This project aims to understand how populations with limited English Proficiency receive, interpret, and respond to extreme weather event emergency information. Planned outputs of this work will improve emergency alert system messages for these communities as well as reduce barriers to receiving life-saving information more broadly across the general public. Click here for more details.…

Using mixed-methods, this project will interview and survey small businesses across Mississippi. Information gleaned will help better understand how businesses more broadly in the southeastern United States receive their hazardous weather information and then perceive, integrate, and prioritize it in their protective action decisions for patrons and employees during severe weather. Click here for more…

This project will use a natural-human system model (FLEE) along with agent-based models to simulate decision-making of emergency managers and households under evolving hurricane risks. This research will inform understanding of hurricane evacuation outcomes resulting from interactions between forecast information, people, and the built environment, which will enable impact-based forecast verification. Click here for more…

Through immersive technologies and community-based research, this project will develop actionable and sustainable weather solutions that communicate risk and motivate preparatory and protective action among the public. This team will also deliver a collection of mixed- and virtual-reality hazardous weather simulations to help users learn about and take protective actions. Click here for more details.…

By combining high-resolution health and hurricane data with state-of-the-art econometrics, this project aims to quantify the health impacts of hurricanes (beyond mortality) and evaluate how accurate and timely hurricane forecasts can mitigate these impacts. This replicable methodology will enable agencies to better perform socio-economic health benefit assessments of other forecast products. Click here for more…

Through intensive regional partner engagement, this work will develop a proof-of-concept ColdRisk decision support tool, which will address unmet forecast and community needs. The project integrates local health impacts, locally tailored risk reduction strategies, and recommendations decision-makers can use for preparing and responding to extreme cold events in Washington State. Click here for more details…

This project aims to create a scientifically rigorous and operationally feasible (i.e., could be deployed by National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices) survey system for collecting data on the publics’ perception and response to four different hazards: tornadoes, severe thunderstorms (i.e., those with winds over 70 miles per hour), flash floods, and winter weather. The…

This project combines mobility and survey data to study how people move and respond to information during hazardous weather events. The team will create a database of hurricane, wildfire, and flash flood hazard information, which will be a resource for emergency managers and inform future weather warning systems and decision-making. Click here for more details.…

Despite the high mortality rate from extreme heat and extensive research on its physiological impacts, a notable gap exists in understanding how heat and its associated risks and recommended protective actions are communicated–especially among pregnant people. This research addresses that gap by exploring how English- and Spanish-speaking pregnant people access and use extreme heat information.…

People who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HOH) require specific adaptations for emergency communications to be effective and actionable, but knowledge about how to best serve this group in weather emergencies is largely lacking. This mixed methods project will illuminate D/HOH communication needs and prototype an intervention model for specific warning system processes for the D/HOH…

This research study aims to improve National Weather Service (NWS) heat communication. Through a mixed-methods approach, researchers will generate a national baseline assessment of how people access NWS heat information, and determine the extent of the public’s knowledge and understanding of heat risks, impacts, and vulnerabilities.

This research project aims to estimate the socio-economic benefits from augmented aircraft hurricane observations (AO) and advance methodologies for cost-benefit assessments. A statistical analysis linking the occurrence of different AO types to hurricane forecast performance will be evaluated. The information gathered from this research project will be useful for additional forecasting observation systems and new…

National Weather Service (NWS) Meteorologists use data from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) to create severe weather forecast graphics and information customized to their local area. However, these forecasts often lack the temporal specificity needed by local decision-makers. This research project aims to improve SPC’s new graphical product, called Severe Timing Guidance, using feedback collected…

Brief Vulnerability Overview Tool (BVOT) is crucial for tailored weather messaging and emergency preparedness. It can provide meteorologists and emergency managers consistent spatial-situational awareness of critical social vulnerabilities. This research project involves refining their established methodologies for collecting operationally-actionable vulnerability information. Ultimately, the goal is to train forecasters how to set up BVOTs independently.

Flood inundation maps (FIM) are a common visual way to communicate flood risk, but there is little research on such products. This mixed-methods research project will use focus groups and surveys to explore how FIM products support flooding decision-making among professional users and the general public to improve FIM product delivery and design.

The goal of this project is to document the challenges and nuances that broadcasters who serve Spanish-speaking populations face in generating translated risk information and naming conventions for compound, multi-hazard tropical events. Qualitative findings from broadcast meteorologists will enable NWS partners in Spanish-speaking and bilingual broadcast meteorology markets to better convey multi-hazard risks to Spanish-speaking…

The Southeast US (SEUS) is uniquely impacted by nocturnal tornadoes and flash floods; these events are difficult to forecast and warnings are often under-received due to the timing. This interdisciplinary project assesses spatiotemporal patterns and social/behavioral risk factors for SEUS nocturnal tornadoes and flash floods, especially among socially vulnerable populations. The aim is to improve…