[Skywarn] Blind man leads SKYWARN (Connecticut)

[Greg Williams]

http://www.newbritainherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18466265&BRD=1641&PAG=461&dept_id=572379&rfi=6

NEWINGTON - Although Roger Jeanfaivre has always had trouble seeing, he
remembers being fascinated with lightning and weather when he was
growing up.

His interest in weather continued even after he lost sight completely at
the age of 24. While attending Oak Hill School for the Blind in
Hartford, Jeanfaivre became interested in ham radio. After getting his
license to operate one, Jeanfaivre would broadcast forecasts he made up.
"People used to think that I worked for the [National Weather Service],"
Jeanfaivre said.

Now he does.

People turn to the weather service for information when severe weather
strikes. To make sure its information is right, the National Weather
Service turns to an organization of amateurs called Skywarn.

"Skywarn provides a very valuable service to the NWS," said Betsey
Doane, state section manager for the American Radio Relay League. "We
can communicate quickly and directly and provide rapid response to
information throughout the state."

Skywarn is made up of independent ham radio operators who are also
trained weather spotters. They report wind gusts, hail size, rainfall
and cloud formations that signal severe weather.

"Spotters are the people outside during the day. Their weather tools are
their ears and their eyes," Jeanfaivre said. "The NWS radar is a few
thousand feet up, so they can't see what is happening on the ground."

In 1994, Jeanfaivre became the state Skywarn coordinator and kept
responsibility for Hartford and Tolland counties in a 2002
reorganization. He enjoys Skywarn because it allows him to blend two of
his favorite hobbies, weather and ham radio, devices that work even when
other forms of communication - computers and telephones or cell phones -
do not.

Skywarn gathers firsthand reports of severe weather events and feeds
them into local forecasts as quickly as it can. Anytime NWS issues a
severe weather warning, Skywarn goes to work setting up nets.

"Nets are a gathering of radio amateurs," Jeanfaivre said. "We gather
and activate the net and use repeaters ... a setup that takes a little
signal and broadcasts it over a wider area which NWS can pick up.
Because of the information that we're giving them, NWS can issue a watch
or a warning. That's what the public sees on TV or hears over the radio."

During recent thunderstorms, such as one that produced a funnel cloud in
Southington and a tornado warning in New Haven County, Jeanfaivre and
his team of spotters were at work, verifying the NWS radar images.

Thanks to the evolution of the Internet, NWS can get Skywarn reports in
under a minute.

"In 1994 we weren't tied into the Internet," Jeanfaivre remembered.
"With the betterment of the new technology, they can get our reports and
it supplements what they see. NWS can link into our system and get the
reports as they come in. It's instantaneous."
The work is "a joy" for Jeanfaivre.

"It's combining my weather interests with my skills as a communicator,"
Jeanfaivre said. "It's enjoyable ... We're really not weather
forecasters, we're communicators, and it's my job to get the information
provided by the spotters to the NWS."

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