[sbe-eas] National FIPS Code

[Clay Freinwald]

To add a bit to this discussion.....

We looked at trying to use FIPS divisions of counties here in Western
Washington a couple of times....Some serious issues..

1 - The scheme to divide counties into up to 9 segments works really well if
your county is rectangular...but many are not.

2-  Even if you divide a county into two segments...The average person has
no idea which area of the county they live in .  Reason, they have never
been taught to think of their location in that way.    
     (Face it, most people flunk geography)

3- Getting the people at the source of the warning message to understand all
these new places was very daunting.

4 - NWS worked with this also here....Then we found that the Forecast Zones
did not agree with any division of any county.   Here in this area with lots
of mountains elevation is a critical element in forecasting in the winter
(Think snow level)...here again no fiddling with FIPS provided any answers.


Again an example of where someone from the Plains thought this was a cool
idea.....or, perhaps, someone that hardly ever ventured out of their
cubical.

Clay Freinwald
Washington State SECC

 



-----Original Message-----
From: sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-eas-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
Don Heppelmann
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2011 10:47 AM
To: 'SBE EAS Exchange - a mail list for discussion about the Emergency Alert
System and other emergency communication issues.'
Subject: Re: [sbe-eas] National FIPS Code

Adrienne,

I agree completely. My point is just have the FEDS put in the FIPS codes
that work, and then move on to better things. Wasting time attempting to
figure out which ONE code works, is just that a waste.

Don Heppelmann

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