Tomorrow’s SPC Today: Broadcaster and Emergency Manager Responses to Next-Generation Convective Outlook Visualization Tools

The Storm Prediction Center’s (SPC) convective outlook has been an object of intense research attention in the past five years. Studies have investigated public interpretation of the convective outlook’s verbal and visual risk presentation in multiple languages, the feasibility of forecasting conditional intensity of severe storms, and the value of integrated storm timing forecasts in the SPC product suite. However, no single study has yet attempted to combine the lessons learned from these studies into a unified prototype “Outlook 2.0” that could be presented to core partners. As part of the 2024 Hazardous Weather Testbed, this study presented focus groups of broadcast meteorologists and emergency managers with a series of prototype risk word scales and forecasts for storm timing and intensity using an interactive SPC outlook viewer. Participants were asked to give feedback about how they thought access to a viewer like the prototype would change their workflow leading up to severe weather events, and what preferences they had towards the different word scales and forecast products made available to them in the system. Analysis of these results will help guide the development of the next-generation of public-facing severe convective weather forecast products produced by the SPC.