Comm Profs Receive Noaa Grant

Research seeks to improve severe weather warnings

UPDATE: COMM Researchers featured in Maryland Today.

Despite the development of largely effective warning systems, people routinely die from severe weather like tornadoes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency recently awarded Drs. Anita Atwell Seate, Brooke Fisher Liu, and Ji Youn Kim a $368,675 grant to improve how forecasters communicate severe weather threats.

Along with Co-PI Mr. Daniel Hawblitzel from the National Weather Service (NWS) Nashville, the UMD communication faculty will conduct workshops with NWS forecasters and their broadcast media partners to co-construct messages to test in experiments with members of the public. The experiments will identify the most effective communication strategies to increase publics’ tornado literacy, message source trust, satisfaction with their weather forecast office, and appropriate protective action taking. In the final project stage, the research team will work with the NWS Training Center to develop new risk communication training modules for forecasters across the nation.