Training on the Role of the Human in the Warning Process

How does the National Weather Service train its forecasters to communicate with each other and address the human factors during severe thunderstorm, tornado, and flash flood warning operations?

The National Weather Service (NWS) Radar and Applications Course (RAC), delivered by NWS’s Warning Decision Training Division (WDTD), provides instruction on the fundamentals of convective and flash flood warnings to all NWS operational meteorologists and hydrologists and is one of the few courses required of all NWS forecasters. The course includes over 120 hours of recorded training modules, hands-on applied performance drills, and instructor-led live webinars. It then culminates in a 40–hour workshop consisting primarily of displaced-real-time simulations of convective and flash flood events. It includes topics such as WSR-88D radar fundamental operations, diagnosing convective and flash flood environments, detecting radar signatures for convective and flash flood hazards, and the content and shape of convective and flash flood warnings.

Since the 2000s, the workshop has also included a session on the first day to remind forecasters that they, the human behind the warning, are fundamental to the warning decision making process We emphasize that the goal of the workshop is to level up their warning skills, learn from their mistakes, and build good warning and communications habits that they can take back to their home offices . Also, for over a decade, WDTD partnered with NWS’s leadership training division (now known as the Leadership Academy) to also include a session within the workshop on general communication and team dynamics. Since 2018, the objectives of the workshop have expanded to focus on developing communication skills in the specific context of warning operations and to give forecasters the tools needed to better address their mental and physical health during warning operations.

Within the past year, WDTD and the Leadership Academy have partnered to again expand the training profile of the human in the warning process for NWS’s early career operational meteorologists. RAC now includes interactive distance learning modules on the role of the human in warning operations, team communications, and addressing health during warning operations, including a homework assignment to ramp up to discussion at the RAC workshop. RAC students then apply and practice these lessons at the RAC workshop and participate in facilitated discussions of those lessons learned before and during the RAC workshop that they can apply at their own offices. The modules are available to all meteorologists wanting to refresh their knowledge and skills, whether in NWS or not. While NOAA employees can take them through our learning management system, anyone can access the modules via our website.