Since June of 1997, users from over 65 public-safety agencies across Oklahoma have gained access (in three phases) to localized and current weather information to aid in their decision-making. These users are participants in the OK-FIRST (OKlahoma’s First-response Information Resource using Telecommunications) program, which provides information from Oklahoma Mesonet stations, data from 15 NEXRAD radars plus national and regional mosaics, and other relevant types of environmental information. Each user also received training on the access and application of this data.
The leadership of OK-FIRST desires the program to evolve based heavily upon input from the user community. Thus, periodic evaluations and discussions have been held to obtain suggestions for future enhancements to the display software, product selection, training content, applications of the data, etc. In addition, analysis of product usage helps to determine objectively how the users access the decision-support system during the “heat of battle.” For example, a heavily-used product has been a textual table of storm attributes that summarize output from WSR-88D algorithms (e.g., storm centroid location given in azimuth and range from the radar, presence or absence of mesocylcones or tornadic vortex signatures, probability of hail and severe hail, hail size, etc.) The users suggested a graphical representation of the attribute table to reduce the difficulty encountered when trying to match a given set of attributes with the proper storm (the attributes and radar image were not displayed concurrently). Resulting enhancements to the radar display software included the overlay of a specific symbol on the radar image and a cursor tracking feature so appropriate attributes would be displayed in a legend pane as the mouse pointer moves over the corresponding storm.
It seems appropriate to publish some of the experiences of the OK-FIRST program because other states have shown interest in creating programs similar to OK-FIRST and because of the future deployment of the LDAD (Local Data Acquisition and Dissemination) component of AWIPS. Thus, this paper will present results from a survey questionnaire, participant interviews, and product usage statistics derived from actual users of a decision-support system which was designed to encourage the use of weather data during emergency situations