§8550 — Title 15 Commerce and Trade | U.S. Code

Summary

The Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, through the National Weather Service, must improve the Cooperative Observer Program. They must support state-run programs and areas with too few observers, add stations and recruit volunteers, keep stations that have sent data for more than 50 years staffed by volunteers, make automated reporting available to reduce manual work, and provide easy ways to report things that can’t be automated like drought, snow, and hazardous weather. At least every 180 days, the National Weather Service must check in with state and regional offices about the status of observer stations. The Service must also work with other federal agencies — the Forest Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the United States Geological Survey — to grow the network and better use existing stations, equipment, and staff.

Title 15, §8550

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, acting through the National Weather Service, shall improve the Cooperative Observer Program by—

(1)providing support to—

(A)State-coordinated programs relating to the Program; and

(B)States and regions where observations provided through the Program are scarce;

(2)working with State weather service headquarters to increase participation in the Program and to add stations in States and regions described in paragraph (1)(B);

(3)where feasible, ensuring that data streams from stations that have been contributing data to the Program for more than 50 years are maintained and continually staffed by volunteers;

(4)prioritizing the recruitment of new volunteers for the Program;

(5)ensuring that opportunities exist for automated reporting to lessen the burden on volunteers to collect and report data by hand; and

(6)ensuring that integrated reporting is available for qualitative observations that cannot be automated, such as drought conditions, snow observations, and hazardous weather events, to ensure that volunteers in the Program can report and upload observations quickly and easily.

(b)Not less frequently than every 180 days, the National Weather Service shall coordinate with State and regional offices with respect to the status of Cooperative Observer Program stations.

(c)The National Weather Service shall coordinate with other Federal agencies, including the Forest Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the United States Geological Survey, to leverage opportunities to grow the Cooperative Observer Program network and to more effectively use existing infrastructure, weather stations, and staff of the Program.

Editorial Notes

Codification This section was enacted as part of the National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018, and not as part of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 which comprises this chapter.

§8550 Improvements to Cooperative Observer Program of National Weather Service

Summary

Title 15, §8550

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Citations & Metadata