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WTVT Television Weather Service

The WTVT Weather Service, a television weather service, was tilt controls are located at the console and also at the remote organized in 1956 at Tampa, . Its primary function studio 12" PPI location. Radar is used on all weather pro- is to serve its television audience with the most complete grams and a special ten-minute radar program is available weather information available. each morning for marine interests. The radar console is also The weather service employs three full-time meteorologists, equipped with a microphone for direct broadcasts from the an aide and an electronic technician. Over 70 minutes of office. weather information are broadcast in color each day. To An adjacent, glass walled, soundproof room houses eight assist in this task a complete array of precision, quality teletype circuits including UPI and AP news circuits and a weather equipment and a number of communication circuits radio-teletype weather circuit. In addition, the local teletype are located in the recently completed weather central offices. loop to the Weather Bureau is in the main office, along with In the main weather office, three instrument racks house facsimile and radio-facsimile circuits. recorders and indicators, sensing different weather elements In 1965 an APT system was installed and ESSA II, Nimbus at the studio site, and also at remote locations throughout II and DRIR pictures have been received and shown daily the . Several radio circuits can be monitored since the satellites were launched. APT mosaics of the na- at these racks to supplement other weather data. tional weather supplement each weather program. During A radar console houses the PPI for the 5.5-cm storm search hurricane Alma in June 1966, viewers were able to follow radar. The 215-mile radar has been modified considerably the entire genesis and passage of the hurricane through the since its installation in 1959. A four-ft antenna is located use of daily satellite pictures. The response from the public atop a 100-ft tower at the studio site. Sector scan and antenna about the new dimension has been enthusiastic.

FIG. 1. The WTVT Weather Service is located in the Tampa Color Communications Center. The radar antenna is located atop the 100-ft microwave relay tower with wind sensors located at the 75-ft level. The satellite tracking antenna is located on top of the recently completed two- story wing of the building.

924 Vol. 47, No. 11, November 1966 Bulletin American Meteorological Society

FIG. 2. A general view of some of the weather recorders, sensors and radio communications used in the WTVT Weather Service television presentations. The double radar console is shown at left. FIG. 3. WTVT's staff meteorologists are shown at work in In addition to providing television weather programs, the the operational section of the Weather Central Office as they WTVT Weather Service is quite active in community ac- prepare information for a television weather program. tivities throughout . In 1959, the Central Florida Severe Weather Network was organized. Today it is composed of almost 250 weather observers in many towns and cities. Each observer has an identification number and a set of instructions on what type of weather to report. Many of the observers are equipped with weather instruments. During severe weather their reports are funneled into the Weather Central Office. In turn, the reports that reach certain criteria are sent to the local Weather Bureau by teletype. Each month a newsletter and summary of all reports are mailed to each observer. The WTVT Weather Service has published a hurricane booklet designed for Florida each year since 1958. Over 100,000 copies have been sold or distributed free to schools and civic organizations. Copies have reached every Gulf and Atlantic state, many islands in the Caribbean, and India and Japan. School tours visit the Weather Central Office almost every month and, in addition, the meteorologists are guest speak- ers at civic clubs, schools and other organizations in Central FIG. 4. In the WTVT weather studio two color cameras are Florida. All weather personnel are members of the American used to telecast weather programs. Meteorological Society and active in its local chapter. Roy Leep, director of the weather service, is currently the Chair- tude and yet is performed within the limits of the layman's man of the Board on Radio and Television Weathercasting. understanding. The WTVT Weather Service is dedicated to keeping its Through its Weather Service WTVT hopes to a viewers informed of all interesting phases of the weather. better understanding of meteorology and its application to The task is approached with the highest professional atti- viewers' daily lives.

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