When Weather Matters:
Science and Service to Meet
Critical Societal Needs
Rebecca E. Morss
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Outline
• Background
– National Research Council
– U.S. Weather Research Program
• Development of NRC report
– Committee
– Summer workshop
– Report writing and review process
• Report content
Summer Workshop
Five themes:
– Socioeconomic impacts
– Observations / data assimilation / model
development
– Very high impact weather
– Quantitative precipitation and hydrologic
predictions
– The unique challenges of topography and
urbanization
1. Introduction
– Historical Developments in U.S. Weather Research
– Motivation for the Current Study
– The Challenge
2. Socioeconomic Research and Capacity
3. Established Weather Research and Transitional Needs
– Predictability and Global Non-hydrostatic Coupled Modeling
– Quantitative Precipitation Estimation and Forecasting
– Hydrologic Prediction
– Mesoscale Observational Needs
4. Emerging Weather Research and Transitional Needs
– Very High Impact Weather
– Urban Meteorology
– Renewable Energy Siting and Production
5. Conclusion
Recommendation
(Very High Impact Weather)
The federal agencies and their state and local
government partners, along with private–sector
partners, should place high priority on providing not
only improved weather forecasts but also explicit
impact forecasts …
This will include
– end–to–end participation by multiple sectors and disciplines
(including modelers, observationalists, forecasters, social
scientists, and end users) to jointly design and implement
impacts–forecasting systems
– multi–disciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs that
can address the emerging field of VHI weather–impacts
prediction, risk assessment and management, and
communication …