Imposter AC-SKYWARN Twitter Account

Someone has apparently created a duplicate/imposter Twitter account called "alachuaskywarn". This is not our account.

The real Twitter account for Alachua County SKYWARN is "acskywarn" and has a much larger membership base. Unfortunately, some people will not recognize this and will inevitably become confused.

We apologize for this but we have absolutely no control over it. There are some rogue ham radio operators out there who were jealous of how well Alachua County SKYWARN was doing and they went out of their way to try to destroy it. They put on an extremely poor show and went out of their way to stalk, harass, scare and cause harm to myself and a number of my friends, even attacking their careers. They were not successful in destroying the organization itself, or it's web page, or it's web presence. However, they were entirely successful in completely destroying any chance for further SKYWARN spotter training classes inside Alachua County for...well...indefintely. NWS-JAX and ACOEM are too afraid of what the ham radio operators here have been doing here to pursue such a thing for now, and both NWS and ACOEM are rather disgusted. Unfortunately, what happened here in Alachua County has also affected the SKYWARN program across the entire NWS-JAX County Warning Area, as well. Mistakenly thinking that the problem laid with the civilians rather than the hams, NWS-JAX took it out on the wrong program: the civilian spotter program here, rather than the ham radio community. NWS-JAX no longer officially recognizes civilian programs across the ENTIRE County Warning Area. This is gravely unfortunate. This means that spotter classes must now be called for and handled by ACOEM and only ACOEM and since ACOEM is no longer interested in spotter training classes due to what has been happening down here, there will likely be no more spotter training classes for quite a while. The story is long but can be had from here: http://stormspottertodd.blogspot.com/2009/12/where-did-todd-go.html .

They've created imposter Yahoo accounts, too. The real Yahoo account is "ac_skywarn" (the AC-SKYWARN Email Alert List). The imposter account is "AC_Skywarn", which was created by Melissa Royce to deliberately confuse people.

She's also sent me harassing emails before by forging my name in Yahoo and creating an account in my name there, then sending me a harassing email and then deleting the account thinking she'd be hiding the evidence. However, on checking the header information in the email, it pulled up her husband's old personal web page (now no longer existant).

She's not a very bright stalker; but a stalker nonetheless. I suppose she feels very proud of what she does. Everyone take a moment of silence to clap for her in your minds...

(pause)

Okay. Everybody done?

It's unfortunate that I have to deal with people like this. But there yuh go.

(sigh)

Updated the following pages...

Made some changes/additions to the following web pages:

Some Local Area Severe Weather Photography
http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/weather/wxphotos/index.html

July 17, 1997 Downburst Event - Gainesville, FL
http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/weather/wxphotos/more2.html

May 14, 2000 Hail Event - Gainesville, FL
http://www.afn.org/~skywarn/hail-day/index.html

July 20, 2000 Severe Wind Storm - Gainesville, FL
http://www.afn.org/~skywarn/burstday/index.html

March 01, 2003 Hail Event - Monteocha, FL
http://www.afn.org/~skywarn/hail-day2/index.html

Todd Sherman's Weather-related Videos
http://www.fireline.org/kb4mhh/videos/weather/index.html

Hams/Spotters: Beware Florida Law Regarding Devices Mounted On Windshield

WARNING FLORIDA DRIVERS:

I had someone advise me today that they got a ticket in November of $116 for having a device mounted upon his windshield. The device was a RADAR-detector, but people should note that detectors themselves are NOT illegal in the state of Florida.

Apparently Florida has had a windshield law which has been around for a while but which has not received much attention...until now. Trying to decipher if this was just an event local to that user or if this is part of a new statewide campaign. (Like the seatbelt law. Been around for a while but not acted on with much ferocity except during a certain specific times of the year. ...Or the laws regarding turning, which are never enforced. You're not supposed to turn wide at intersections if you're turning into a road with two lanes to choose from. But most people do this because there has been ZERO action on enforcement of the law even though it's IN your Florida Driver's Handbook. A lot of accidents could be avoided if cops would actually enforce THAT one - which is a BIGGIE; but they don't.)

At any rate, this would affect things like suction-mounted RADAR-detectors, GPS units, cameras, etc.

Ham radio operators, storm spotters/chasers beware. Hams especially just LOVE to mount things on their windshields, and an expensive law such as this one could destroy a Xmas present (or two, or three) for someone. :(

See the Mobile Scanner & RADAR-Detector Laws home page for more information. I have updated the site with this new information, including the text of the actual law.

Spread the word. Let's not allow anyone's Christmas spirit to be ruined over something like this.

Interesting to note is that the "Television receivers" law (316.303), which prohibits TVs in vehicles, actually exempts "the use of electronic displays used specifically for navigation purposes". But the windshield law would seem to PROHIBIT the very use of those devices anyway, since most all GPS units are suction-mounted! (sigh) ...Legislators. They're SO smart. I'm just...I'm SO proud of them. Aren't YOU?

New series of listgroups: The ACWIN Project...

ACWIN stands for the "Alachua County Weather Information Network". It is a series of listgroups designed to bring weather bulletins to Alachua and surrounding counties. It will cater not just to Alachua County, but now to other surrounding northern Florida counties as well.

The following counties are included, so far: ALACHUA, BAKER, BRADFORD, CLAY, COLUMBIA, DIXIE, DUVAL, FLAGLER, GILCHRIST, HAMILTON, LEVY, MARION, NASSAU, PUTNAM, SUWANNEE, and UNION.

Each county will have three lists, created to cater to: general weather bulletins, severe weather bulletins, and civil emergency bulletins.

Users will be allowed to subscribe to each bulletin they want individually, without being forced to take everything we offer at once.

