NATIONAL WINDSTORM 

IMPACT REDUCTION PROGRAM

BIENNIAL PROGRESS REPORT TO CONGRESS

FOR FISCAL YEARS 2019 AND 2020
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Disclaimer 1: If certain trade names or company products are mentioned in the text, it is to 

specify experimental procedure and equipment used. In no case does such identification imply 

recommendation or endorsement by any of the agencies represented on the Interagency 

Coordinating Committee, nor does it imply that the equipment is the best available for the 

purpose.

Disclaimer 2: In this document, we have provided link(s) to website(s) that may have 

information of interest to our users. The Interagency Coordinating Committee agencies do not 

endorse the views expressed or the facts presented on these sites. Further, Interagency 

Coordinating Committee agencies do not endorse any commercial products that may be 

advertised or available on these sites.
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This progress report for the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP or 

Program) is submitted to Congress by the Interagency Coordinating Committee of NWIRP, as 

required by the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act (NWIRA) of 2004 (Public Law 108-

360, Title II), as amended by the NWIRA Reauthorization of 2015 (Public Law 114-52). 

Interagency Coordinating Committee

Dr. James Olthoff - Chair 

Performing the Non-exclusive Functions and Duties of Under Secretary of Commerce for 

Standards and Technology and NIST Director 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan

Director 

National Science Foundation 

Dr. Eric S. Lander

Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Executive Office of the President

Deanne Criswell

Administrator 

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

Richard W. Spinrad

Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

U.S. Department of Commerce

Shalanda Young

Deputy Director 

Office of Management and Budget 

Executive Office of the President
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NWIRP Windstorm Working Group1

Staff

Scott Weaver 

Director

National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Marc Levitan

Lead Research Engineer

National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program

National Institute of Standards and Technology

 

Judith Mitrani-Reiser 

Associate Division Chief for National Hazards 

Statutory Programs

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Tina Faecke

Management and Program Analyst

National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Members

Jason Averill

Bill Blanton

Dana Bres

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Housing and Urban Development 

Joel Cline

Sheila Duwadi

Alan Gerard

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Federal Highway Administration

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

Sharon Jasim-Hanif Department of Energy

Maria Honeycutt

Edward Laatsch 

Office of Science and Technology Policy

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Chungu Lu National Science Foundation

Jacqueline Meszaros Office of Science and Technology Policy (FY 2019)

National Science Foundation (FY 2020)

Kathryn Mozer

Shirley Murillo

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Robert O’Connor National Science Foundation

Joy Pauschke National Science Foundation

Long Phan

Pataya Scott

Adam Smith 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Federal Emergency Management Agency

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Jonathan Westcott Federal Emergency Management Agency

 

1 Windstorm Working Group members are agency representatives serving during the reporting period.
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Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary................................................................................................5

2. Background .........................................................................................................6

3. Windstorms and Their Impacts in 2019 and 2020 ..............................................................7

3.1 2019 ............................................................................................................8

3.2 2020 .............................................................................................................9

4. Post-Windstorm Coordination During the Reporting Period .................................................9

5. Progress in Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020 .......................................................................11

5.1 Goal A: Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Processes and Hazards ..........................11

5.2 Goal B: Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Impacts on Communities .......................14

5.3 Goal C: Improve the Resilience of Communities Nationwide ...........................................16

6. The Path Forward .................................................................................................19

Appendix A: Acronyms and Abbreviations........................................................................20

Appendix B: NWIRP Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Priorities..............................................22

Appendix C: Detailed NWIRP Agency Activities ................................................................23

Appendix D: NWIRP Coordinated Budget ........................................................................27
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1. Executive Summary

The National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP or Program) is a science- and engineeringbased program whose stated mission is to achieve major measurable reductions in losses of life and 

property from windstorms, through a coordinated federal effort in cooperation with other levels of 

government, academia, and the private sector. The four designated Program agencies are the National 

Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

(NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency 

(FEMA). This progress report Program is submitted to Congress by the Interagency Coordinating 

Committee of NWIRP, as required by the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act (NWIRA)

of 2004 (Public Law 108-360, Title II), as amended by the NWIRA Reauthorization of 2015 

(Public Law 114-52). This report fulfills the requirement for fiscal years (FY) 2019 and 2020.

Over the last 40 years, windstorms have caused over $1 trillion in economic losses and over 8,000 

fatalities in the United States, with the vast majority of these losses occurring during the last two decades. 

Despite these sobering statistics, the NWIRP agencies have made significant progress during this time of 

unprecedented increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather and concomitant societal 

impacts. In 2018, the Program agencies released the NWIRP Strategic Plan, which sets forth a researchto-applications paradigm that integrates foundational research in understanding windstorm behavior, 

applied research to understand windstorm impacts, and applications and technology transfer to improve 

the windstorm resilience of the Nation. The various agency-specific contributions and accomplishments 

in advancing the NWIRP research-to-applications paradigm during FYs 2019-20 are documented in 

section 5 and presented as a function of the NWIRP strategic goals. Highlights of these agency 

contributions include significant improvements in hurricane forecasts and increased tornado warning 

times, advancements in the science of wind mapping to inform engineering-based design standards, 

improved coordination practices and increased resources for scientific research in support of postwindstorm investigations, and implementation of post-windstorm research-based recommendations into 

codes and standards development processes such as provisions for windstorm resistant construction, a 

new storm shelter standard, and proposed inclusion of tornado wind loading factors for structural design.

