An Overview of the 2017 Experimental Warning Program at the Hazardous Weather Testbed

The Experimental Warning Program (EWP) is an entity of the Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT) whose goal is to improve National Weather Service (NWS) severe weather warnings by testing new products. For the past 11 years the EWP has brought researchers, developers, NWS forecasters, private companies, emergency managers, social scientists, and meteorologist broadcasters together in Norman, OK to evaluate and provide feedback how the experimental products and software contributed to new warning methods.

In 2017, the EWP hosted 3 formal product experiments over the course of 11 weeks. In total, 28 forecasters, 30 scientists, 7 weather broadcasters, and 6 emergency managers participated in the experiments. The NWS forecasters use AWIPS2 software to evaluate these products in both realtime and displaced realtime cases. Along with the experimental data, the full operational product suite is available and we can emulate any NWS office. Experimental data collected include experimental warnings, blog posts, surveys, and video recordings. Among the experiments in 2017 were: (1) the Hazard Services – Probabilistic Hazard Information Experiment, in which probabilistic guidance was evaluated in AWIPS-2, (2) the Prototype Probabilistic Hazard Information Experiment, in which a prototype tool for probabilistic hazard guidance was tested, and (3) the GOES-16 / JPSS Convective Applications Experiment, in which satellite and lightning products were tested. Based on the evaluation and feedback, the EWP provides a vital component in the successful transition between research and operations.