[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 101 (Friday, July 24, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE--OVER 200 YEARS OF FORECASTING, WARNING AND 
                     PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TIM ROEMER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 23, 1998

  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to my colleagues' attention 
the outstanding work of the National Weather Service. Especially during 
this red-hot summer, we should acknowledge the tremendous work of the 
National Weather Service to observe, predict, forecast and warn the 
American people of weather events.
  The National Weather Service, as part of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] of the Department of Commerce, 
utilizes a wide variety of tools, from low-tech to state of the art 
technology to accurately predict and forecast what will happen in our 
skies today, tomorrow, and beyond.
  It was suggested earlier today that the National Weather Service 
doesn't have sufficient records of past weather conditions to be able 
to put this summer's heat wave in proper historical perspective. I 
would like to remind my colleagues that the NOAA has the world's 
largest active archive of weather data. Not only can they tell you what 
the weather was in the 1950's, they can tell you what the temperature 
and conditions were during the early days of the republic.
  How do we now that? The NOAA's National Climatic Data Center has 
Benjamin Franklin's handwritten observations of the heat and humidity 
of a Philadelphia summer over 200 years ago.
  Not only does the NOAA have an incredible store of historical data, 
they are receiving 55 gigabytes of new weather information each day--
the equivalent of 18 million pages a day.
  Armed with this wealth of historical data, and constantly added to 
and refined with the incorporation of new satellite and computer 
information, the National Weather Service creates computer models. 
These models reflect the heritage of past weather systems, to 
accurately forecast tomorrow's weather. So when the National Weather 
Service says its going to be hot tomorrow in South Bend, or Dallas or 
St. Louis, you can count on it.
  I commend the NOAA and the NWS on their outstanding work on behalf of 
the American people.

                          ____________________