In addition to the agency-specific contributions to windstorm impact reduction during the reporting 

period, NWIRP has strengthened interagency coordination mechanisms amongst the designated Program 

agencies. In its 2015 authorizing legislation (Public Law 114-52), the U.S. Congress directs NIST to 

“coordinate all Federal post-windstorm investigations, to the extent practicable.” In recognition of the 

need to devise formal guidance to implement this directive for landfalling tropical cyclones, in 2020 the 

NWIRP agencies developed a “Tropical Cyclone Coordination Plan for Science and Technology” – a 

living document that outlines the windstorm coordination roles of the NWIRP agencies across all phases 

of tropical cyclone (TC) disasters from pre- to post-landfall. Once fully implemented, this coordination 

plan will be used to guide scientific information sharing, agency decision making processes relevant to 

post-windstorm investigations, identification and development of scientific interagency collaborative 

opportunities, and information dissemination in the aftermath of TC disasters.

In 2020, NWIRP experienced significant challenges in efforts to reduce windstorm impacts due to 

operational and logistical challenges from restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NWIRP 

agencies were unable to send scientific investigative teams to continue longitudinal data collection from 
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previous disasters, or to assess the impacts from 2020’s extreme weather events. In the midst of a recordbreaking 2020 hurricane season, agencies often had minimal staffing on location, which led to challenges 

in optimizing coordination with stakeholders. Despite these challenges, the NWIRP agencies continued 

executing their missions to reduce windstorm impacts.

As windstorm impacts increase due to population and property valuation increases along the coast, and 

changing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, it is critical that the NWIRP agencies 

continue to implement the NWIRP Strategic Plan and identify new opportunities for improved synergy 

across scientific disciplines, interagency engagement, and education and outreach to amplify awareness of 

NWIRP and support the development of the next generation of windstorm scientists and engineers. The 

path forward for NWIRP includes: 

• expanding awareness of the NWIRP research-to-applications paradigm across the federal 

enterprise and beyond; 

• strengthening NWIRP post-windstorm assessments by supporting federal coordination with 

university-based researchers; 

• exploring the application of climate change model projections to inform the development of 

forward-looking national structural design standards, building codes, and other climate resilience 

applications; 

• supporting the implementation of recommendations from interagency post-windstorm research; 

and,

• integrating scientific advances in real-time extreme weather event forecasting and social sciences 

to enhance emergency communication and life safety warning information to the public.

The NWIRP agencies are committed to advancing these priorities to reduce windstorm impacts across the 

Nation.

2. Background 

Windstorms and associated flooding are the largest loss-producing natural hazards in the United States,

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with hurricanes and tornadoes comprising a majority of losses related to life and property. From 1980-

2020, windstorms caused over $1 trillion in economic losses and over 8,000 fatalities.3

 In recognition of 

the need to significantly decrease economic costs and loss of life, Congress established NWIRP.

4

NWIRP is a federal interagency science- and engineering-based Program focused on achieving major 

measurable reductions in losses of life and property from windstorms, through a coordinated federal effort

in cooperation with other levels of government, academia, and the private sector. The four designated 

Program agencies are NIST, NOAA, NSF, and FEMA.

Since NWIRP’s inception in 2004, the Program has made notable progress. This includes significant 

improvements in hurricane forecasts and increased tornado warning times, advancements in the science of 

wind mapping to inform engineering-based design standards, improved coordination practices and 

research support for post-windstorm investigations, and implementation of post-windstorm researchbased recommendations into codes and standards development processes such as provisions for 

2 Visit https://www.nist.gov/speech-testimony/calm-storm-reauthorizing-national-windstorm-impact-reduction-program.

3 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information. Billion-dollar weather and 

climate disasters: Table of events. Retrieved from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/events/US/1980-2020.

4 42 U.S.C. § 15703(a).
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windstorm resistant construction, a new storm shelter standard, and proposed inclusion of tornado wind 

loading factors for structural design. Despite these achievements, the Nation continues to experience 

increasing losses of life and property due to extreme weather events, as evidenced by the devastating 

severe weather and tornado outbreaks in 2011, 2013, and 2020 and the recent catastrophic hurricane 

seasons of 2005, 2012, 2016-18, and 2020.

Continuing to improve windstorm impact reduction measures requires a research-to-applications 

paradigm featuring a sustained and robust interdisciplinary approach based on:

• meteorological and climate science research to better understand the short- and long-term changes 

in the behavior and impact of windstorms on society;

• engineering research on improving new structures and retrofitting existing ones to better 

withstand windstorms; and

• social sciences research to understand economic and social factors influencing windstorm risk 

reduction measures. 

The primary functions of NWIRP are carried out by two interagency coordinating bodies. The Windstorm 

Working Group (WWG), comprised of scientists and program/portfolio leaders, meets approximately 

once per month to implement the Program. The Interagency Coordinating Committee, comprised of the 

heads of the four designated Program agencies (FEMA, NIST, NOAA, and NSF), the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB), and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), meets

annually to discuss the direction of the Program and make decisions regarding interagency 

implementation of the NWIRP Strategic Plan.

5 A detailed history of NWIRP statutory and technical 

Program activities from FYs 2005 through 2018 has been documented in a series of previous biennial 

reports to Congress.6

The structure of this report is as follows: 

• Section 3 presents a brief overview of windstorm impacts during FYs 2019-20. 

• Section 4 discusses NWIRP interagency post-windstorm coordination activities during the reporting 

period. 

• Section 5 details agency specific activities in support of the three NWIRP Strategic Goals. 

• Section 6 briefly articulates a shared vision for the path forward.

• Appendices include a listing of NWIRP strategic objectives and priorities, detailed descriptions of 

select agency technical activities, and recent interagency coordinated budget information.

3. Windstorms and Their Impacts in 2019 and 2020

Billion-dollar weather disasters are on the rise in the U.S. with severe weather and tropical systems (e.g., 

hurricanes) accounting for the majority of the increasing trend in economic losses from 1980-2020. After 

suffering historically destructive windstorm events in 2017 and 2018, the Nation experienced further 

increases in frequency and intensity of windstorm impacts in 2019 and 2020 (Figure 1). Over the course of 

those two years there were 30 windstorm disasters (21 severe storm and nine TC events) with losses 

5 https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2018/09/24/nwirp_strategic_plan.pdf.

