conditions and the status of the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory's North Pole instrumentation, which includes meteorological and ice sensors that can be seen in the camera images," said James Overland, head of the NOAA North Pole Project. Real-time data from the instruments you see in the photographs is available on the North Pole Weather Data page and from the North Pole Environmental Observatory Web site. Overland added that some of the camera's configurations — zoom, frequency of photos and other settings — can be easily changed remotely from the NOAA PMEL.

A harbor seal on glacial ice.The NOAA North Pole Web Cam is part of the North Pole Environmental Observatory, a joint National Science Foundation-sponsored effort by NOAA, the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington, the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Oregon State University and Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

The North Pole, a vast, ice-covered ocean — surrounded by treeless, frozen ground — teems with life, including organisms living in the ice, fish, marine mammals, birds, land animals and indigenous human societies. The Arctic has many natural resources that could be exploited for economic benefit. Crude oil, gold and industrial metals, and diamonds are being extracted, yet much of the Arctic's potential for natural resources remains unknown. To find out more, go to the NOAA Arctic Theme Page.

Map showing Probability of a White Christmas.Will You have a White Christmas?
What is the probability of a white Christmas in your area? It's an age-old question that occurs to almost everyone this time of the year.

The NOAA National Climatic Data Center — the world’s largest reservoir of archived climate and weather data — created a report containing maps and tables showing the percent probabilities for a snow depth of at least one inch on Christmas morning, as well as the probabilities for a depth of at least five inches and 10 inches. These probabilities are based on long-term climatology and not on current weather patterns. (Click on NOAA image above right for a larger view of the map showing the historical frequency of a snow depth of at least one-inch on Christmas Day. Please credit “NOAA.”)

The actual conditions may vary widely from these probabilities. The snow on the ground or snowfall on Christmas day will depend on the actual weather pattern during that time. These probabilities are useful as a guide only to show where snow on the ground is more likely. To obtain the latest weather forecast for your area, contact the NOAA National Weather Service.

Locations with the highest probability for at least one inch snow depth in the continental United States include Marquette Mich., Sault Ste Marie Mich., Hibbing Minn., International Falls Minn., and Stampede Pass Wash. The full report, with state by state probabilities, is available from the NCDC Web site.

NOAA photo of Center Moriches, New York, (Eastern Long Island), during the Dec. 30, 2000 snow storm.More NOAA snow depth and snow cover information can be found at the following Web sites:

  • NOAA’s United States Snow Climatology contains information on snow climatology projects, as well as national and state snow extremes.
  • NOAA's U.S. Snow Monitoring Page contains maps, recent and historical snow fall/depth information, as well as daily snow fall/depth information.
  • NOAA’s U.S. Snow Cover Page is where the NOAA Climate Prediction Center provides maps, graphs and data for weekly and monthly snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere based on satellite data, as well as daily snow depth and snowfall (most recent seven days) data files for the nation.
  • Image 785 of "Studies among the Snow Crystals ... " by Wilson Bentley, "The Snowflake Man." From Annual Summary of the "Monthly Weather Review" for 1902. Bentley was a bachelor farmer whose hobby was photographing snow flakes.The NOAA National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center estimates snow cover properties with data collected by airborne, satellite and ground-based sensors. Information includes aerial extent of snow cover and snow water equivalent.

Other NOAA Snow Resources
Speaking of snow, ever wonder what snow flakes looks like through a microscope? Check out NOAA’s Historical National Weather Service Photo Collection and see for yourself. It contains snowflake images taken by Wilson Bentley (also known as “the Snowflake Man”) from his "Studies Among the Snow Crystals," which appeared in the Annual Summary of the "Monthly Weather Review" in 1902. Also included in the NOAA Online Photo Library are illustrations of snow crystals as observed and drawn by William Scores and Winter Storm images.

Miniskirts were in style then, but not the best for a snowy, windy night. 16 inches of snow slows the frenetic pace of Manhattan.To learn more interesting facts about snow, visit the NOAA “All About Snow” Web page. This Web site was developed to provide you with a wealth of information about snow, including a snow question and answer section, fun facts and a snow gallery containing more historic photos of blizzards and snow from the National Weather Service. The site even features an article entitled “Have Snow Shovel, Will Travel,” which chronicles snow removal activities in the United States from the 1700 to the present.

NOAA also has four questions of the month that address snow related issues:

NOAA GOES Satellite.NOAA to Aid NORAD In Tracking Santa Claus Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve every year, NOAA helps the North American Aerospace Defense Command monitor weather conditions and track Santa’s journey across the globe. One of the many ways NORAD tracks Santa is by using data from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service’s two Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. Because these satellites stay at a fixed spot on and provide a complete view of the Earth's surface, GOES are ideal for monitoring large-scale environmental phenomena (i.e., meteorology, hydrology and oceanography) and search and rescue efforts. Most satellite images seen on the nation’s broadcast media and The Weather Channel are produced by GOES satellites. Usually, the infrared images they gather are "animated" to show the progression and movement of storms. On Christmas Eve however, the infrared sensors onboard these satellites also pick up the heat radiation off of Rudolph's red nose, thus allowing NOAA to assist NORAD in tracking Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve.

Relevant Web Sites
MARINE SERVICES PROVIDED BY NOAA's NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

NOAA WEATHER RADIO ALL HAZARDS: ON ALERT FOR ALL EMERGENCIES

NOAA LOOKS BACK AT WHITE CHRISTMASES OF THE PAST

NOAA's AVIATION WEATHER SERVICES

NEW NOAA WEB SITE PROVIDES FAA WITH MONTH-BY-MONTH ANALYSIS OF THUNDERSTORMS

NEW REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM DETECTS HAZARDOUS IN-FLIGHT ICING CONDITIONS IN CLOUDS

NWS Aviation Weather Forecasting Critical To Air Flight Safety

Aviation Weather Center (PDF)

NOAA LOOKS BACK AT WHITE CHRISTMASES OF THE PAST

NOAA'S EYES IN THE SKY KEEP TABS ON THE EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT

Media Contacts:
NOAA National Weather Service Public Affairs, (301) 713-0622, Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 x 181, John Leslie, NOAA Satellites and Information, 301-713-1265