This conference will further identify, prioritize, and set in motion an actionable and fully integrated physical and social science research plan to enhance our nation's readiness, responsiveness, and resiliency to severe local weather, specifically tornadoes.
Broader impacts Expected as results of the workshop are:
1) Research areas that include the need to reduce the false alarm rate and to conduct social science research on watch/warning messaging and the impacts of false alarms and lead times on social responses 2) Social science research that will result in increased hazard mitigation and emergency preparedness in advance of NWS warnings 3) Identifying advancements in longer term outlooks and forecasts and their links to preparedness 4) Identifying advancements in short-term forecasts, watches and warnings and their links to responses 5) Development / mining of finer-scale datasets centered on severe storm and tornado prediction 6) Identifying storm-scale processes controlling tornado genesis, longevity, track and intensity 7) Refinement of gap-filling observing technologies and means for their optimal assimilation into high-resolution models 8) Enhance resilience with improved description and understanding of near-surface airflow characteristics pivotal to impacts on built structures and human casualties, including engineering analyses derived from post-storm damage surveys
UCAR's Joint Office for Science Support (JOSS) will use funding provided by the National Science Foundation for support of the conference to provide full travel support for ~11 attendees.
The Weather Ready Nation Conference is a 5-day workshop that was held in Birmingham, AL April 23-27, 2012. The intellectual merit of the workshop was to further identify, prioritize, and set in motion an actionable and fully integrated physical and social science research plan to enhance our nation’s readiness, responsiveness, and resiliency to severe local weather, specifically tornadoes. The broader impacts expected as results of the workshop are: ? Research areas that include the need to reduce the false alarm rate and to conduct social science research on watch/warning messaging and the impacts of false alarms and lead times on social responses ? Social science research that will result in increased hazard mitigation and emergency preparedness in advance of NWS warnings ? Identifying advancements in longer term outlooks and forecasts and their links to preparedness ? Identifying advancements in short-term forecasts, watches and warnings and their links to responses ? Development / mining of finer-scale datasets centered on severe storm and tornado prediction ? Identifying storm-scale processes controlling tornado genesis, longevity, track and intensity ? Refinement of gap-filling observing technologies and means for their optimal assimilation into high-resolution models ? Enhance resilience with improved description and understanding of near-surface airflow characteristics pivotal to impacts on built structures and human casualties, including engineering analyses derived from post-storm damage survey The expected outcome and output of the workshop were to come to an agreement on the top research questions that are critical to advancing the principals of a Weather Ready Nation and that fully integrate the social and physical sciences. A documented prices and schedule for developing executable action plans of the key research questions identified during the workshop leveraging outcomes from the Norman Severe Weather Symposium and previously completed needs assessments. The workshop brought together more than 60 participants including civil engineers, economists, emergency managers, psychologists, public health providers, urban planners and more. Participants identified research recommendations in the areas of false alarms, misperception of forecasts and warnings, and other barriers to a Weather Ready Nation. Researchers were grouped into interdisciplinary teams to discuss nine fundamental topics including: 1. household emergency preparedness / community hazard awareness and education 2. hazard mitigation (safety rooms and shelters) 3. forecast and warning process 4. physical understanding for improve forecasts 5. warning disseminations systems 6. individual / household behavioral response 7. disabled population segments 8. disaster recovery (pre-impact planning and post-impact implementation) 9. economic analysis of tornado warning systems. One need identified was a stronger integration of social and physical sciences. Further research projects have been funded as a result of the Weather Ready Nation workshops to better understand human behavior and affect decision making during weather related events and the formulation and communication of forecast uncertainty, or forecast confidence. Participants were to work on a report with finding and recommendations to be released at a later date.
