In response to the major hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, and Maria) that impacted the United States during the devastating 2017 hurricane season, congress has provided the Disaster Related Appropriations Supplemental (DRAS) funding as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The goal of the supplemental funding is to accelerate the weather community’s established plans for improving high priority operational warning and forecasting of hurricanes.  The project themes within the Improving Forecasting and Assimilation (IFAA) portfolio of the DRAS include 4 main focus areas:   

• Accelerate Improvements in Weather Forecasting
• Accelerate Improvements in Flood Forecasting and Mitigation
• Accelerate Improvements in Hurricane Intensity Forecasting
• Accelerate Data Assimilation from Observations to Improve Forecasting

These focus areas have been further broken down into 27 supplemental projects with appropriate funding. The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)/ Office of Weather and Air Quality (OWAQ) has partnered with the National Weather Service (NWS)/ Office of Science Technology Integration (STI), the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), National Ocean Service (NOS) and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) to ensure successful coordination, execution, and reporting of the 27 supplemental projects and funds. This session highlights the ongoing programmatic work and technical research that is conducted as a result of the hurricane supplemental funding. Participants are encouraged to submit programmatic as well as technical presentations related to the execution of these 27 projects. Additionally, all submitted talks will discuss how their research will accelerate the operational warning and forecasting of hurricanes and ultimately contribute to a Weather Ready Nation.