Being Weather Ready Starts with Being Climate Smart

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) is working toward building a Weather Ready Nation (WRN). This initiative includes engagement and collaboration with NWS core partners and providing interpretive services of weather, water, and climate information relevant to partners’ needs. US Public Law 115–25 of April 18, 2017, the “Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017,” directs NWS to “(1) collect and utilize information in order to make usable, reliable, and timely foundational forecasts of sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) temperature and precipitation; (2) leverage existing research and models from the weather enterprise to improve the forecasts...; and (3) determine and provide information on how the forecasted conditions may impact.....the number and severity of droughts, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, coastal inundation, winter storms, high impact weather, or other relevant natural disasters, snowpack, and sea ice conditions...”

The NWS Climate Services Branch is developing the 4th edition of the Regional and Local Climate Services Delivery Operations Document that will include guidance for Decision Support Services (DSS) on S2S time scales. The S2S DSS guidance uses recommendations developed by the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). S2S DSS can be defined as engagement, collaboration, and provision of interpretative services of S2S information to partners dealing with water resources, agriculture, disaster risk reduction, energy, and health to enable them to prepare for and respond to disruptive weather, water, and climate events. S2S information includes data, potential risks, vulnerability analyses, assessments, predictions, and long-term projections. It is this DSS that enables stakeholders to be “climate-smart” and thus weather ready.

The NWS Climate Services Branch is currently developing guidance and building capacity for operational staff for the provision of S2S DSS. This includes developing online tools, training, and outreach support, including fact sheets, standard presentations, and talking points.