Bikes, Brats, Bucks, Brewers…and Beer! The Sixth American Meteorological Society Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication Heads to Milwaukee, Wisconsin!
The Sixth Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication, sponsored by the AMS and organized by the AMS Board on Societal Impacts, was held 14-17 June 2022 — in conjunction with the 49th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology — at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee.
As communicators of weather forecasts and other natural hazard information, we are often faced with the task of conveying complex data to audiences that have varying levels of scientific literacy, and which may be faced with different risks depending on their location and vulnerabilities. Historically, risk communicators have attempted to ease this complexity by preparing information into easy-to-understand packages—developing and communicating via scales, categories, and indexes that often rely on symbologies, color schemes and binary spatial classifications. To that end, in the weather, climate, and natural hazard community we’ve developed and used the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the Winter Storm Severity Index, the Palmer Drought Severity Index—just to name a few—in an attempt to classify natural phenomena into succinct, easy-to-communicate bins.
These well-intended communication shortcuts have presented their own set of challenges, however. While the attempts have intended to enhance shared understanding between meteorological experts and public groups, and to invoke protective action decision-making by publics, each of these groups often “unpackages” the information in their own unique ways, which can lead to miscommunication across groups. For example: how are public groups understanding this packaged information? Is it clear to publics and decision makers that some scales only address one aspect of a weather event (i.e., the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale only categorizes storms based on the maximum wind speed in a storm), or that other communication schemes conflate two or more hazards together (i.e., a severe thunderstorm warning can be issued for strong winds and/or large hail)? Can any of these schemes effectively communicate risk when there are concurrent weather threats (e.g., overlapping tornado and flash flood warnings during a severe weather outbreak). Do institutional policies and/or limitations related to the communication platform contribute to the selection, and potential omission, of critical pieces of weather information by communicators/broadcasters? How does interaction across groups shape the perception and communication of weather and climate risk?
We will also be soliciting abstracts that focus on communicating with audiences of different abilities and methods for receiving and taking up warning information, for example, those from the deaf and hard of hearing communities or others who identify as blind or with visual impairments?
How do members of these communities seek out and receive weather information? How do text alerts and captioning influence warning dissemination and response? In other words, how does access to these needed information resources influence warning decisions and hazard experience? What role do broadcast meteorologists play in aiding these communities and if/how does the style/practice of broadcasting with deaf or hard of hearing communities differ from styles of communication with people who don’t identify as belonging to this group?
Oral and poster presentations were solicited on all topics related to the effective communication of weather and climate information, including observations, assessments, forecasts, and warnings. And student presentations are encouraged! Of special interest were abstracts related to:
An abstract fee of $95 was charged at the time of submission (refundable only if the abstract is not accepted). This abstract fee also covered the costs for submission of an extended electronic manuscript and digital recording of all oral presentations.
Authors of accepted presentations were notified via e-mail by mid-March. These authors are strongly encouraged to submit an extended abstract electronically by 14 July 2022. Instructions for formatting extended abstracts (PDF format, up to 10 MB in size) are posted on the AMS website. All abstracts, extended abstracts and presentations will be available on the AMS website at no cost.
The program chairs encouraged students to submit their posters and oral presentations for consideration for awards. A total of six awards were distributed for oral presentations (1st ($100), 2nd ($75), 3rd ($50) place) and poster presentations (1st ($100), 2nd ($75), and 3rd ($50) place).
A subcommittee evaluated presentations and recommend winners based on criteria that include (1) Quality of the research being conducted (e.g. research design, methods, reporting of results); (2) Relevance of research to the Symposium and conference theme; (3) Quality of oral or poster presentation design (e.g. clear slides, understandable graphics, readability of text); and (4) Communication skills (e.g. engaging the audience, pacing of presentation, ability to answer Q&As).
To be eligible for the presentation awards, you must be a full-time undergraduate or graduate student enrolled at a university at the time of abstract submission, and you also must be the lead author, personally presenting the work.
For additional information please contact the program chairs: Robbie Berg, NOAA / National Weather Service / National Hurricane Center, Miami, Florida ([email protected]) and Jennifer Spinney, Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Toronto, Canada ([email protected]).
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