Southern California Weather Events and Coordination Between NWS San Diego and the Local Broadcast Meteorological Community

Sunny skies, beautiful beaches, and warm temperatures...sounds like your typical day to day weather in Southern California right? Think again! Though known for it’s rather “quiet weather,” this area of the country has seen numerous high impact events that have made their way into a land with populations in the millions. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in San Diego have been through numerous complex weather events that affect thousands of citizens living across this densely populated area of California. This area of the country is quite diverse with events ranging from coastal and valley flooding, debris flows, extreme heat, and fires and snow storms in the mountains. Events include the recent Holy and Cranston Fires which occurred in the summer of 2018, where thousands living below the recent burns are subject to debris flows. The NWS office continues to provide forecasts to emergency managers, fire weather, and media partners that are affected by the burn scars and other high impact weather disasters, such as winter weather in the San Bernardino mountains that affects a large tourism population. This presentation will discuss notable weather disasters that have lead the NWS office to work with local media and broadcast meteorologists to relay pertinent weather information during major weather disasters that have occurred in the NWS San Diego area of responsibility. One of the ways the NWS is working to improve this communication with its partners is by hosting local media workshops with the office’s three broadcast media markets. The workshops are designed to create a dialogue between broadcast and NWS meteorologists and other partners to better understand products and services, as well as how to create a sense of preparedness and weather awareness for the public. NWS San Diego has also been working to expand and innovate our social media program. This presentation will provide a great overview about what kinds of weather impact Southern California and how we are banding together in all sectors of meteorology to create weather aware communities via partnerships and social media.