Remote Mesoanalyst Support - Revolutionizing Severe Weather Operations through Mutual Aid

Mesoanalysis is a critical component of successful severe weather warning operations as the forecast staff must stay on top of changing environmental conditions to ascertain the evolving severe weather threat. Mesoanalysis not only leads to better warning decisions, but also improved impact-based decision support services to NWS partners and the public. In 2021, the NWS Central Region initiated a program to provide forecast offices with Remote MesoAnalyst (RMA) support via mutual aid and also to provide a learning platform for forecasters across the region. Ahead of and during severe weather events, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) facilitate a mesoanalysis discussion in Google Chat and share pertinent information from the discussion and their own analysis with the impacted offices. Additionally, any forecaster can participate in the chat or simply monitor it as a learning platform. It also enables new research and information on emerging science, such as the Warn on Forecast System, to be shared in an operational environment.

Since 2021 the RMA effort has provided real-time mesoanalysis support for over 85 severe weather events totalling ~600 hours of support. The effort started in support of the thirty-eight forecast offices in the NWS Central Region. In 2023, twenty-two offices from Eastern,Southern, and Western Regions were added to the effort and additional SMEs were onboarded to help facilitate real-time discussions. The initiative has been highly successful and may pave the way for additional mutual aid efforts in the NWS. This presentation will review the success of this mutual aid effort, how it is structured and provide examples of its real-time impact. In addition a look at objective verification scores for offices receiving support will be explored.