National Weather Service Boston, Massachusetts

The National Weather Service Boston/Taunton, Massachusetts is a local office of the National Weather Service (NWS), run under the auspices of the NWS' Eastern Region. This Weather Forecast Office (WFO) is responsible for monitoring weather conditions throughout most of Southern New England. The Southern New England Weather Forecast Office provides warning and forecast services for most of Massachusetts, Northern Connecticut, all of Rhode Island, and Cheshire and Hillsborough counties in Southern New Hampshire. However, Cheshire and Hillsborough counties in New Hampshire will be transferred to the NWS WFO in Gray, Maine effective on December 3, 2014 at 8 AM EST.[1]Besides public weather services, WFO Taunton (BOX) provides marine, aviation, fire weather, and hydrological forecast services. Additional hydrologic information is provided by the co-located Northeast River Forecast Center (NERFC).

Although it serves Boston and the surrounding areas, the WFO is actually located at Taunton, a city in Bristol County, which is located around 40 miles (64 km) south of Boston.

Public warnings and forecasts are issued for thirty-eight "zones" (which are counties or portions of counties) across portions of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and all of Rhode Island. Warnings are issued for a wide range of phenomena that include tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, flash floods, coastal floods, high winds, and winter storms. Public forecasts cover a range from the next couple of hours to the next seven days.

The WFO BOX also issues marine forecasts, warnings, and advisories for the coastal waters from the Merrimack River, Massachusetts to Watch Hill, Rhode Island.

The aviation community is also served by the WFO BOX. In addition to Logan International Airport, this WFO prepares aviation forecasts for eight other airports across Southern New England.

Fire weather forecasts are also generated from WFO BOX for the southern New England. These forecasts are used by federal and local agencies that deal with brush fire control.

Other types of information issued from WFO BOX include short term forecasts, weather summaries, special weather statements and river stage conditions. Information from this office is sent out by high speed computer circuits, and they become available to a wide range of users, including media such as TV, radio, newspapers and Internet-based weather providers.

The greater Boston area is rich in meteorological history. The official weather records for the city of Boston go back to October 20, 1870, at the Old State House Building on State and Devonshire Streets. Weather records began being kept at the airport, then known as the Boston Airport, in October 1926.[2]

First-order/climate sites

[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Service Change Notice 14-48". Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "NWS Boston History". WFO BOX. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Local Climatology Reporting Locations". National Weather Service Taunton, MA. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
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