Location Format Requirements

SulCom Programs

In the past, storm event locations were based on the intersections of two major roads, such as "Northeast Ozaukee County, intersection of Highway 57 and Highway 33, City of Newburg".  At the request of Sullivan Weather, the report format has changed to correspond to reflect distance and direction from a known reference.  Example:  "2.0 Southeast Newburg, Ozaukee County".  This allows the data to be used immediately in public information products.

Here is a breakdown of the four parts that make up the location portion of the report format:

1.      Distance from the reference to the nearest 1/10 of a mile (0.1 mile) for fixed spotters and to the nearest ½ mile (0.5 mile) for mobile spotters.

2.      Compass direction from the reference used (N, NNW, NW, WNW, W, WSW, SW, SSW, S, SSE, SE, ESE, E, ENE, NE, NNE)

3.      The reference name

Click here to view the current Reference City and Location List

4.      The county that the reference is in.  The reference and the spotter location need to be in the same county.

NOTES

Effective 1 March 2008, some airports and some well known landmarks will become valid location references.  Current location reference documentation is available here.

There are several methods that have been developed by local organizations for accurately determining a spotter location and these methods will eventually be published for future use by others.  If a local organization needs assistance in find a solution to their needs, e-mail the Sullivan Committee Webmaster at webmaster@sulcom.org

As the relay stations will be transferring storm reports from the local nets to the backbone net, they will be ultimately responsible for ensuring the message is in the proper format.  Sullivan Weather will reject reports that are not in the proper format.

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