Effective Public/Private Sector Partnerships for Building a Weather Ready Nation

To effectively establish a Weather Ready Nation, the weather enterprise must work closely and collaboratively to establish and maintain the observing assets and infrastructure required to properly observe, forecast and warn both the general public as well as weather sensitive commercial and industrial sector organizations. Given the many aspects of this endeavor, accomplishing it expeditiously and cost-effectively will require changes in traditional mindsets and methodologies. In particular, the expansion of observing assets required to improve forecasts must fully embrace the network of networks concept. Research to operations processes must be broadened and streamlined to ensure consideration of available and emerging technologies as well as their adoption and implementation in a timely manner. Both traditional and new message dissemination pathways that leverage existing capabilities and facilitate expanded reach must be utilized to their fullest. Investments must be made to more thoroughly understand the social sciences aspect of weather notifications and interpretation such that forecasts result in appropriate actions at critical times. Additionally, clear lines of services provision must be defined such that continued investment by both the public and private sectors will be encouraged, expanded and utilized to its fullest. Weather has a significant impact on the safety and economic well-being of our nation, thus it is imperative that a strong public private partnership exists to meet this challenge. This presentation will explore the current state of the enterprise relative to partnering to achieve a truly Weather-Ready Nation.