More Notes From the NSWW

Enjoyed visiting with a group of meteorology students from Western Kentucky University this morning at the National Severe Weather Workshop. They were having breakfast with National Weather Association Executive Director Steve Harned. He called me over when he heard them talking about WeatherBrains! These kinds of young people are the future of our industry. Their enthusiasm and energy is very motivational!

More notes from the National Severe Weather Workshop in Norman…

…There are 4,750 National Weather Service employees. This number has not changed substantially in over 40 years according to Southern Region Director Bill Proenza. Forty percent of that workforce is in the Southern Region, which stretches from New Mexico to Georgia. The Southern Region also has some of the most active weather in the world, with major hurricanes and some of the most significant tornadoes on Earth. Proenza made a big point that there was no higher calling of government than saving lives, and the National Weather Service is an investment in that.

…The NWS Central Region will be experimenting with an experimental verification tag at the end of their convective warnings listing the gives as expected maximum wind and hail size.

…The SHAVE Project is working on verifying actual hail sizes from the swaths of thunderstorms and comparing the actual sizes to the output of the NEXRAD hail algorithm. This research will eventually lead to automated hail swath forecasts that will pinpoint expected hail size at locations in the paths of storms.

…WeatherBrains Guest Dave Freeman (show #211) had a great presentation on audience expectations from weather forecasts. His primary point was that forecast accuracy is not the issue, but rather the forecast user’s perception of that accuracy. Even if the forecaster gets the forecast right, it doesn’t matter if the perception of the user is that it was wrong.

…Dave also had the line of the week. “Why did God make economists? Answer: To make meteorologists look good.”

…Valerie Ritterbusch of WeatherCall: “Never use the word polygon when speaking to the public.” Since the WeatherCall system is based on the storm based warning polygons, they use graphical images to show their customers where they were in SBW polygons when questions arise about whether they should have received a warning call.

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