WxEM Wave 8

This report describes the results of a regularly distributed survey of nationwide Emergency Managers (EMs) as part of The Extreme Weather and Emergency Management Survey (WxEM) series. This project aims to send surveys to EMs across the United States three to four times a year, although that frequency may change based on EM and research needs. The Extreme Weather and Emergency Management Survey, Wave 8 (WxEM Wave 8) was designed by the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA) at the University of Oklahoma and collaborators from the Global System Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. It is the eighth survey in the series. WxEM Wave 8 opened on May 29, 2025, using an online questionnaire and has been completed by 246 EM personnel that were recruited from an IPPRA built database of EMs from across the country (see Wanless et al. 2023a for more info on recruitment). WxEM Wave 8 follows surveys that covered a variety of topics, working to better understand Emergency Management operations, especially in the weather space. Wave 8 investigated Emergency Manager workflows across a variety of weather hazards, and how operations are shaped by NWS forecast information. This report presents an overview of the methodology of the survey data collection, and a reproduction of the survey instrument with frequencies for the questions that elicited numeric responses.