061
NOUS41 KWBC 281955
PNSWSH
SERVICE CHANGE NOTIFICATION 26-09
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS SILVER SPRING MD
255 PM EST JANUARY 28, 2026
TO: SUBSCRIBERS
-NOAA WEATHER WIRE SERVICE
-EMERGENCY MANAGERS WEATHER INFORMATION NETWORK
-NOAAPORT
OTHER NWS PARTNERS, USERS AND EMPLOYEES
FROM: DAVID MICHAUD, DIRECTOR
NCEP CENTRAL OPERATIONS
NATIONAL CENTERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTION
SUBJECT: REMOVAL OF THE AVIATION WEATHER CENTER'S (AWCS) RAPID-
REFRESH-BASED INFLIGHT ICING (IFI) PRODUCT FROM THE NATIONAL
BLEND OF MODELS (NBM) EFFECTIVE MARCH 2, 2026
ON OR ABOUT TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2026, BEGINNING WITH THE 1200
UNIVERSAL TIME COORDINATED (UTC) MODEL RUN, THE NWS
METEOROLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY (MDL) WILL DISCONTINUE THE
DISSEMINATION OF THE NBM'S IFI PRODUCT. AN ALTERNATE METHOD FOR
OBTAINING IFI DATA IS DETAILED IN THE LINKED SCN BELOW.
IN THE EVENT THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION DATE IS DECLARED A CRITICAL
WEATHER DAY (CWD), AN ENHANCED CAUTION EVENT, OR OTHER
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER IS OCCURRING OR IS ANTICIPATED TO OCCUR,
IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS CHANGE WILL TAKE PLACE AT 1200 UTC ON THE
NEXT WEEKDAY NOT DECLARED A CWD AND WHEN NO SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
IS OCCURRING.
AWC CURRENTLY RUNS A STAND-ALONE SYSTEM TO GENERATE IFI
GUIDANCE, AND THE NBM HOSTS THIS PRODUCT IN GRIB2 FORMAT IN THE
CORE BLEND FILES ON THE NOAA OPERATIONAL MODEL ARCHIVE AND
DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (NOMADS) AND AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS).
WITH THE UPCOMING IMPLEMENTATION OF AWC'S NEW DOMESTIC AVIATION
FORECAST SYSTEM (DAFS) V1.0 ON MARCH 2, 2026 (DAFS V1.0 SCN 25-
80) AT
HTTPS://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/MEDIA/NOTIFICATION/PDF_2026/SCN25-
80_UPDATE_DAFS_AAB.PDF , THE CURRENT IFI PROCESS WILL BE
SUBSUMED INTO DAFS, AND ITS PRODUCTS WILL BE DERIVED FROM THE
HIGH-RESOLUTION HOURLY RAPID REFRESH (HRRR) MODEL. THERE ARE NO
CURRENT PLANS TO HAVE THE NBM HOST THE NEW IFI PRODUCT, DUE TO
DIFFERENCES IN DOMAIN COVERAGE. IF USERS WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE
TO USE AWC'S IFI PRODUCT, PLEASE SEE THE DAFS SCN HIGHLIGHTED
ABOVE.
FOR QUESTIONS REGARDING NBM GUIDANCE OR DATA AVAILABLE ON NOMADS
OR AWS, PLEASE CONTACT:
GEOFF MANIKIN
CHIEF, STATISTICAL MODELING DIVISION
MDL/SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
GEOFFREY.MANIKIN@NOAA.GOV
OR
DAVID RUDACK
NATIONAL BLEND OF MODELS TEAM LEAD
MDL/SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
DAVID.RUDACK@NOAA.GOV
FOR QUESTIONS REGARDING THE DATA FLOW FOR NWS/NCEP SERVICES,
PLEASE CONTACT:
MARGARET CURTIS
NCEP CENTRAL OPERATIONS DATAFLOW TEAM LEAD
NCEP.PMB.DATAFLOW@NOAA.GOV
A WEB PAGE DESCRIBING THE NBM CAN BE FOUND AT:
HTTPS://VLAB.NOAA.GOV/WEB/MDL/NBM
NWS NATIONAL SERVICE CHANGE NOTICES ARE ONLINE AT:
HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/NOTIFICATION
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