An Improved Communication Approach During Tropical Cyclones

Beginning with the 2015 hurricane season, the National Weather Service (NWS) will implement a new and improved suite of gridded and text products to better facilitate decision making during a tropical cyclone. The products include the Hurricane Local Statement (HLS), Hurricane Local Watch/Warning Product (TCV) and the Hurricane Threats and Impacts (HTI) grids and derived graphics. These products all combine to provide an assessment of the storm's threats and potential impacts by distilling complex probabilistic and deterministic data into guidance decision makers and the general public can use to take protective action.

Each of the products fosters different aspects of decision support. The HTI provide a visual representation of the threat along with the potential impacts associated with that threat. This collaborated information then feeds into the HLS and TCV text products. The HLS provides an area-wide overview of the storm and is suitable for media and others who need a succinct narrative of the storm and its range of threats across the Weather Forecast Office (WFO) area of responsibility while detailing the greatest possible potential impacts. The TCV then breaks down the information in great detail for all forecast zones under a tropical wind threat.

This presentation will outline this product transformation and describe how the process was informed by collaboration between NWS experts and social science research. Examples of the various products based on historic events will be shown in order to provide context of this transformation.