Effective Communication- What WE Have Learned

"Effective Communication What We've Learned"

The integration of social science expertise into the weather forecasting enterprise is now a reality. As we have seen during the many weather related disasters of 2011, a perfect forecast or forecast with excellent lead time, may still not mean the best decision by the user. As the forecast skill continues to increase, effective communication leading to the best weather related decision becomes critically important. Experienced weather broadcasters are still largely an untapped knowledge base of effective communication and "what works". We polled AMS and NWA Sealholders for just one example of something that was said, some graphic used, or a personal experience that really resonated with the public, viewers, users, listeners. The one memorable item they communicated that each broadcaster got very positive and long lasting feedback that said "I got it" or what you said/showed helped me make the decision I made. Special attention to those lifesaving instances which proved to be "once in a lifetime" events that viewers,listeners, users used to make the correct and best decision. The best examples will be shared at the conference and all the responses (anonymous if requested) will be shared with all and possible published and certainly shared with NWS for their efforts at more effective communication in the future.