6 NWIRP Biennial Reports to Congress, https://www.nist.gov/el/mssd/nwirp/biennial-reports-congress.
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exceeding $1 billion (Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjusted for inflation7) for each event across the U.S. The

20 events in 2020 exceeding $1 billion is astonishingly high – nine more events than occurred during the 

historic years of 2011 and 2017.8

Figure 1. Number of tropical cyclone (yellow) and severe storm (green) events from 1980-2020 exceeding one 

billion USD (inflation adjusted). The annual cost is in gray and its five-year running mean in black. Source: NOAA.

3.1 2019

Eight severe weather events (e.g., derechos, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and tornadoes) exceeding one billion 

dollars affected the U.S. in 2019, with most of the activity confined to the east of the Rockies. Although 2019 

had less overall TC activity when compared with the record-breaking 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons during 

the previous NWIRP reporting period, it was still the fourth consecutive above-average season, with 18 

named Atlantic basin storms (6 hurricanes, 3 major) that yielded $11.6 billion in losses and 15 fatalities in the 

U.S. Hurricane Dorian and Tropical Storm Imelda both exceeded $1 billion dollars in economic damage with

Imelda producing up to 36 inches of rainfall over the same area impacted by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, while

Hurricane Dorian narrowly missed rivaling the most destructive TCs in U.S. history. After a multiday 

trajectory toward the Florida coastline, Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Bahamas on September 1, raking the 

islands with category 5 winds and historic rainfall for over 24 hours before turning northward and impacting 

the outer banks of North Carolina as a weaker storm. Had Hurricane Dorian made landfall in eastern Florida,

as some earlier forecasts had indicated, it would have been the second above design-level wind speed event

experienced by the state of Florida in 10 months, the other being Hurricane Michael in October 2018. 

7 Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Historical Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). 

https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables/supplemental-files/historical-cpi-u-202109.pdf. 8 This biennial progress report uses the billion-dollar disasters as the official NWIRP disaster impact metric as tracked by NOAA, 

a designated Program agency. By design, this metric may not include the totality of windstorm disaster losses in the U.S. 

However, it provides a comprehensive historical timeseries to track long term variability and trends in windstorm losses.
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3.2 2020

The 2020 severe weather and hurricane seasons were both more intense than 2019 with a vast majority of the 

billion dollar events occurring while the country was being severely challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There were 13 separate billion dollar severe weather events (i.e., derechos, thunderstorms, hailstorms, and 

tornadoes) totaling $34 billion. The largest was the $11 billion August derecho event across the Midwest. The 

2020 hurricane season was the fifth consecutive above-average hurricane season in a row and established a 

new record for most named storms in a season with 30 (14 hurricanes, 7 major), twelve of which made 

landfall in the U.S. causing 86 fatalities and $40 billion in economic damage. Among the most notable stories 

of the 2020 hurricane season was the occurrence of 2 hurricane landfalls 12 miles apart in Louisiana,

separated by only 6 weeks. Category 4 Hurricane Laura was an above design-level wind speed event that 

caused significant damage to areas of the Louisiana coast and penetrating tens of miles inland. Six weeks later 

Hurricane Delta made landfall only 12 miles to the east of where the center of Hurricane Laura crossed the 

coast. Although Hurricane Delta was a category 2 storm, its impacts were likely magnified by increased 

societal vulnerability, given that the area was still recovering from Hurricane Laura.

4. Post-Windstorm Coordination During the Reporting Period

In NWIRP’s 2015 authorizing legislation (Public 

Law 114-52) the U.S. Congress directs NIST to 

“coordinate all Federal post-windstorm 

investigations, to the extent practicable.” Through the 

NWIRP WWG, several post-windstorm coordination 

activities were conducted during the reporting period. 

Chief among these were interagency NWIRP 

meetings that were held to provide an open forum for 

interagency information exchange in the aftermath of 

several weather disasters throughout FYs 2019 and 

2020. Additionally, the NWIRP agencies developed 

an alpha version of a “Tropical Cyclone Coordination 

Plan for Science and Technology” – a living 

document that outlines the windstorm coordination 

roles of the NWIRP agencies across all phases of 

hurricane disasters from pre- to post-landfall. The TC

coordination plan is also being implemented to

support the development of interdisciplinary data and 

technology transfer mechanisms for future hurricane 

disasters. The record-breaking 2020 hurricane season 

amidst the COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to test some elements of the plan and identify areas 

for improvement in future iterations. During the reporting period, the NWIRP agencies also engaged in postwindstorm coordination by collaborating and sharing research and operational products and procedures. Some 

examples follow.
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Hurricane Michael

During Hurricane Michael, NOAA provided NWIRP with accurate storm track forecasts throughout the 

duration of the storm’s lifecycle. NIST and FEMA deployed science and engineering teams in the aftermath 

of Hurricane Michael, and NIST received a Mission Assignment (MA)9 from FEMA to produce wind speed 

hazard maps to support refined estimates of social and economic impacts through FEMA’s Hazus catastrophe 

modeling system. The maps were also disseminated through FEMA’s public disaster geodatabase website10

and to the various Extreme Event Reconnaissance research groups supported by NSF engaged in conducting

field studies in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, through the NSF-supported DesignSafe-CI Recon 

Portal.

11 All four NWIRP agencies either developed or supported post-event science and technology reports 

on Hurricane Michael. The post-event NWIRP coordination call reinvigorated discussion regarding a 

longstanding issue with obtaining the requisite spatial and temporal resolution wind and water hazard

measurements in landfalling hurricanes, and the impacts that these measurement science gaps have across the 

range of the NWIRP research-to-applications paradigm. 

