A Year in Tornadoes Told from the Perspective of the Public via Tornado Tales: Challenges and Solutions to Analyzing and Sharing Data and Next Steps.

This talk will review data collected by the NOAA NSSL Tornado Tales Citizen Science web survey that was launched in May 2022. The lead author developed the Tornado Tales with the aim of gathering generalisable information from the public when they are impacted by a tornado. A brief statistical overview of the survey results, alongside snapshots of interesting case studies is offered to show its utility at gathering generalisable data from tornadic events.

But gathering data alone is not enough. We need to understand what is being said, in what context and whether these vary geographically. To explore this further a National Weather Center Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student was recently mentored in carrying out a research project focusing on three events that took place in the evening and overnight hours, concentrating on warning lead times and protective actions taken by the public in these events. These events were chosen because they provided a statistically significant sample size in addition to their nocturnal occurrence.

A brief overview of this project is offered in terms of why these events were focused on, what was discovered, and how the research was presented in a traditional research paper as well as an ArcGIS StoryMap. This was intentionally explored to allow de-identified stories from impacted individuals to be shared in a creative way that would be accessible to the public, upon whose time and effort is required to make the Tornado Tales project a success. This is important for transparency and to allow the public to understand why their input is so valuable to helping scientists and researchers improve outcomes when tornadoes occur.

At the same time that the Tornado Tales Survey was active over the past year (Mid-May 2022 to Mid-April 2023) the same question set from the survey were also used as part of the Behavioral Insights Unit post tornado event fieldwork activities. We interviewed impacted populations from the Quad State tornado of 10 December 2021 with interviews carried out in February 2022; the Idabel and Calera and Durant tornadoes of November 4 2022 in southeast Oklahoma with interviews carried out in late December, 2022; and the Rolling Fork tornado of March 24, 2023, with interviews carried out in Mid-May, 2023. Such different events with varying lead times from a tornado warning perspective allowed us to further test understanding and clarity of questions asked in Tornado Tales, allowing us to iterate further in preparation for a new submission to OMB (a legal requirement for data collection with the public when carried out through and by a government agency - in this case NOAA). Additionally, we will be translating these into Spanish, with the aim of capturing the 42 million Americans that speak Spanish at home.

Finally, the talk will focus on how we have been working closely with the National Weather Service to ensure that our new question set has a high degree of relevance to their mission, providing high quality and detailed response options that allow for a greater understanding of what the public do with weather information and the protective actions taken when tornado watches and warnings are issued. Working with the NWS as a partner is an integral part of making Tornado Tales successful. If the NWS can help us to draw more of the general public in using our citizen science tool, this will allow for more events that meet a statistically significant threshold to be captured. Doing so will generate rigorous and comprehensive data sets whilst not over-burdening the public by increasing the volume of questions asked, rather asking them in smarter ways.