Reference Cities for
Use by Severe Weather Spotters
All severe weather reports relayed to NWS
meteorologists at the Milwaukee/Sullivan Office by trained spotters must
utilize the following standards to describe the location of the weather
phenomena:
Distance and compass
direction from the nearest city/village known as a reference city.
Distance is regarded as distance to the nearest
one tenth of a mile (0.1 mile) from the recognized center of a city/village
(not the edge or limits of the city/village). This may be an intersection
of major roads that may be considered the center, or a cluster of
administrative buildings.
We require this format because radar
information (pathcasts) in NWS warnings and
associated follow-up statements is based on distance from the geographic center
of cities/villages. In addition, post-storm information written in Local
Storm Reports (LSR’s) sent to all media outlets, and the Storm Data
publication use this notation.
Cities and villages that can be used are found
on the standard State of
Examples:
2.2
E Jefferson, Jefferson Co.
2.4 NE Waupun, Fond du
Lac Co.
0.5 E Cobb, Iowa Co.
3.7 S Mitchell Field,
Milwaukee Co.
5.5 WSW Madison,
However, for some cities, such as
Note: Spotters are to
determine their reference point using the lat/long data pair as the first
option, and the given intersection of two roads as the second option using the
information provided in the documents provided via the links below. For
many reference cities, the lat/long location will not be exactly the same as
the intersection location, however these two locations should be fairly close.
Over time, there will
be “how to” documentation added using various available tools. Please check often for any updates. If you wish to be notified of any updates to
this site, please e-mail the webmaster
and you will be placed on the notification list. If you have any tips or tricks that you would
like to share with others, please e-mail them to the webmaster. Your contributions would be greatly
appreciated.
The locations given for
the indicated references are thought to be as accurate as possible; both in
written description and in latitude/longitude coordinates. However, there may be errors noted by the
user base. If there are errors noted in
the references, please contact the webmaster
with the reference name(s) in question and the suggested correction(s). Your assistance in keeping these documents
accurate is appreciated.
Otherwise, please contact the webmaster if there are any other
questions or concerns.
Reference City Documents – All Counties pdf html text