2019 and 2020 Tornado Outbreaks

NWIRP held interagency post-windstorm coordination meetings in the aftermath of the 2019 and 2020 spring 

tornado outbreaks. NOAA provided comprehensive meteorological overviews and furnished NWIRP with 

statistics of the event impacts, including a presentation on the meteorological characteristics of the tornadoes 

and an update on how NOAA is using social science research to improve tornado warnings and other 

communications related to tornado threats. NIST and FEMA shared information on their evaluations of the 

impacts to the built environment and compared aspects of these tornado outbreaks to what has been learned 

from past tornado investigations (e.g., the 2011 Joplin tornado), including the relevance to tornado design 

mapping for the U.S. University scientists also collected valuable wind measurement data as part of an NSFsupported field campaign. 

Hurricanes Laura and Delta

On September 9, 2020 NWIRP held a special coordination meeting for Hurricane Laura – the second above 

design-level wind event to strike the Gulf Coast of the U.S. during the reporting period (see Appendix C). As 

opposed to Hurricane Michael, which had above design-level wind speeds extending from the coast into 

southwestern Georgia, the above design-level wind speeds from Hurricane Laura only occurred well inland of 

the coast, because the coastal areas of Louisiana have much stronger design wind speed standards when

compared to the coastal regions of the Florida panhandle. The coordination meeting allowed the NWIRP 

WWG to share hazard and impact information and for the first time implement the alpha version of the 

NWIRP TC Coordination Plan for Science and Technology. A notable impact is that during Hurricane Laura 

the Lake Charles Doppler Radar System was destroyed, leaving the area challenged in detecting the intensity 

of subsequent extreme weather systems. Six weeks later the center of Hurricane Delta made landfall a mere

twelve miles from the location where Hurricane Laura came ashore. To fill in the radar monitoring gap, a 

team from the University of Oklahoma, which originally planned to conduct critical wind measurement 

science research in landfalling hurricanes as part of a NIST-funded Disaster Resilience grant, deployed to 

9 https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/MA_Policy_aug172018.pdf.

10 https://disasters.geoplatform.gov/publicdata/NationalDisasters/2018/HurricaneMichael/Data/ARA_WindModel/.

11 https://www.designsafe-ci.org/recon-portal/?event=2018%20Hurricane%20Michael.
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Louisiana in advance of Hurricane Delta. The team volunteered to delay their critical research endeavors,

opting instead to reconfigure their radar from research to operational mode to provide needed operationallyrelevant observations to inform rainfall and wind hazard awareness and facilitate emergency communications

throughout the storm.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Federal agency responses to the extreme weather events in 2020 that included a combination of springtime 

severe weather events and a record-breaking hurricane season were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 

pandemic. The pandemic yielded numerous unprecedented logistical, scientific research, and operational 

challenges. Due to travel restrictions across the Nation, NWIRP agencies were unable to send scientific 

investigative teams to continue longitudinal data collection from previous disasters (e.g., Hurricanes Matthew 

and Florence) or assess the impacts from 2020 extreme weather events, including tornado outbreaks in the 

southeastern states, the derecho in the Midwest, and the compound disaster in Louisiana from Hurricanes 

Laura and Delta. Additionally, NOAA noted that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had minimal staffing 

on location during 2020, at times challenging optimal coordination with stakeholders. Given the 

unprecedented number of TCs in the Atlantic basin during 2020, NOAA had a record number of 58 P3 

(hurricane mission storm) and 29 G4 (gulf storm) flights, about 45-50% above an average year.

5. Progress in Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020

The NWIRP agencies initiated implementation of the NWIRP Strategic Plan (released in late FY 2018) by 

focusing on advancing agency relevant strategic objectives across the Plan’s three strategic goals. These goals 

form a two-way research-to-applications paradigm that focuses on improving fundamental understanding of 

windstorm morphology, advancing understanding of impacts to the built environment and related social and 

economic recovery mechanisms, and deployment of this basic and applied research to improve the resilience 

of communities nationwide. In this section of the report, the NWIRP agencies provide brief descriptions of 

activities that support the goals of the NWIRP Strategic Plan. Each entry also includes relevance to the 14 

objectives and 8 strategic priorities which underpin the goals of the NWIRP Strategic Plan.

12 In addition to 

the agency-specific activities outlined below, the NWIRP agencies held two meetings of the NWIRP 

Interagency Coordinating Committee during FY 2020 to exchange information and support NWIRP principal

decisions on programmatic strategy.

5.1 Goal A: Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Processes and Hazards

NIST: Topographic Effects on Wind Speeds. As part of its Hurricane Maria Program, NIST continued to 

make progress investigating the influence of topography on surface-level wind speeds in Puerto Rico. During 

FY 2020, NIST conducted wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses to better 

understand the wind speed-up effects and to determine if they are adequately represented by the topographic 

factors used in modern building codes and standards. NIST also deployed anemometers on three cell towers 

in the Yabucoa region of Puerto Rico, at sites where the surrounding topography produces significant 

increases in wind speeds, to provide real-world data for evaluation of topographic effects and for validation of 

the wind tunnel and computational models. (Objectives 1, 2, 4, 6)

12 See Appendix B for list of NWIRP strategic objectives and priorities.
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NIST/NRC: Tornado Hazard Maps. In collaboration with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),

NIST completed the methodology for development of a new generation of tornado hazard maps intended for 

use in tornado-resistant design of new buildings and structures and for risk assessment of existing facilities. 

The draft tornado hazard maps were presented at a stakeholder workshop in May 2019 and final versions of 

the maps were nearing completion by the end of the current reporting period. (Objective 4)

NIST: Windstorm Hazard Measurement Science. As part of its broader Disaster Resilience Grants 

Program, NIST awarded $2.24 million across four universities to deploy mobile and in situ observational 

systems to augment wind hazard data collection in extreme weather events and to conduct post-windstorm 

scientific analyses to improve understanding of the wind hazard environment at engineering relevant scales. 

