We have active funding calls with the Natural Hazards Center on Tornado-Ready and Wildfire-Ready Research Quick Response Grants: WPO SSP is excited to share that through our partnership with UC Boulder’s Natural Hazard Center (NHC) there are currently two rolling calls for proposals: Tornado-Ready Research and Wildfire-Ready Research.
According to NOAA, Hurricane Ian became the 15th Billion-Dollar disaster in 2022. Landfall impacts from Ian are still being felt, as residents of the Florida coast begin rebuilding their homes where severe flooding and damage took place. Though devastating, Hurricane Ian spurred a newfound interest in forecast and risk communication in the media, and provided…
Check out this Social Science Research-to-Applications (R2X) Seminar by Gina and Castle: After hearing community feedback at the WPO SBS Research to Operations (R2O) workshop, the WPO Social Science Program has been hard at work addressing your needs.
We are looking for reviewers for WPO’s FY23 Funding Opportunity: Pending the availability of FY23 funding, the WPO Social Science Program is planning for a funding opportunity and needs reviewers.
Testbeds are unique collaborative spaces that allow researchers and forecasters to work together to improve weather prediction systems. They accomplish this by working alongside each other to integrate new observing systems into models, test and streamline data assimilation methods, test weather model improvements, and strategize new developments. The Weather Program Office funds research projects and…
To advance NOAA’s social science data needs, WPO’s Social Science Program partnered with the National Hazard Center—with support from the National Science Foundation, and in collaboration with the National Weather Service and National Severe Storms Laboratory— to develop the Weather Ready Quick Response Research Initiative to support social science event-based data collection and publication. This…
This project examined how end -users, such as forecasters, emergency managers, and the American public interpret and comprehend probabilistic tropical cyclone information. Using a concept known as numeracy, or one’s ability to use and understand numerical information, this study, in combination with past research, suggests that probability information helps people make decisions in the face…
Over the last 15 years, NOAA has made great strides in integrating social and behavioral sciences in part through externally funded research projects. The goal of these efforts is to improve the communication of forecast products, assess the verbal and visual presentation of uncertainty, understand hazardous weather decision environments, and more. While much social and…
This project explored how various publics consume and process changing tropical cyclone information and forecasts over time. Most research to date has focused on obtaining social science data from people 2–4 weeks after a tropical cyclone has impacted an area. This study is unique and novel in that it created a social science methodology similar…
A day before Hurricane Laura made landfall, the National Hurricane Center issued a warning of “unsurvivable storm surge” in parts of Texas and Louisiana. It’s a phrase that quickly captured widespread attention. Many journalists, including at Wired, NPR, BBC, Mother Jones, Vox, and here at Popular Science, ran headlines amplifying this message. Senator Bernie Sanders repeated this language in a tweet. The National Hurricane…