Lessons Learned from a Multi-Sector Partnership for Severe Weather Warning Research-to-Operations

CASA (the center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere), an academic research center, and the North Texas public safety community have created a multi-sector partnership to operate a unique research-to-operations platform for severe weather warning systems for tornadoes, thunderstorms, and urban flash floods. The CASA DFW network of seven x-band radars provides real-time observations and forecasts for public safety decision-making and serves as a platform to advance high-resolution warning systems. This talk will describe the on-going R20 process for the CASA quantitative precipitation estimation system, which fuses dual pol observations from the CASA x-band and the local NEXRAD radar to create high-resolution rainfall observations and nowcasts. It will discuss our R2O experience with three different stakeholders, NWS Fort Worth forecasters, local stormwater managers, and emergency managers, and their use of the QPE system for flash flood decision-making. Topics included are lessons learned for transitioning research in a living-lab environment, how different stakeholders learn to trust and use new products, and how the organizational structure of the partnership supports both researcher and practitioner goals.