How to be Climate Ready in a “Weather Ready Nation” (and weather ready in a “Climate Ready Nation”)

The weather, water and climate enterprise provides adequate monitoring and forecast products to serve the needs of users and stakeholders. National Weather Service (NWS) based watches and warnings are issued with enough lead time for users to take appropriate precautions. Reports from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) provide detailed explanations of climatological statistics for a particular month, and its context against a long-term historical record. These services are based on scientific analysis, and used by many internal and external partners. The work by these NOAA organizations meet the needs of the already robust “Weather Ready Nation” initiative, as well as the newly developed “Climate Ready Nation.”

These two initiatives, though different in conception, can be integrated through many facets of NOAA science and communication. One way is by providing exposure and vulnerability data to highlight underserved and marginalized communities. Socioeconomic indicators, like the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) or the Census Bureau's Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) can be used to add additional context to see who is impacted by extreme weather and climate events. By adding this framework into current NOAA infrastructure, including NCEI’s climate reports, SPC’s convective outlooks, NHC’s Hurricane Threats and Impacts, and WPC’s Heat Risk, we can better understand who is adversely impacted by these events, and what our local partners can do about it when the next one arrives. This talk will showcase examples of this integration, including case studies such as the Summer 2023 Texas Heat, the Chicago Derecho of July 2024, and Hurricane Beryl.