St Jude’s Storm Communications Process and Lessons Learned

The Met Office has a strong communications process, which was particularly well shown last winter, when the UK had one of its stormiest seasons on record. The so-called “St Jude's” storm was particularly well handled, with a lead time for warnings of five days, and a public reach of 93%. However, the communications process is not perfect, we still have lessons to learn, not least from the US, where social science has been integrated with physical science to better the communication of forecasts and warnings to the public, and with only around 50% of the British public taking action as a result of the St Jude's warnings, this might be a crucial next step for us in the UK.