Assessing Public Understanding and Interpretation of Heat-Related Information for Improved Heat Risk Communication

Extreme heat causes more deaths per year than any other weather-related hazard. To reduce heat related morbidity and mortality, the National Weather Service warns the public about dangerous heat conditions and what they can do to protect themselves. However, prior research has found that this information commonly includes jargon — or specialized meteorological terms that have meaning to experts but may not be readily understood outside those groups (Olson et al., 2023; Sutton et al., 2022).

Currently, we do not know how heat warnings and information are understood by populations across the United States, especially heat jargon, which includes terms such as heat risk, heat index, and heat illness. We also do not know how publics(s), including heat vulnerable populations, understand heat impacts and vulnerability information. Understanding is a primary catalyst towards warning response; information cannot be acted upon if it is not first understood (Mileti & Sorensen, 1990). Compared to other predictors of protective action, like risk perception, understanding is less examined. Furthermore, when understanding is measured, it is frequently done so in relation to accuracy (e.g., accurately identifying the definition of a watch versus a warning), rather than tapping into individual conceptualizations of threatening conditions.

In this presentation, we will discuss the results to date of focus groups conducted in geographically and demographically diverse urban areas in the United States. In these focus groups, we ask participants to describe their understanding and interpretation of heat terms and concepts commonly found in National Weather Service heat communication. We will discuss how understanding varies geographically and demographically. Results of these focus groups will help heat risk communicators better communicate heat, heat impacts, and heat vulnerabilities in an easy-to-understand way for their audiences