Thank you for indulging me as I get a little homework done for WeatherBrains.
In a few weeks, we will entertain Dr. Eve Gruntfest of the Social Sciences Woven into Meteorology. She is one of the leading researchers in the very important arena of understanding human response to forecasts and warnings, and tailoring those forecasts and warnings to reach the end user more effectively.
I need your input on how we will tailor or discussion with her. This information will be very useful to us as meteorologists trying to better know our audience. As you know, one of our critical concerns is to know whether false alarms hurt the warning process. The National Weather Service has gotten very good at detecting tornadoes, achieving very high scores in that area. That unfortunately comes with a higher false alarm rate.
Now I know we have a special audience here. You guys are much more weather aware than the average bear. But what are your feelings on the matter? Would you prefer more information and more warnings, with a higher false alarm rate? Or fewer warnings, with a lower probability of detection, meaning some smaller tornadoes might go unwarned for?
Talk to me for a moment about how you respond to severe weather warnings. What are your primary and secondary methods of receiving weather bulletins? Is it television, internet, cell phone/PDA, local radio, The Weather Channel, NOAA Weatheradio, WeatherCall, sirens, or something else?
Do you seek confirmation from a second source before taking action? Do you require your own visual confirmation before responding?
What kind of job do you feel that the National Weather Service does with severe weather watches and warnings? Are there any improvements that you would make?
What sort of job do you think the media and other communications groups do in getting the warnings to you? Can you think or a better way to get warnings out to the general public? How could they be better communicated?
What sources are most trustworthy in your eyes: the NWS, The Weather Channel, the media, Emergency Management?
Finally, is fear a motivating factor for you? Have you ever experienced a tornado, damaging storm or flood? Does that affect your response? Do you rationalize your lack of response because you have never experienced one?
Thanks in advance for your response. Please encourage your non-weather friends to participate also.
