Philosophy in Atmospheric Science? How NWS Burlington is Reimagining Academic Partnerships in the Social Sciences

With the increased emphasis on social science in the National Weather Service (NWS), there is a unique opening to significantly expand the Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) existing academic partnerships to beyond the traditional meteorology schools. Strategic Objective 2.2 of NOAA’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan is to support underserved and vulnerable communities, given that these communities are often disproportionately impacted by increasing extreme weather and water events. Having a better understanding of societal needs and how human psychology works can help guide policy improvements in our forecasting and messaging so as to produce the greatest societal benefit. Related disciplines include climate studies, environmental studies, political science, communication, psychological science to name a few. In this presentation, we will present on how NWS Burlington has deepened and reimagined new relationships with schools without an atmospheric science program, such as UVM College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and Middlebury College. This is part of existing efforts at institutes of higher education to take the multidisciplinary aspects of risk communication, and apply those concepts in the context of hazardous weather and climate change.

The next step in BTV’s collaboration with UVM is a campus-wide seminar during the Fall semester of 2023 to raise awareness of the multi-year initiative to infuse social science and risk communication into studies related to atmospheric, climate, and environmental science. Another intermediate step is to roll out a new course on risk communication as it pertains to both weather and climate hazards. The course would include lectures by professors from a wide spectrum of disciplines, in addition to lectures potentially from NWS Burlington on our partner interactions and challenges of risk communication. Over time, this could form the building block of an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program that merges aspects of atmospheric science, climate literacy, sociological and psychological aspects of risk communication and decision making. In 2020, the Vermont Legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (Act 153). The Vermont Climate Council was also established by the Vermont Legislature, and they are responsible for drafting the state’s first Climate Action Plans. With the State Climatologist part of the Vermont Climate Council, the certificate program will truly maximize the proximity of UVM, the State Climatologist office and NWS Burlington.

All these mean that NWS Burlington can now potentially engage hundreds, if not thousands more students, staff and faculty that would traditionally not be considered but are now potential avenues to amplify our messages, from safety campaigns to weather warnings. Already, BTV has hosted a successful hybrid SKYWARN/social science presentation at Middlebury College during the Spring semester of 2023. This is a proof of concept how the NWS can use its increased emphasis on social science to engage a lot more students, who can then become ambassadors for our Weather Ready Nation (WRN) vision. Given the increased importance of communication in an era when climate change is disproportionately impacting vulnerable and traditionally underserved communities, social science collaboration can move beyond academic partners with traditional atmospheric science programs.