Evolving the NWS: The Impacts Catalog Component

In response to more frequent and intense weather events and improving consistency in messaging, the National Weather Service (NWS) has been developing an “Impacts Catalog” (IC) capability to improve situational awareness, to support decision making by a subset of core partners, and to create a foundation for consistency of Impact-based Decision Support Services (IDSS) within NWS operations.

The IC capability is a key component of NWS’ activities that are evolving the agency toward building a Weather-Ready Nation. The core IC functionality is the development of internal notifications when an environmental parameter for an event or general weather impact (e.g., wind speeds for a specific location) has been reached or exceeded. Each function of the IC aims to deepen situational awareness and to support decision making for public safety.

Since the IC capability is in prototype stage, this presentation will go over the fundamental features, functions, and outcomes from early testing. We will also provide examples on how the this experimental tool is proposing to help to improve communication with our partners and to enhance our capacity to deliver IDSS.