Online training available from the National Weather Service's Warning Decision Training Branch

The Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) develops and delivers training on the integrated elements of the warning process within a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Weather Service (NWS) forecast office. Much of this training is delivered in an online form that is freely available for meteorologists outside the NWS to enhance their education.

The WDTB website (http://www.wdtb.noaa.gov/) serves as the opening portal to a variety of online courses that touch on the fundamental contributors to severe weather warning decisionmaking including technology, scientific principals, and human factors. Technological contributors include an entire course on the WSR-88D called the Distance Learning Operations Course (DLOC). A broad variety of online courses deal with scientific principals such as the recognition of severe convective storms and winter storm forecasting. Other courses cover topics in human factors that may range from effectively communicating risk to conducting a post-mortem on a significant event.

This presentation will provide an overview of the training available in WDTB and how meteorologists outside the NWS may utilize this material. In addition, we will demonstrate some of the tools that may be useful to other organizations.