Name_______________________________Date_______________Period__________

GETTING ORIENTED

National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters must be very familiar with the local geography. Before you work with local weather radar imagery, you will need to familiarize yourself with the regional geography.

PROCEDURE

Depending upon whether you use the weather radar imagery accessible via cable television or the Internet, choose one of the following basemaps:

Print a hardcopy of the WRC-TV News4 Doppler weather radar display (shown to the left). Print the radar display in Landscape orientation at 75%. (Before printing, make the neccessary settings under the File/Page Setup... menu.)

Print a hardcopy of the WSI Intellicast Doppler weather radar display for Sterling, VA (shown to the left). Print the map in Landscape orientation at 90%.

Label the following list of geographic features. First, see how many of these features you can label without referring to an atlas. If necessary, refer to a map of the Mid-Atlantic United States. You may find it helpful to use a black marker to darken the outlines of all state boundaries. Use the broad edge of a light blue colored pencil to lightly shade all of the water bodies on the local radar basemap. Color your city or county yellow; lightly shade all other land areas brown.

As you label each geographic feature, place a check mark in the blank space to the left of the feature name.

MAXIMUM RADIUS - 230 KM (from the NWS radar site, Sterling, VA)

LARGE WATER BODIES                   RIVERS
___ Atlantic Ocean                   ___ James River (VA)
___ Chesapeake Bay                   ___ Patuxent River (MD)
___ Delaware Bay                     ___ Potomac River (MD/VA)
                                     ___ Rappahannock River (VA)
                                     ___ York River (VA)

POLITICAL FEATURES
States (label using
two-letter abbreviations):           Cities/Counties:
___ Delaware (DE)                    ___ Washington, D.C.
___ Maryland (MD)                    ___ Richmond, VA
___ New Jersey (NJ)                  ___ Your city or county (color yellow)
___ North Carolina (NC)              ___ Baltimore, MD
___ Pennsylvania (PA)                ___ Ocean City, MD
___ Virginia/VA Eastern Shore (VA)   ___ Virginia Beach, VA
___ West Virginia (WV)