Additionally, NIST held a virtual Windstorm Extreme Events Reconnaissance Workshop in July 2020 to 

explore strategies for a sustained effort to collect integrated observations of meteorological extremes.

(Objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; Strategic Priorities 2, 3)

NOAA: New Observing Technologies. New observing technologies such as the uncrewed aerial system that 

gathers data in the lower atmosphere, and the Doppler wind lidar, which provides the capability to sample 

winds in precipitation-free regions that radars cannot measure, were tested and demonstrated as a part of 

NOAA’s Intensity Forecasting Experiment (IFEX) in FY 2019. Due to the global pandemic, NOAA was 

unable to continue testing these technologies in FY 2020. The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) is 

demonstrating the capabilities of the Phased Array Radar (PAR). The last few years of research and 

development have been focused on the installation, calibration, and initial data collection using the Advanced 

Technology Demonstrator, a full-scale demonstration radar capable of assessing the ability of phased array 

technology to address the operational meteorological requirements of the National Weather Service (NWS). 

(Objective 2; Strategic Priority 2)

NOAA/NIST/FEMA/NASA/NRC/ASCE/AMS: Tornado Wind Speed Estimation. NWS and NIST cochair an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)/Structural Engineering Institute (SEI)/American 

Meteorological Society (AMS) Tornado Wind Speed Estimation (TWSE) Standards Committee that 

developed a new standard on Wind Speed Estimation in Tornadoes and Other Windstorms. Other federal 

agencies include FEMA, NRC, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The TWSE 

committee is charged with developing improvements to the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale that cover concerns 

raised in the years following its inception, with a host of enhancements to the Scale’s damage indicators to 

improve techniques for post-storm assessment and information gathering. Draft provisions for the EF Scale 

and other wind speed estimation methods covered in the standard have been developed and vetted through the 

committee approval process, with the goal of completing the public comment version within the next two

years. (Objective 2)

NOAA: Toward Seasonal Prediction and Long-term Severe Weather Variability. Since 2012 the NWS 

Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has worked with the NWS Climate Prediction Center (CPC), academia, and 

the NOAA NSSL to improve understanding of the links between large-scale climate variability and 

windstorm and tornado activity. Studies of 40 years of high-resolution reanalyses13 show that stronger 

convective inhibition has caused a decline in the frequency of thunderstorm environments over the southern 

13 https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/102/2/BAMS-D-20-0004.1.xml.
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U.S., particularly in summer. Conversely, increasingly favorable conditions for tornadoes have been observed 

during winter across the Southeast. (Objective 3)

NOAA: Intensity Forecasting Experiment. NOAA's Hurricane Research Division continues to improve 

hurricane-intensity forecasting through the IFEX. In FY 2019, the focus was on sampling storms that 

underwent rapid intensification as this was an NHC science priority. FY 2020 proved to be a hyperactive 

hurricane season where NOAA aircraft sampled a record number of storms. (Objective 3)

NSF: Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells (TORUS). NSF is funding a major field 

campaign aimed at understanding storm structures that may be attributed to tornadogenesis. The research 

team comprises scientists from multiple universities and NOAA. (Objectives 1, 3; Strategic Priority 2)

NSF: Major New Field Study of Extreme Rainfall. NSF is funding multiple universities to participate in an 

international field campaign examining the dynamics, thermodynamics, and microphysics of extreme rainfall 

generated in locations where hurricane/typhoon/monsoon flows occur frequently and interact with orography. 

(Objectives 1, 3; Strategic Priorities 2 and 8)

NSF: Field Study of how Wind Interacts with California Wildfires. NSF is funding the multi-university 

Sundowner Winds Experiment to improve understanding of downslope, gusty windstorms, which are 

recognized as important drivers of wildfire behavior in coastal settings. (Objectives 1, 3)

NSF: Rapid-Response Studies Following Windstorms. NSF funded researchers to undertake work that 

could only be conducted in the immediate aftermath of several major windstorms, including: the Easter 

Sunday 2020 tornadoes; wind-rainfall interaction in Hurricanes Florence and Michael; and the U.S. Midwest 

2020 derecho. (Objectives 1, 3, 4)

NSF: Multi-year research projects examining fundamental principles in windstorms. NSF funded multiyear projects to improve understanding of supercell storms through data science: a study of hurricanegenerated tornadoes; a wind-wave tank study of air-sea interaction in hurricanes; and an examination of how 

planetary boundary layer heterogeneities impact tornadic storms during storms/tornadoes. (Objectives 1, 2, 3)

NSF: Services and support for academic and agency atmospheric research. NSF funds the National 

Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) (https://ncar.ucar.edu/). NCAR provides essential services and 

support for the entire U.S. atmospheric research enterprise, both academic and federal. Of particular note 

during this reporting period, NCAR provided data services to NOAA for the Congressionally mandated 

VORTEX-SE program which studies tornadogenesis in the Southeast U.S. (Objectives 1, 2, 3)

NSF: New methods for windstorm hazard research. https://www.designsafe-ci.org/facilities/experimental/

Researchers using experimental facilities at the NSF-supported Natural Hazards Engineering Research 

Infrastructure (NHERI) demonstrated that real-time hybrid simulation methods, which have previously been 

applied to study seismic effects, are also appropriate for wind response simulation for tall buildings. This 

methodological advance will enable new types of studies of windstorm processes and hazards. (Objectives 2, 

4)
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5.2 Goal B: Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Impacts on Communities

FEMA: Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) Program: FEMA conducts building performance studies 

after unique or nationally significant disasters to better understand how natural events affect the built 

environment. The MAT is deployed only when FEMA finds damage and believes the findings and 

recommendations derived from field observations and analysis will provide design and construction guidance 

that will improve the disaster resistance of the built environment in the affected State or region and will be of 

national significance to other disaster-prone regions. The MAT studies the adequacy of current building 

codes, local construction requirements, building practices, and building materials considering the damage 

observed after a disaster. Lessons learned from the MAT’s observations are communicated through a 

comprehensive MAT Report, Recovery Advisories, and Fact Sheets made available to communities to aid 

their rebuilding effort and enhance the disaster resistance of building improvements and new construction. 

