Overview of Weather-Ready Nation: Successes, Challenges, and Status of Implementation Plan

NOAA's mission of reducing loss of life, property, and the disruption from high impact weather, water, and climate-related events has existed since its inception. However, in recent years the significant societal impacts resulting even from well forecast extreme events have shifted the attention toward better decision support services for communities, businesses, and the public -- decisions ranging from years in advance such as coastal community planning to mitigate impacts from rising sea level, to farmers minimizing impacts from drought heading into growing season, to immediate lifesaving decisions such as a family seeking adequate shelter after their NOAA Weather Radio alerts them to a tornado warning.

To this end, NOAA is committed to building a "Weather-Ready Nation" where society is prepared for and responds appropriately to these events. Within the National Weather Service, the Weather-Ready Nation Roadmap describes what is needed to deliver the most relevant information and services for stakeholder and public decision-making. Action based on informed environmental information will result in better societal outcomes.

Discussion at AMS will center on a general overview of WRN activities, improvements to NOAA products/services, as well as details from the WRN Implementation Plan. The WRN Implementation Plan identifies specific actions such as the creation of an Impacts Catalog, decision support services training, expansion to 10-day forecast grids, and others.