Q: As a long time resident of the Yokosuka area, I feel qualified in making recommendations for improvements on typhoon condition reporting. During Typhoon 4, Eagle 810 was “marathon” manned-up “live” in order to provide instantaneous, accurate and up-to-date information on the typhoon. At 9 a.m. on Sunday morning they were reporting the typhoon conditions as of 9 a.m. Saturday morning. Internet-available typhoon tracking sites had already downgraded it to a tropical storm and had it tracking out to sea. Please make the information provided useful. Report in everyday language: “Typhoon 4 is tracking northwest at 25 mph and will make landfall just south of Kagoshima on Kyushu Island at approximately 0900 local time Saturday. It is expected to be tracking along the coast of Honshu and through the local area within 12 hours.” No one knows where 625 miles southwest of Tokyo is. Then make sure typhoon reports are updated every six hours. If power goes out and we need our battery-powered radios, we need accurate information. Also, not all of us SOFA personnel have access to the base access TV channel.

A: The Tropical Cyclone Condition of Readiness (TCCOR) reporting provided by Eagle 810 comes directly from U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) in a script that we’re mandated to read verbatim. It only includes TCCOR conditions for Yokota, Camp Fuji, Camp Zama and Atsugi. Even though the script we’re reading states that it’s for the Kanto Plain, Yokosuka is not included. Our updates are supposed to come to us every six hours or when TCCOR conditions change. The broadcast for the last typhoon was accurate with the latest information sent to us. I’ve contacted Yokosuka’s weather service and they stated that their TCCOR updates come from Commander Naval Forces Japan (CNFJ), which covers Sasebo and Kadena as well. They referenced UFJ instruction 15-4001. I’ve given them our contact information so that in the future we can make separate announcements for Yokosuka and the rest of the Kanto Plain. Residents of Yokosuka can receive their typhoon updates online at cfay.navy.mil, call the recorded weather at 243-5155, or tune to Channel 13 on AFN television.