FEMA conducted a MAT for Hurricane Michael and a final report was published in February 2020 (FEMA 

P-2077). In FY 2020, FEMA also deployed a MAT for Typhoon Yutu in the Commonwealth of the Northern 

Mariana Islands. Typhoon Yutu made landfall in October 2018, but still had damage left to investigate in 

2020. (Objective 5)

FEMA: Hazus Hurricane Loss Estimation Model: FEMA develops and maintains the Hazus model, a 

nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains models for estimating potential losses from 

multiple hazards, including hurricane winds. Hazus uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to 

estimate physical, economic, infrastructure, and social impacts of disasters and graphically illustrates 

communities of high-risk due to a region’s hazards. Users can then visualize the spatial relationships between 

populations and other more permanently fixed geographic assets or resources for the specific hazard being 

modeled, a crucial function in the mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery phases of the emergency 

management decision making process. Based on substantial damage inspections and observed damages from 

Hurricane’s Irma and Maria, FEMA is developing new wind damage estimation formulas representative of 

building construction practices common in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). This will increase 

the accuracy of FEMA’s Hazus loss estimations for Puerto Rico and USVI for future storms, and also will 

benefit other FEMA risk reduction programs. FEMA is also researching cloud computing technologies to 

decrease processing times required for future hurricane response Hazus loss estimation efforts.

NIST received a MA from FEMA to develop hurricane wind speed maps based on available wind speed 

readings from instruments and observed levels of damage. These wind speed maps will ultimately improve 

the Hazus Hurricane Loss Estimation Model. (Objective 9)

NIST: Tornado Loads on Buildings. NIST developed a new methodology for determination of tornado 

loads on buildings, accounting for differences in hazard characteristics between tornadoes and other 

windstorms. Key parameters include revision to the exposure factor to address the bull-nose shaped velocity 

profile near the core of the tornado (as opposed to the boundary layer profile in straight line winds), an 

expanded internal pressure coefficient that accounts for the effects of atmospheric pressure change, and a new 

coefficient that reflects the increased roof uplift in tornadoes caused by strong updrafts. (Objective 5)

NIST: Science-Based Methodologies for Aerodynamic Simulation to Determine Wind Loads on 

Buildings and Structures. NIST is engaged in an effort to develop practical CFD methods for the numerical 

determination of aerodynamic forces on structures induced by strong winds. Progress during FYs 2019-20 

included a review of verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification procedures in CFD simulations to 
15

produce more accurate, site-specific wind loads, resulting in safer and more economical structures.

(Objectives 5, 6)

NIST: Tools for Analysis of Measured Wind Pressure Data: NIST is developing next-generation methods 

and tools to better characterize wind loads on buildings and the response of these structures to extreme winds 

to advance performance-based design standards. During FYs 2019-20, in partnership with a private structural 

engineering firm, NIST developed preliminary ETABS-based software allowing the effective use of the 

Database-Assisted Design (DAD) procedures by structural engineering practitioners. (Objectives 5, 6)

NIST: Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning. The NIST-funded Center for Risk-Based 

Community Resilience Planning (http://resilience.colostate.edu), is a collaborative effort between NIST and 

14 universities led by Colorado State University. During FYs 2019-20 multi-disciplinary models were 

developed for the 2011 Joplin tornado impacts and recovery. (Objectives 5, 7; Strategic Priority 3)

NIST: Longitudinal Study of the Recovery of Lumberton, NC, from Hurricane Matthew: NIST 

conducted its third data collection in FY 2019 focused on documenting the impacts of Hurricane Florence and 

the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Matthew for housing, businesses, and the public sector. The fourth data 

collection was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Objectives 5, 7, 8)

NIST: Hurricane Maria Program: In FYs 2019-20 NIST continued its multi-year investigation of the 

impacts of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico, including projects focused on performance of critical buildings, 

emergency communications, morbidity and mortality, and recovery of business supply chains, social 

functions, and infrastructure systems. The findings will support recommendations for changes to codes, 

standards and practices for the purpose of increasing community resilience in the face of hurricanes

(Objectives 1-14).

NOAA: State of Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model (FPHLM).

14 NOAA continues to work on the 

FPHLM, an open, transparent computer model that is used by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to 

provide a baseline for evaluating rate change requests for windstorm insurance. NOAA researchers at the 

Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and the Cooperative Institute for Marine 

and Atmospheric Studies partnered with Florida International University researchers to update and maintain 

the wind model. Analysis of Hurricanes Isaias and Sally that affected Florida are underway. (Objective 9)

NSF: Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance (StEER).

15 This NSF-supported research network

developed quick-response datasets and reconnaissance reports for 20 windstorm events (hurricanes, tornadoes 

and cyclones) during the FYs 2019-20 reporting period. The reports are free and available at

https://www.steer.network/products. (Objectives 5, 8; Strategic Priority 3)

NSF: Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance (WHIP) Center.

16 NSF funded a new, multiuniversity Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) that addresses NWIRP-relevant 

research questions. The WHIP Center’s Industry Advisory Board members are drawn from insurance, riskmodeling, and construction industries. The Board aims to ensure that WHIP research pertains to real-world 

14 https://fphlm.cs.fiu.edu/.

15 https://www.steer.network/.

