All Weather is Local: Adoption of New Weather Observing Technologies by Rural Emergency Management and Training Experiences

Rural emergency management teams face several unique challenges as they serve their communities. Typically, the emergency management team is very small, but they serve a wide geographic region that contains communities with many different needs. For example, some rural communities need to serve a large number of out-of-state visitors during camping season. As severe weather trends evolve, the emergency managers must learn new technologies and data sets to prepare and respond to new threats. Training opportunities are limited and must be accommodated between other duties.

Climavision is rolling out a nation-wide network of X-band weather radars that are primarily being installed in rural communities to improve the low-level radar coverage in these areas. As a result, the company interfaces regularly with emergency management partners throughout the nation, understanding their specific local weather data needs and challenges. The company provides training to emergency managers to teach them basic radar meteorology and radar data interpretation and provides information on available government and private sector resources.

This presentation will provide emergency management perspectives on weather data needs gathered through informal interviews and surveys, discuss challenges and opportunities with introducing new training material and provide recommendations on public-private collaboration with an aim of building a weather ready nation. The presentation will include several video interviews with rural emergency management partners.