NWS Tucson Weather Support to U.S. Customs and Border
Patrol (115)
Glenn Lader, NOAA/NWS
Tucson, Tucson, AZ
Abstract:
The National Weather Service
(NWS) continues to migrate toward the provision of Impact-Based Decision
Support Services (IDSS) to federal, state, tribal and local agencies. One key
federal agency, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (USCBP), is tasked with
securing nearly 2,000 miles miles of the U.S./Mexico border and frequently
conducts operations with only basic weather information. The NWS Weather
Forecast Office (WFO) in Tucson leveraged its proximity to the International
Border and its relationship with the Tucson Sector of the USCBP Office of
Incident Management (OIM) to explore ways the WFO could transform weather information
into weather intelligence for USCBP operations for better decision making. A
number of WFO Tucson meteorologists deployed to OIM and met with USCBP
officials in order to learn about their operations, vulnerabilities to weather,
and critical weather thresholds, with the end goal of developing customized
products and services aligned with the needs of several departments within the
agency. While this process is ongoing, a combination of on-site and remote IDSS
resulted in products and services that improved the decision making process of
the USCBP, and allowed them to better accomplish their mission of protecting
lives in southeast Arizona, including those of the thousands of agents within
the Tucson Sector.