Social Science and Severe Weather: Evaluating a New Tornado Risk Communication Tool

December 8, 2014

Wisconsin Sea Grant

Wisconsin Sea Grant worked with the National Weather Service to evaluate a new tornado risk communication tool. The tool called impact-based warnings tells the public what impacts to expect during a severe thunderstorm or tornado. For example, instead of describing the size of hail or wind speed, it communicates that trees will fall down, mobile homes will be destroyed, or people will be killed if outside. It takes the guesswork out of the forecast. The tool improves upon past NWS communication by differentiating between severity levels, efficiently communicating the threat, providing the source of weather information, and using simple, concise, and attention-grabbing language.

Arctic seascape with scattered icebergs, rocky shoreline, and distant snow-capped mountains under a partly cloudy sky, as the ice begins to melt in the warming sun.

Alaska

Expanding and Connecting Tribal-Led Climate Change Capacity To Serve Indigenous Community Needs In Alaska

As winter ice melts along the Alaska shoreline, revealing mud and water, snowmelt floods threaten property and lives. The rising waters from thawing snow can

Sea Grant announces new projects to address community needs regarding contaminants of emerging concern

Gavin Dehnert, an Emerging Contaminants Scientist at Wisconsin Sea Grant, investigates the impact of emerging contaminants on aquatic ecosystems. (Photo Credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant.) Coastal

Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative awards $5.4 million to further innovative research and outreach in support of the lobster industry and fishing communities

Since 2019, Sea Grant’s American Lobster Initiative has addressed critical knowledge gaps about the American lobster and its fishery facing a dynamic and changing environment. The Initiative supports a regional extension program in the Northeast and a national research competition. Fifteen emerging research projects were selected in 2023 and 2024 for $4.6 million in federal funding by the NOAA National Sea Grant College Program. Coordinated by Maine Sea Grant since 2019, the Northeast lobster extension program was recently renewed with an $840,000 federal award that supports work through 2026.