Because weather terms are often unique, there is often no agreed upon translation. Additionally, just as there are dialects of English that vary by geography, so too are there different Spanish translations by geography. This is increasingly becoming a challenge for the Weather Enterprise. For example, the NWS Hazard Simplification effort, an evaluation of the watch, warning, advisory system, found that there are many translations of the word, “warning”[4] where as the phrase “outflow boundary” has no direct translation. There is also no standard across all television stations. During Impact Based Warnings focus groups, emergency managers raised concern about translating the terms “considerable” and “catastrophic,” terms used to denote a possible level of damage within tornado warnings. Not only are there direct translation issues, but there is also a lack of context for what the term means in the context of weather.[5]

Additionally, a number of recent efforts cite the need for more Spanish support. The Hurricane Matthew Service Assessment,[6] for example, cited efforts by the NWS Miami Forecast Office who translated key messages regarding hazards from Matthew. The Assessment pointed out that these welcomed efforts are inconsistently available across the enterprise.

In light of this need, this session is requesting abstracts that identify and address the following topics:  

• Past and present challenges in translating weather into Spanish
• Existing Spanish weather translation resources
• Ways to address these challenges in the future

[1] https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/about-ams/diversity-and-inclusion-at-ams/

[2] https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/cb17-ff17.pdf

[3] Calculated using the following data: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html

[4] Hazard Simplification Workshop/Focus Groups

[5] Impact Based Warnings Focus Group Report

[6] Hurricane Matthew Service Assessment

Because weather terms are often unique, there is often no agreed upon translation. Additionally, just as there are dialects of English that vary by geography, so too are there different Spanish translations by geography. This is increasingly becoming a challenge for the Weather Enterprise. For example, the NWS Hazard Simplification effort, an evaluation of the watch, warning, advisory system, found that there are many translations of the word, “warning”[4] whereas the phrase “outflow boundary” has no direct translation. There is also no standard across all television stations. During Impact Based Warnings focus groups, emergency managers raised concern about translating the terms “considerable” and “catastrophic,” terms used to denote a possible level of damage within tornado warnings. Not only are there direct translation issues, but there is also a lack of context for what the term means in the context of weather.[5]

Additionally, a number of recent efforts cite the need for more Spanish support. The Hurricane Matthew Service Assessment,[6] for example, cited efforts by the NWS Miami Forecast Office who translated key messages regarding hazards from Matthew. The Assessment pointed out that these welcomed efforts are inconsistently available across the enterprise.

In light of this need, this session is requesting abstracts that identify and address the following topics:  

• Past and present challenges in translating weather into Spanish
• Existing Spanish weather translation resources
• Ways to address these challenges in the future

[1] https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/about-ams/diversity-and-inclusion-at-ams/

[2] https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/cb17-ff17.pdf

[3] Calculated using the following data: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html

[4] Hazard Simplification Workshop/Focus Groups

[5] Impact Based Warnings Focus Group Report

[6] Hurricane Matthew Service Assessment

While weather forecasting was developing under the critical eye of the public over one hundred years, similar major advances were being made in life and social sciences.  Continuous observing networks both terrestrial and oceanic are now established, advanced ecosystem models have developed, in-situ biological observations are routinely real-time, high resolution and digital, and decision-based methodologies have matured in a realm that must account for behavior in addition to physics.  With weather and climate understanding as a backdrop, the interdisciplinary components necessary to “predict nature” for the outcomes of saving lives both human and animal, forecasting environmental changes critical to national policy and actions, and anticipating natural crises before lives are lost are now possible.  Given that the “natural capital” industries that trade in water, food, energy, biodiversity and support life on Earth are evaluated at twice the Global Domestic Product of all countries, it is time to harness the power of operational weather and ecosystems forecasts to deliver the next generation of products and services that include living and natural resources.

The Committee on Ecological Forecasting invites you to a Panel Discussion and interactive session that introduces the concepts of ecological forecasts vis a vis weather forecasts, identifies recent operational capabilities and stakeholder requirements, and discusses the critical intersections of public, academic, private sector, and professional society roles and opportunities for this next forecasting Enterprise.  

Focus areas of the Weather Act include:

• Improvement and extension of tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings, including the prediction of tornadoes beyond one hour in advance;
• Developing and extending accurate hurricane forecasts and warnings;
• Improvements to U.S. numerical modeling capabilities;
• Improving the transition processes from research to operations (R2O); and
• Improving subseasonal (2 weeks to 3 months) and seasonal (3 months to 2 years) forecasts of temperature and precipitation and its impacts

NOAA’s implementation strategy for the Weather Act includes improving the science behind extreme and severe weather events, and enhancing hazardous weather and water research. Additionally, NOAA is continuously seeking to gain insight from the scientific community on the impact of the Weather Act on their research activities for possible opportunities of coordination and engagement, as well as the integration of social science to improve risk communication and unified modeling capabilities. This session highlights research aligned with the goals and mission of the Weather Act. Participants are encouraged to submit presentations related to the focus areas discussed above. Additionally, all submitted presentations will describe how their research meets the requirements of the Weather Act by enabling improvements to weather forecasts, supporting community-based engagement programs focused on risk communication and preparedness for severe storm events, and promoting improvements to weather forecasts.