Before, users in surrounding counties were on their own. Alachua County had a SKYWARN program, and a bulletin distribution system which catered to them; but the surrounding counties had nothing, because they were smaller and there just wasn't any interest or support. We've tried to help them out by supporting them. That is what this new suite of email lists is designed to do.

For more information about the ACWIN Project, see alachuaskywarn.org/acwin .

New means of subject line handling in listgroups...

Working with Danny Lloyd this week, I convinced him to add a new feature to WxMesg software which allows concurrent use of both Product identifier abbreviation and full product name in the subject line. Before this, subjects either had to use the product name only (such as "ZFPJAX") or the full product name (such as "Zone Forecast Product"), but they couldn't do both at the same time. This new feature facilitates listgroup usage. Now we can send bulletins that can be sorted by the "topic" name (which happens to be the product identifier, such as ZFPJAX), while still identifying the bulletin. For example:

"ZFPJAX: Zone Forecast Product"

The listgroups are only concerned with finding that topic name in that subject line. That is, they hunt for the topic name in the first few characters of the subject. Once found, anything AFTER that is ignored. So we can get away with adding the full bulletin name after the "topic"/product identifier. Note that we were even able to throw in a colon (":") after the product ID. :)

We can also include product/watch/warning issuance/expiration times, now, if we want to. Example: "ZFPJAX: Zone Forecast Product [00:00Z - 08:00Z]". For right now, this feature will only be used, however, for special situations.

This new feature is now being utilzed in both the ACEMWIN-HURR-L and ACWIN-* listgroups.

For more information on ACEMWIN-HURR-L, see alachuaskywarn.org/emwin/acemwinhurrl .

For more information on ACWIN, see alachuaskywarn.org/acwin .

HUGE New Changes To ACEMWIN-HURR-L Hurricane Bulletins List

The ACEMWIN-HURR-L list was created on July 16, 2005, The list serves the latest hurricane bulletins to the public. Yesterday, after many weeks of researching Listserv and EMWIN software documentation, major changes were finally implemented to the listgroup, now allowing users to pick and CHOOSE which hurricane bulletins they want. Before, users were forced to have to receive them all. When the season got busy, the listgroup would often end up ovewhelmed. No longer. Using a Listserv software feature called "topics", users may now turn on or off bulletins at thier own WILL. Users will greatly appreciate this new capability.

The list receives the latest hurricane-related bulletins from the Alachua Co. EMWIN Project's EMWIN server. The EMWIN server receives weather bulletins hot off of the GOES-10 weather satellite located high above the earth in geosationary orbit. As soon as weather bulletins are issued by NOAA, the NWS, the SPC, the NHC, and other various weather centers, they are immediately transmitted to the satellite, and then bounced back down to the earth for other ground stations to receive. The Alachua County EMWIN Project owns such a ground receiving station. Whenever the NHC issues hurricane related bulletins, they will appear in this list as soon as they are sent down from the satellite. Subscribers to this list will receive Atlantic-region hurricane-related bulletins.

Testing of the new changes is complete and everything seems to be working fine, and the listgroup is again ready for public use.

Here are the "topic" areas that are now available to choose from within the ACEMWIN-HURR-L listgroup:

PWSAT: Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Speed Probabilities
SPFAT: Storm Strike Probability Bulletin
TCANT: Tropical Cyclone ICAO (Aviation) Advisory
TCDAT: Tropical Cyclone Discussion
TCEAT: Tropical Cyclone Position Estimate
TCMAT: Marine/Aviation Tropical Cyclone Forecast/Advisory
TCPAT: Public Tropical Cyclone Advisory
TCPSP: Public Tropical Cyclone Advisory (spanish)
TCUAT: Tropical Cyclone Update
TCVAT: Tropical Cyclone Watch/Warning Product (VTEC)
TWDAT: Tropical Weather Discussion
TWOAT: Tropical Weather Outlook and Summary
TWSAT: Monthly Tropical Weather Summary
CHGHUR: Tropical Cyclone Objective Guidance
STDCCA: Satellite-derived Trop. Disturbance Summary (C. Carribean)
STDECA: Satellite-derived Trop. Disturbance Summary (E. Carribean)
STDWCA: Satellite-derived Trop. Disturbance Summary (W. Carribean)

All new users are automatically subscribed to ALL of the above bulletins. However, you can turn some OFF at any time if things seem to get just a little too "busy" for you.

For a detailed description of each of the above bulletins, see the NHC's Text Products Description page at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnhcprod.shtml.

Another new addition to the listgroup is the archiving feature. The listgroup is now being archived. This means that users can now also peruse past hurricane bulletins. To view these archives, see: http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/acemwin-hurr-l.html.

ACEMWIN-HURR-L IS A READ-ONLY LIST. In other words, users may not post to the list. This list is for the dissemination of hurricane-related bulletins only. The list owner/moderator is Todd Sherman (acemwin@alachuaskywarn.org).

For more information about the listroup, see http://alachuaskywarn.org/emwin/acemwinhurrl.

Enjoy!

Todd Sherman / KB4MHH
ACEMWIN-HURR-L Listgroup Owner
Email: acemwin@alachuaskywarn.org

Created Alachua County EMWIN Project Blogspot Blog and Twitter Feed

Created a Blogspot for the Alachua County EMWIN Project, which sends weather-related bulletins to local area people for free as a public service. AC-EMWIN sends bulletins to email, cellphone, pager, and even web sites. This blog will be used to let people know the status and progress of the Alachua County EMWIN Project.

Also created a Twitter account for AC-EMWIN. This now allows us to send local area (Alachua County) bulletins to Twitter for those who like to use that.

The AC-EMWIN Blog is at http://acemwin.blogspot.com/.

The AC-EMWIN Twitter account is at http://twitter.com/acemwin.