Bridging the Knowledge Gap: The Role Of The Broadcast Meteorologists in Enabling Successful Citizen Science

Citizen Science has been used to engage the public in reporting geophysical (e.g., USGS 'Did You Feel It') and hydro-meteorological (e.g., mPING - Meteorological Phenomena Identification Near the Ground) hazards that they have experienced. These tools are simple to use and allow scientist to confirm what was felt or experienced. However, such citizen science reporting tools are primarily focused on recording the physical impacts of these hazards.

When discussing disasters, it is the impact on human populations that is often of concern, but citizen science as a route to better understanding the needs of underserved populations as well as understanding the coping mechanisms of the wider population are in still their infancy. One such Citizen Science tool is the NSSL developed ‘Tornado Tales’ web survey application – https://apps.nssl.noss.gov/tornado-tales

Tornado Tales is aimed at individuals who have experienced severe weather, in particular tornadoes. Specific questions in the web-based App are aimed at discovering whether tornado watches and warnings were received, and if they were, how they were received as well as what action citizens did or did not take. These will help to reveal if there are any gaps in messaging by the National Weather Service and/or Broadcast Meteorologists alongside understanding what the public do/don’t do and can/can’t do when watches and warnings are issued, alongside why.

The web-based App allows citizens to be involved as part of the overall scientific endeavor, helping scientists and researchers understand what helps increase survivability to tornadoes as well as what undermines it.

However, developing and launching this web-based application is not enough on its own. Citizen Scientist need to be recruited and engaged enough to fill out the survey (average time to complete four to five minutes), following a tornado producing storm. Such recruitment is greatly enhanced when broadcast meteorologists share that this tool exists and why it is useful. This presentation will outline what the citizen science tool asks, why this is important and how broadcast meteorologists can and have made a difference when tornadoes have occurred.

A brief case study explores how this occurred in early June 2022, shortly after the web app was launched alongside a NOAA press release. In this event, broadcast meteorologist were key knowledge brokers, trusted by the public when sharing that this survey existed. This had a huge impact and the data gathered from a verified event allowed for a better understanding of what the public did and at what point in time.

However, this has been one of only two events where this has occurred. We need more data from a wider range of tornadoes to help build a generalizable data set that can help bring insight to the tornado watch and warning continuum as interpreted and acted upon by the public. A key component of this continuum is broadcast meteorologists who have the ears and (sometimes) the hearts of the public in their media markets.