In early February, the High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) became an ambassador for the Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) program. This initiative is an effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to recognize NOAA partners for contributing to the nation’s resilience to extreme weather and climate events. WRN Ambassadors are charged with promoting WRN messages to their stakeholders, collaborating with NOAA personnel on potential projects that support the initiative, communicating examples of successful preparedness and resiliency activities, and educating colleagues on workplace preparedness. In return, NOAA will provide various means of support for these efforts.
Natalie Umphlett, Regional Climatologist and Interim Director of the HPRCC, applied on behalf of the Center to become a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador because the HPRCC believes it is important for people to be prepared for the weather and climate challenges we face now and will face in the coming years. “I thought this was a perfect opportunity to have formal recognition of current HPRCC efforts, many of which support the goals of Weather-Ready Nation,” Umphlett said. The HPRCC houses many climate decision-support tools on its website that help people stay informed of the recent, current, and future climate conditions, including customizable data summaries, climate summary maps, monthly/quarterly outlooks and impacts reports, and webinars.
The WRN initiative began in 2011 as a result of the tornado outbreaks that impacted locations such as Joplin, Missouri and Birmingham, Alabama. The high number of fatalities prompted NOAA’s National Weather Service, the agency that is responsible for issuing severe weather warnings to the public, to begin exploring how to improve the public’s response to such warnings. The initiative has been successful thus far and several efforts by NOAA have emerged, such as providing wireless emergency alerts directly to cell phones and joining the National Drought Resilience Partnership to provide better public access to drought information. The WRN Ambassador initiative is open to academic, government, non-government, and private business organizations, as the program is intended to unify efforts and result in partnerships across sectors.
Umphlett said that collectively, this network of partnerships has the potential to reach millions of people – millions who may not be aware of the WRN program and the importance of preparedness. “The HPRCC will continue to support the goals of Weather-Ready Nation in order to build a society that is truly resilient in the face of extreme weather and climate events.”
For more information on NOAA’s Weather-Ready Nation initiative, please go to: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/.
Learn more about the HPRCC and its products and services: http://www.hprcc.unl.edu.
Article written by Crystal J. Stiles
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/kx8f