Implementing the new Enhanced Fujita scale within the NWS

As the NOAA/NWS damage surveyors begin to employ the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF-scale) in February 2007, they will be confronted with a more complicated scale than before. Compared to the relatively simplistic Fujita scale, the EF-scale has 28 Damage Indicators (DI) and up to 12 degrees of damage for each DI. A damage surveyor new to the EF-scale faces a relatively steep learning curve and as a result there is a higher risk of failure to properly adopt the new scale. To maximize the potential for successful implementation of the EF-scale, the Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) is leading a team of damage survey experts to develop a short course to be taken by every NWS employee with damage survey responsibilities. The goal of the short course is to effectively integrate the EF-scale into the post storm damage assessment. WDTB and its collaborators intended three components to maximize learning retention and use of the EF-scale: 1) two web-based asynchronous modules presented by widely recognized damage survey experts, 2) an operational Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) that can be used as a tool during the damage survey, and 3) support from recognized damage survey experts to be utilized by survey team leads. We will elaborate on these three strategies in more detail; an emphasis to be placed on the EPSS, aptly called the EF-kit. Both the web-based modules and the EF-kit will be available to everyone.