Caribou weather service office seeing big changes in duties> Station will be responsible for forecasts in six counties

CARIBOU — Things are changing rapidly at the National Weather Service office in Caribou.

New personnel, new computers and new quarters are just part of the improvements being made this summer at the local forecasting office.

Before the end of the year, the beefed-up operation will be responsible for all weather forecasting activities in the counties of Aroostook, Penobscot, Washington, Piscataquis, Hancock and part of Somerset.

Once a candidate for closing, the office is expected to increase personnel from four to 22 people with an annual payroll of about $1 million, according to Hendricus Lulofs, the office’s new warning and coordination meteorologist.

“This [upgrade] put us on par with other forecasting offices around the country,” Lulofs said Monday.

At the urging of local supporters and the state’s congressional delegation, the National Weather Service is upgrading four stations across the country, including the Caribou office.

After a two-year evaluation, the government decided to expand the previous office status that had limited daytime hours to a 24-hour operation. That change happened in May.

The changes mean that Caribou will take over weather forecasting for the top part of the state, including providing weather information for Bangor International Airport. The office also will take control of the Doppler weather radar facility located in Hodgdon.

Previously, those functions had been handled by the NWS office in Gray, 250 miles away. The computer that handled the Hodgdon radar information will be transferred from Gray to Caribou in July, Lulofs said. .

“It’s been determined that the Hodgdon radar can see more than the Gray radar [in northern Maine],” Lulofs said.

Other services that Caribou will provide include issuing warnings for thunderstorms and other specific event-related weather happenings, marine forecasts and water, or flood, watches or warnings.

A new computer system for processing weather information, called Advance Weather Interactive Processing System, is scheduled to be installed in July. In addition, automated programming to broadcast weather warnings will be implemented this summer.

Responsibility for providing aviation weather information for Bangor, Houlton and Caribou will begin Sept. 1.

To temporarily house the new computer equipment and personnel, a trailer has been attached to the NWS office building on Main Street. A new building is expected to be constructed in the fall of 2000, Lulofs said.

The National Weather Service first proposed closing the Caribou station in 1992. During that time, County officials and private residents began working with the state’s congressional delegation to keep it open.