Decision Support Symposium

1. Decision Support Symposium Vision and Goals John J. Brost NWS Amarillo

2. Some Background • Previous few years • Greater emphasis on Decision Support Services • Personal interaction with decision makers • Conference calls/GoToMeetings, on site met support • ICS training • Potential Problems • Consistency • 14 forecasters on staff – means 14 different styles • Too much information • Overwhelming graphics • Technical jargon • Not enough information • Missing the needs of our customers

3. We Started With A Couple Questions Are we serving our customers needs? How can we improve?

4. The Vision • Start with a symposium • Gather together and share customer needs, “best practices”, innovative ideas, and suggestions for the future

5. The Goal • Improve decision support services by: • Building stronger relationships with partners • Gaining a better understanding of customer needs/roles in the decision making process • Laying the foundation for the future • Also – help our partners understand what services we can provide • How we (NWS) can be utilized for decision making

6. Build Relationships The Design Utilize Break Out Sessions Bring in Diverse and Gifted Speakers Allow Plenty of Time for Discussion Improved Decision Support Services

7. Preparation • Conducted “Mini-Meetings” with specific partner groups • Emergency Managers • Fire Officials/Law Enforcement • School Superintendants • TXDOT • Informally discussed NWS products and services

8. The Structure • Two “In Person” and two Conference Calls • Questions ranged from general likes/dislikes to specific examples of successes/failures • Received extremely valuable feedback • Broke JJ’s Pre-conceived notions

9. The Results Here is what our customers had to say.

10. Emergency Managers/TXDOT • Amarillo EM provides twice weekly weather briefings to other agencies • They increase staffing for Red Flag Warnings • Observe a status of “Weather Watch” when severe weather – specifically Tornados – are anticipated • Winter weather offers major impacts • Resource distribution • Road closures NWS EM Agency 3 Agency 1 Agency 2

11. Fire Weather Customers • Agencies increase to max staffing for Red Flag warningsor during long term droughts • Population increase fire potential increase • Weekends/Holidays • National Park patrons • Appreciate the extra “Fire Specific” info on fire weather conf. calls

12. Specific Comments “Temperatures are not thatimportant to me” “It’s not just fire folks on these calls”

13. School Superintendants • Winter weather = biggestimpact • 5 am – 8 am is a critical time • Notify of significant weather by 4 am if possible • Also – storms after lunch are hard to deal with • Buses not available, parents at work etc. • Not always available for a GoToMeeting or Conf Call – checking roads • Weather Radio is very important

14. Some Requests • Sectorize the Winter Weather Impact Statement • Cut to the nitty gritty with the impacts • Bulleted WSW products may be a big help • Weekly weather briefing – mainly for fire weather season • Obs on front page update more often than hourly • Plume model can be confusing – a phone call would help

15. Main Complaint • Late comers interrupt calls and request information that had already been covered • Noise on calls due to un-muted phone lines

16. Thank You! • Contact Info: • John.Brost@noaa.gov • (806) 335-1121