As weather changes continue to occur, an increasing number of medical and medical facility issues will emerge. Hospitals and clinics are currently operating at full capacity and the increased demand on EMT's/First Responders will place an increasing strain on already overburdened medical system. NWS/NOAA and The Weather Channel are engaged in efforts to assist the health sector's ability to use forecast information in medical facility preparedness. For example, if you knew the chances your medical facility would experience wind speeds of 39 mph, 58 mph, or 74 mph over a given time interval, how would this impact your decision to add staff or evacuate patients before losing power? Or if you knew one week prior to an ice storm, if patients in a given area would need emergency room care how would this improve your medical decisions to staff or order medical supplies? These services and products are provided as public service by NWS/NOAA at each of the local Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) around the country. Interpretation of weather forecast information is provided at each WFO through a Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM). Warning Coordination Meteorologists are available as a public service to assist the medical community interpret and understand forecast information prior to the event. However, private sector weather enterprise involvement is also needed to develop weather products in the after phase of a weather event. Furthermore, these weather briefings can help strengthen the Weather Enterprise public-private partnership as private sector meteorologists can offer individual medical facilities additional development of weather products tailored to individual medical facilities.
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