The National Weather Service

Helping to Build a Weather-Ready Nation

546 Fatalities from1,748 Tornadoes

Historic U.S. Floods

6 Million Acres Burned

2011: A Year of Extremes~600 Fatalities and $50 Billion in Economic Losses

Devastating Blizzards

Pacific Tsunami

Source: Property Claims ServiceMR NatCatSERVICE

U.S. Thunderstorm Loss TrendsAnnual Totals 1980 – 2010 vs. First Half 2011 U.S. Thunderstorm Loss TrendsAnnual Totals 1980 – 2010 vs. First Half 2011

Average thunderstorm losses have increased fivefold since 1980.Average thunderstorm losses have increased fivefold since 1980.

First Half 2011 $16.4 bn

• Extreme impacts from weather, water, climate events

• Population growth and demographic changes

• Technological dependence

• Water Availability—too much, too little, quality

A Changing World

Society Increasingly Vulnerable

A Changing World

Society Increasingly Vulnerable

Is the U.S. Weather-Ready?

The Vision:Build a Weather-Ready Nation

Is the U.S. Weather-Ready?

The Vision:Build a Weather-Ready Nation

Building a Weather-Ready Nation

A Weather-Ready Nation: Society is Prepared for and

Responds to Weather-Dependent Events

Vision

Provide weather, water, and climate data, forecasts and

warnings • Protect life and property

• Enhance national economy

Mission

6

• Improve warning accuracies and lead times for high-impact weather and water events

• Exploit probability information to communicate uncertainty

• Improve community emergency preparedness and response

GOAL 1: Improve weather decision services for events that threaten

lives and livelihoods

Meeting the Nation’s Needs

Building a Weather-Ready Nation

Meeting the Nation’s Needs

Building a Weather-Ready Nation

Test Projects

• A total of nine test projects have been planned to support the key concepts of the NWS Roadmap

• Plans are underway to launch six this fall:– National Operations Center– Regional Operations Center– WFO Provision of IDSS in Coastal Environment– WFO provision of IDSS in Urban Environment– Ecological forecasting

– Warn-on-forecast test

8Making the extraordinary ordinary

The SR ROC Pilot Project

• Support to our field offices• Support to partners

– States– FEMA– National Media

• Support to our agency leadership• Helping to communicate Decision Support

Services throughout the NWS