The National Weather Service Impacts Catalog

One of the goals of NOAA's Weather-Ready Nation initiative is for the NWS to improve forecasts, warnings, and information for events that threaten lives and livelihoods through provision of Impact-Based Decision Support Services, or IDSS. This change is transforming the NWS from simply disseminating what weather will occur to also enabling Core Partners to communicate how and when the weather will affect communities. To improve IDSS, the NWS is developing an Impacts Catalog, consisting of known societal impacts of climate, water, and weather dependent events.

The Impacts Catalog is used to help forecasters issue forecasts and warnings more relevant to known societal vulnerabilities. Impact information has also proved useful in NWS weather and hazard briefings (external and internal), and in development of web and social media content. This presentation will focus on operational benefits and uses of the NWS Impacts Catalog along with examples of its utility in provision of information relevant to societal vulnerabilities.