Next Generation Warnings

Transcript

1. Next Generation Warnings How Smartphones Can Dramatically Improve The Severe Weather Warning Process
2. Today I’m Not A Front End Developer • FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY 2008 • BACHELORS OF SCIENCE: METEOROLOGY • BACHELORS OF SCIENCE: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY • MINOR: CHEMISTRY • MINOR: MATHEMATICS • MINOR: PHYSICS • CERTIFICATION: SKYWARN STORM SPOTTER
3. Warnings Prior To 2007 • Issued by county • Generally for 45 minutes • We’re all familiar with this concept
4. Warnings Since 2007 • Counties no longer used • Forecasters draw a polygon over the storm’s path • The science has gotten advanced enough we can be more precise than large county areas
6. Nobody uses the new system. (Yet!)
7. Nobody Sees The New Warnings • TV stations still show warnings by overall counties, not polygons • NOAA Weather Radios are incapable of handling polygon warnings • Nobody takes advantage of 21st century technologies
8. The science of meteorology is outpacing our ability to communicate it.
9. The 4/27/11 Outbreak •359 tornadoes •Four EF-5 tornadoes •346 people killed •$11 billion in damage
10. Every fatal tornado had at least 22 minutes of warning lead time.
11. How Did 350 People Die?! • Forecast models predicted a major outbreak 5 days ahead • Tornado warnings were extremely accurate and issued with substantial lead time • TV coverage was excellent with several tornadoes broadcast live on tower cams
13. What Went Wrong • Two waves of storms 6 hours apart • Warnings so far advance people ignored them! • Adobe Flash: nobody could stream coverage on their phones
14. What We Can Do Today •We can use smartphones to warn people on a very specific basis right now! •More accurate than any other medium for conveying warnings.