16 https://www.whipc.org/.
16

problems, that transfer of new knowledge from research to practice is expeditious, and that long-term 

strategies to enhance windstorm resilience are developed. (Objectives 5, 7, 9)

NSF: Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). In the face of the 2020 COVID19 pandemic, the NSF-funded NHERI network of major, disaster-relevant research facilities – including wind 

tunnels, cyberinfrastructure, post-disaster field equipment, and educational assets – undertook significant 

effort to ensure both continued operation and safety. NHERI developed and released a new, interdisciplinary 

data model for natural hazards field research. For the first time, social and behavioral scientists, engineers, 

and members of interdisciplinary teams have a data model they can use independently or in collaborative 

projects. The model can be used to share and publish qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods field

research data specific to hazards and disasters. With the new data model, researchers can curate and publish 

preliminary field reports, field data, research protocols, and research instruments. NHERI’s user workshops, 

summer institute, and public outreach were converted to on-line formats. (Objectives 5, 6, 7)

5.3 Goal C: Improve the Resilience of Communities Nationwide

FEMA: Improving Wind-Resistant Provisions. Significant improvements have been made to model 

building codes and national standards pertaining to design and construction of windstorm-resistant buildings 

and other structures as the result of Program activities. FEMA continually defends provisions that mitigate 

damage from all natural disasters including high winds and proposes changes based on findings from postdisaster investigations such as the MAT reports. (Objective 5) 

FEMA developed supporting commentary and improvements to reference standards for wind-resistant design. 

FEMA supported the development of provisions for designing for tornado wind loads in ASCE 7-22, 

International Code Council (ICC) 500-2020: Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters, 

ICC 600-2020: Standard for Residential Construction in High-Wind Regions. FEMA will continue these and 

other efforts to improve wind-resistant provisions of codes and standards. (Objective 11 and Strategic Priority 

7)

FEMA: Education, Outreach, and Information Dissemination. The FEMA website, http://www.fema.gov,

serves as an important portal to emergency and disaster information. FEMA publications related to wind and 

coastal surge hazards are available for free on the web on FEMA’s website, the Google Books website, and 

MADCAD. Conference participation, presentations, and outreach were limited in FY 2020 due to COVID-19. 

A virtual presentation was given highlighting the structural provisions of hurricane and tornado safe rooms 

and several presentations on the Building Codes Save study released in FY 2020. FEMA also provides inperson and online training based out of the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg, MD. 

FEMA has developed two new advanced wind-related modules for training courses at EMI. FEMA prepared 

fact sheets with resources for wind mitigation for the regions after the FY 2020 hurricanes and derecho in the 

Midwest. FEMA began planning for an increased fraction of education and outreach activities in subsequent 

fiscal years to be conducted virtually as the pandemic continued. 

FEMA publications presenting design and construction guidance for safe rooms have been available since 

1998 and were being updated during FY 2020 for release in early 2021. Over one million copies have been 

distributed and thousands of safe rooms have been built. A growing number of these safe rooms have already 

saved lives in actual events. There has not been a single reported failure of a safe room constructed to FEMA 

criteria. (Strategic Priority 8)
17

FEMA: Wind Resistant Construction. FEMA Building Science has promoted long-term wind resiliency in 

the USVI and Puerto Rico following major disaster declarations after Hurricane Irma (DR-4335) and 

Hurricane Maria (DR-4340) for the USVI, and Hurricane Irma (DR-4336) and Hurricane Maria (DR-4339) 

for Puerto Rico, through products which will strengthen the resiliency of structures against windstorms. These 

products provided understanding and recommendations for wind mitigation and building science guidance 

that continued in FY 2020. (Objective 12)

NIST/FEMA: Storm Shelter Standard. NIST and FEMA staff serve on the committee (chaired by a NIST

staff member) that is developing the third edition of the ICC/National Storm Shelter Association (NSSA)

Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters (ICC 500). NIST and FEMA submitted dozens of 

successful change proposals, including revisions to better address installation of shelters in existing buildings, 

loads from debris impact, load combinations, and a new appendix on storm shelter operations. (Strategic 

Priority 7)

NIST: Translating R&D Advances into Model Building Codes and Standards. The ASCE 7 Tornado 

Task Committee (chaired by a NIST staff member) developed a series of 25 proposals that together add 

tornado loads into the ASCE 7-22 Standard for Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings 

and Other Structures, incorporating NIST’s new tornado hazard maps (see Goal A) and tornado load 

methodology (see Goal B). NIST, in collaboration with private sector partners, proposed new ASCE 7 wind 

speed velocity profiles that incorporate the latest advances in boundary layer meteorology, important for 

design of tall buildings and towers. (Objective 11) 

NIST: Emergency Communications. Continuing its research to develop the measurement science that 

provides the foundation for national codes, standards, and guidance on the creation and dissemination of 

clear, consistent, and accurate emergency communications for tornadoes and other hazards, NIST published 

peer-reviewed guidance on alerts and warnings using short messaging channels17 and a study of impacts of 

the Joplin tornado on alerts and warnings in the U.S.18 NIST guidance on the usage of outdoor siren systems 

and short message alerting systems was incorporated as a new Annex K in the 2019 edition of the National 

Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1600: Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management.

(Objective 14)

NOAA: Forecast Improvement Programs. 

● The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP) major development focus in 2019 was on 

building the next generation Hurricane model - Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), 

primarily for track and intensity predictions. (Objective 13)

● Three new projects were conducted at the Joint Hurricane Testbed (JHT) in Miami, Florida – a 

NOAA testbed jointly managed by the NHC and AOML which involved testing of new 

techniques, applications, and ensemble model enhancements to improve the analysis and 

prediction of TCs. (Objective 13)

17 J. Sutton, E. Kuligowski, Alerts and warnings on short messaging channels: guidance from an expert panel process, Nat. 

Hazards Rev. 20 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000324.

