The graphical severe weather warning initiative at the Fort Worth National Weather Service Office

The graphical severe weather warning initiative at NWS Fort Worth Texas uses a GIS framework to combine radar reflectivity information with the warning area (or polygon)determined by the forecaster on a high resolution map background of the warning area. Using the 2000 Census information from the North Texas Council of Governments, various demographic fields are derived for the area under the severe weather warning, including total population and breakdown by sex and age, percentage of population living in single or multi-family dwellings or manufactured homes, percentage that do or do not speak English, and the percentage that were not living in Texas in 1995. The graphical warnings are displayed on the Weather Forecast Office's web page, and are used by emergency managers, spotters, and the public for a variety of decision making purposes. The poster presentation will document the process of developing the graphical warnings, summarize customer feedback, and highlight future developmental work.