NWS Pueblo, CO - Programs Page

Office Programs

Public Forecast and Warning Programs

The Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at WFO Pueblo coordinates and oversees the public forecast and warning programs at the office, and ensures that our customers are satisfied with the services provided. He is also responsible for planning, coordinating and carrying out the public awareness and safety program designed to educate people about hazardous weather in southern Colorado. Through these various programs we carry our our mission of protecting both life and property.

The WCM also works with volunteer severe weather spotters who act as "eyes out in the field" for the National Weather Service and, therefore, for the customers we both serve. These spotters include state and local law enforcement personnel, emergency government officials, amateur radio operators, and people who just have a keen interest in the fast changing weather that Colorado often offers.

Forecast Products Issued by WFO Pueblo

Public Zone Forecasts
Short Term Forecasts
Aviation Terminal Forecasts
Aviation Route Forecasts
Fire Weather Forecasts

Warning Products Issued by WFO Pueblo

Tornado
Severe Thunderstorm
Flash Flood
Flood
Red Flag (for fire weather)
Blizzard
Winter Storm
High Wind
Ice Storm

Science and Operations Officer (SOO)

The responsibilities of the Science and Operations Officer (SOO) at WFO Pueblo, CO include:

Incorporate the latest scientific findings into the forecast office.
Lead the training of the staff.
Conduct research on local forecast problems.
Perform quality control of some forecast products.
Construct training materials for the staff.
Assist the ESA in the management of UNIX/LINUX system in the office.
Assist in managing office LAN and programs on PC's.
Assist in training for and managing of AWIPS.
Assist MIC, WCM, and DAPM in management of office operations.
Work forecast shifts.

Aviation Products

The National Weather Service in Pueblo issues Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) for three airports in southern Colorado: Alamosa (ALS), Pueblo (PUB), and Colorado Springs (COS). These site-specific forecasts give detailed weather changes out to 24 hours, including forecasts of ceilings and cloud heights, wind speed and direction, weather and obstructions to visibility, and low-level wind shear. The forecasts are issued four times daily and are updated as needed.

The National Weather Service in Pueblo also issues four Transcribed Weather Enroute Broadcast Forecasts (TWEBs). These are detailed aviation forecasts along fixed routes across southern Colorado, western Kansas, and northern New Mexico out to 12 hours into the future. These forecasts are issued four times daily, and are updated as needed.

Click here for aviation products.

Upper Air Observations

Twice a day, seven days a week, hundreds of weather stations around the world release weather balloons into the atmosphere. Under the helium or hydrogen-filled balloon, an instrument package, called a radiosonde, broadcasts continuous weather data back to the launch site. The National Weather Service offices in Denver and Grand Junction do upper air soundings in Colorado.

The radiosonde consists of a radio transmitter, temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and a pressure sensor. The winds aloft can be computed from the measured elevations and azimuth of the radiosonde at a given pressure (recall that pressure decreases with increasing height). So, from this instrument package, the complete temperature, moisture, wind, and pressure profile of the atmosphere in the vicinity of the site is obtained. Data for up to 100,000 feet up can be collected. The upper air soundings from all over the country, and worldwide, are collected and fed into the various NWS forecast models in high speed computers near Washington, D.C.

Click Here for the latest upper air sounding from Denver.

Click Here for upper air soundings nationwide.

Upper Air and Surface Maps for the US from the Storm Prediction Center

More about the National Weather Service Upper Air Observation Program

ASOS Program

New Automated Suface Observing Systems (ASOS) are in use at nearly 1,000 locations across the nation. The ASOS system serves as the nation's primary surface weather observing network. ASOS is designed to support weather forecast activities and aviation operations and, support the needs of the meteorological, hydrological and climatological research communities. ASOS works non-stop, updating observations every minute, 24 hours a day. Critical weather changes are updated much more quickly with ASOS than in the past with manual observations. Until ASOS technology improves even more, though, those sites which were manned in the past will continue to be manually augmented.

ASOS sites in Pueblo's CWFA include Colorado Springs, Bullseye (east of Colorado Springs in El Paso county), Pueblo, Alamosa, Leadville, La Junta, and Lamar. More sites may be added in the coming years.

Click here for a picture of ASOS.