SSWR Grant Final Report

NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters and the broadcast media commonly use maps to communicate tornado risk to the U.S. public; however, little research has been conducted to explore the effects of tornado warning map content and design on risk perceptions and decision-making. The NOAA-funded study NA12OAR4590118 is an important contribution to knowledge in this area, examining the ways modern-day tornado warning maps are interpreted and then comparing those interpretations to those evoked by potential future technologies. In particular, this research examined the decision-shaping properties of longer lead-times as depicted on a map (i.e., larger risk spaces), inquired about what happens when people find themselves inside or outside of tornado warning polygons of various lengths, and explored the effects of rendering explicit on a map the probability that a given thunderstorm will produce a tornado at points downstream. 2015 Grant no. NA12OAR4590118 NWS (National Weather Service) OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) WPO (Weather Program Office) Submitted Public Domain 1931