Story time! Communicating risk through NWS Western Region's weather stories

Over the last few years, weather stories have become a popular way to express the daily weather forecast for many local offices of the National Weather Service. Using a map with symbols and a small verbal description, forecasters hope to convey the top risk, or top story of the day. Within the Western Region of the NWS, many local offices have created their own version of a weather story creating a variety of story types. The goal of this study is to find out how each local office of the NWS in Western Region is using weather stories, as well as to understand what symbols forecasters are using to convey story details. The evaluation will help lead to guidelines for how to create a weather story from a forecaster perspective. Results of the study will be presented, and future research will be discussed.