Ensuring Future Mental Balance in the Meteorological Community: Per Climate Change on Extreme Weather and Climate-Related Events

Ensuring Future Mental Balance in The Meteorological Community: Per Climate Change on Extreme Weather and Climate-Related Events

Jason B. Wright¹ Roberto Garcia-Hiraldo², Alex Hoon³

¹National Weather Service Nashville Forecast Office, Old Hickory, TN

²National Weather Service San Juan Forecast Office, Carolina, PR

³National Weather Service Reno Forecast Office, Reno, NV

As impacts from climate change increasingly threaten the health and well-being of the world's population, scientists must ensure that all people, particularly populations that are already vulnerable, are adequately prepared for an increase in extreme weather events. However, meteorologists cannot achieve this objective without first taking a hard look at how weather events can influence mental health and mental health awareness within the meteorological community itself. Mental health is already a significant issue to the meteorological community due to stresses such as rotational shift work and the potential impacts of extreme weather on one’s own family and community. As these extreme weather events continue to increase, it is expected that related impacts to meteorologists’ mental health will follow suit.

This study presents the mental health impacts of two recent extreme events on the meteorological community: Hurricane Maria in September 2017 to the National Weather Service Forecast Office San Juan, Puerto Rico and the Camp Fire of November 2018 (that burned the town of Paradise, California) to National Weather Service Incident Meteorologists. Furthermore, we will discuss current best practices to improve mental health and mental health awareness, such as implementation of temporary breaks and rotation in work assignments during prolonged extreme weather events. We will present additional recommendations, such as ensuring full and proper staffing of meteorologist positions and increasing knowledge of the importance of physical exercise options in meteorology facilities. By mitigating the mental health impacts of extreme weather to the meteorological community, it will ensure meteorologists are fully able to forecast and prepare the world’s population for an increase in extreme weather.