National Weather Service Partners Meeting

June 18, 2008

Melissa Tuttle Carr Manager, Weather Information Distribution

The Weather Channel

Kevin BarjenbruchWarning Coordination Meteorologist

National Weather Service, Salt Lake City

I. WAS*IS Update

II. Partnership Initiative

III. Two key points to consider

IV. Wrap Up

Today’s Presentation

I. WAS*IS UpdateSix WAS*IS Workshops

• November 2005 / March 2006, Boulder• April 2006, Norman• July 2006, Boulder• January 2007, Australia• July 2007, Boulder• Upcoming…August 2008, Boulder

Increasing Private Sector Participation

• Accuweather• WeatherBug• The Weather Channel• Local television meteorologists

171 Participants...and growing!

I. WAS*IS UpdateWAS*IS aims to:

Integrate weather and social science to empower practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders to forge new

relationships and to use new tools and concepts for more effective socio-economic applications and evaluations of

weather products.

I. WAS*IS Update

The WAS*IS movement is growing!

• Upcoming Summer 2008 workshop

• November 2007 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) article - WAS*IS: Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science

• AMS Board on Societal Impacts: http://ccar.colorado.edu/ams_sib/

• And much, much more - see http://www.sip.ucar.edu/wasis/index.jsp for details

Initiative Message:

II. Partnership Initiative

Improved communication and collaboration within the weather enterprise will lead to improved products and services, and better and more understandable weather information.

This ultimately benefits the public as they receive the best, most useful weather information so they can take action and protect life and property.

III. Key Thoughts

#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

• Understand how your partner companies (whether government-private or private company B2B) use and disseminate your data and products.

• Understand how the public uses your products and data; ensure you are serving them in the best way and giving them information they can fully utilize.

• Ensure all levels of your organization are educated with this information.

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: NWS bulletin products

Actual complaint from a TWC viewer:

“During a severe thunderstorm warning, The Weather Channel scrolling message and weather.com pages often list the warned area as such: * SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR... EXTREME NORTH CENTRAL WAKE COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA EAST CENTRAL DURHAM COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA NORTHWESTERN FRANKLIN COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN VANCE COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA SOUTHERN GRANVILLE COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA

This is a terrible method of communicating a dangerous situation. Eliminating the words ‘in central North Carolina’ after every county would greatly speed up the delivery of the warning message.”

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: NWS bulletin products

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: NWS bulletin products

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: Storm-Based Warnings - Illinois

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: Storm-Based Warnings - DC Area

III. Key Thoughts#1: Consider societal impacts in daily work.

Example: Storm-Based Warnings: Charlotte Area

III. Key Thoughts#2: Broader, more meaningful work on partnerships.

• Keep lines of communication open

Good examples:

CAP Team

Early engagement on winter changes

• Think about how your actions will impact your customers and partners

Learning situation: Western Region SVR/FFW combination

III. Key Thoughts#2: Broader, more meaningful work on partnerships.

• Understand how your partners use your data and products, and provide support accordingly.

Examples:

NWS bulletin product formats – why they are important to the partner, and ultimately, to the consumer.

Detailed product documentation and support – what is needed and why?

III. Key Thoughts#2: Broader, more meaningful work on partnerships.

• A closer look at the Partners Meetings:

Recent enhancements: Inclusion of private sector on agenda; more interactive format in January

Areas to be addressed: Target groups for this meeting (should there be more than one meeting, for different user groups?); assessment of meeting usefulness (is this meeting everyone’s needs? Do we need more of a Partners’ Workshop?); meeting communications; action item tracking

IV. Wrap Up

Melissa Tuttle Carrmtuttle@weather.com

Kevin Barjenbruchkevin.barjenbruch@noaa.gov

Thank you!