Meteorologists prep for F1 weather

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Rain? Sun? Heat? Severe weather? There are a lot of questions when it comes to the weather for Austin's Formula One weekend starting Nov. 16. Like any major event, the weather will play a big role in its success.

At the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, meteorologists are gearing up. Starting Thursday, they'll join forces with city and county agencies at the Combined Transportation, Emergency and Communications Center (CTECC) . A meteorologist will also be at the Department of Public Safety headquarters to make sure everyone has up-to-the minute weather information. They call their work “decision support."

“As large events are across the area, not only here, but like we saw with [Hurricane] Sandy and Superbowls and everything else, part of the job of the National Weather Service now is to work very closely with emergency management, state and federal officials,” said Paul Yura, NWS warning coordination meteorologist. “Part of that is giving weather briefings, before the event, during the event and even after the event in case something happens.”

Already, those briefings are happening on a daily basis as equipment arrives in town.

The NWS meteorologists are also hard at work on next week’s forecast. After this coming weekend’s storm system, the forecast models are hinting at another for late in race week. Depending on the timing, the storm could affect Central Texas Thursday and Friday, Nov. 15 and Nov. 16.

“One of our main concerns -- especially with lightning and thunderstorms -- would be you have all these people out there,” said Yura. “They’re unprotected so we’d be there at Austin CTECC and with the state operations center giving everybody information so they have an idea of what’s coming. So, if the race officials do give word to evacuate the race premises then everyone will be on the same page as far as what (amount of) people are coming in, what (amount of) people are coming out and how long will it last, just a passing thunderstorm or for the rest of the day.”

If there is no rain or thunderstorms, tracking the wind and cloud cover could be just as important.

“A lot of the main concerns -- I’m in particular looking at cloud cover for helicopters and airplanes that weekend,” said Yura. “There are going to be a lot of helicopter flights in and around the area that would be affected.”

Yura also said the NWS will use this event to brush up on their decision support skills. They’ll have to communicate effectively with each other, with teams in different location and with all different agencies.

Yura’s advice: if you’re headed out to the track, download a weather app to your mobile device. That way you’ll have weather and forecast at your fingertips.

KXAN has an app that has that weather information for you.