18 Kuligowski, E.D. Field research to application: a study of human response to the 2011, Joplin tornado and its impact on alerts 

and warnings in the USA. Nat Hazards 102, 1057–1076 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-03945-6.
18

● NSSL continues extensive work within NOAA testbeds and with operational units to evaluate an 

experimental Warn on Forecast (WoF) methodology, allowing forecasters to use thunderstormresolving computer models. (Objective 13)

● NOAA continues to develop a next generation hazardous weather forecast/warning paradigm 

called Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats (FACETs), which will provide users a 

continuously updating suite of probabilistic information about hazardous weather threats. 

(Objective 13)

● Scientists at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL)/Global Systems Laboratory

(GSD) have developed a radar-initialized, thunderstorm-resolving, high-resolution, hourlyupdating assimilation and modeling system, through the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR)

model. Improvements will continue to be added in Version 3, including improved simulation of 

convective storms and clouds, reduced high bias for precipitation in both warm and cold seasons, 

improved 2-m temperatures including over snow cover, extended length to 36 hours four times 

per day, and coverage over Alaska. (Objective 13)

● The StormReady Program supports a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) by preparing communities 

for the occurrence of high impact environmental events, celebrating its 20 year anniversary back 

in 2018. Each year, the NWS targets 100 new StormReady communities, pending funding 

availability. In FY 2020 there were 106 new StormReady communities recognized. (Objective 14)

NSF: Social, Behavioral, and Economic insights for Resilience. NSF funded a number of multi-year 

projects to improve understanding of how social, behavioral, and economic factors influence decisions 

relevant to community resilience, including: factors that affect decisions to relocate from flood-prone 

locations; how certain traits of visualizations and media messages affect decisions about hazard mitigation 

and response; and how people make decisions when confronting multiple hazards simultaneously, as when 

they face both a pandemic and impending hurricanes. (Objectives 7, 12, 14)

NSF/NIST: New Joint Disaster Resilience Research Grants (DRRG) Program. NSF and NIST launched a 

joint competition – DRRG (NSF 20-581) -- to advance fundamental understanding of disaster resilience in 

support of improved, science-based planning, policy, decisions, design, codes, and standards. Of several 

hundred project ideas submitted, about a third were focused on windstorm and relevant to NWIRP goals. 

(Objectives 1-14)

NSF: Innovations for Improved Community Resilience. NSF opened a new funding opportunity -- the 

CIVIC Innovation Challenge (NSF 20-562) – which flips the usual community-university dynamic by asking 

communities to identify priorities ripe for innovation then partner with researchers to address those priorities. 

The initial stage-one planning grant competition attracted several hundred natural hazards/disasters proposals, 

including many that were focused on coastal storms, surge and inland flooding. (Objectives 10, 12, 13, 14)

NSF: Researchers and Communities Collaborating to Define Needs and Opportunities. The NHERI 

Computational Modeling and Simulation Center held a January 2020 workshop on “Simulation and Data 

Needs to Support Disaster Recovery Planning” where researchers and community stakeholders developed 

recommendations for future computational simulation tools to better support government agencies and other 

organizations as they promote resilience from natural disasters. Recommendations included a flexible 
19

computation workflow framework and testbed studies of natural disaster risk and recovery. (Objectives 12, 

14)

6. The Path Forward

As windstorm impacts increase, it is critical that NWIRP agencies continue to implement the NWIRP 

Strategic Plan and identify new opportunities for improved synergy across scientific disciplines, interagency 

engagement, and education and outreach to amplify NWIRP awareness. Provided below are NWIRP priorities 

for advancing this shared vision. 

• Expand awareness of the NWIRP research-to-applications paradigm across the federal enterprise by 

engaging in interagency councils, committees, and working groups with equities in windstorm impact 

reduction measures, including but not limited to, the interagency Council for Advancing 

Meteorological Services (ICAMS), the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the 

National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)’s Subcommittee on Resilience Science and 

Technology (SRST), and the Science for Disaster Reduction (SDR) interagency working group.

• Strengthen NWIRP post-windstorm assessments by supporting federal coordination with universitybased researchers and leverage disaster reconnaissance data streams to advance interactive technology 

transfer based on the NWIRP TC Coordination Plan for Science and Technology. This will enable the 

identification of high priority applied research questions that are unique to the interdisciplinary 

windstorm disaster reduction field. Additionally, NWIRP post-disaster research guidance will 

acknowledge and support efficient and effective formal and informal collaborations and support 

investments to recruit and enable a world-class next generation of U.S.-based windstorm-relevant 

researchers. 

• Strengthen cross disciplinary linkages between climate scientists and engineers by exploring the 

utility and application of fully-coupled climate model projections to understand climate change 

impacts on extreme weather to inform the development of forward-looking national structural design 

standards and model building codes, and to support NWIRP agency roles in national climate

priorities.

• Support the implementation of recommendations from interagency post-windstorm research and 

development activities to improve hazard measurement science, advancing the Nation towards 

performance-based design, and strengthening the scientific foundation for the development of 

consensus codes and standards. For example, promoting life-safety protection measures for tornado 

impacts in products developed by national and international standards development organizations. 

• Contribute to building a Weather-Ready Nation by integrating scientific advances in real-time 

extreme weather event forecasting and social science by delivering newly developed emergency 

communication and life safety warning information to the public through cell phone networks in 

support of impact-based decision support services. 

• NWIRP will ensure that the U.S. non-governmental science and engineering communities are made 

aware of NWIRP-relevant Federal Science and Technology reports, studies, and priority-setting 

documents, while the NWIRP agencies will stay abreast of university-based findings and promising 

new research approaches to strengthen coordination and shared awareness to enable more impactful 

work.
20

Appendix A: Acronyms and Abbreviations

AMS American Meteorological Society

AOML Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory 

ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics

COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease of 2019

CPC Climate Prediction Center

CPI Consumer Price Index

DAD Database-Assisted Design

DRRG Disaster Resilience Research Grants

EF Enhanced Fujita [Scale]

EMI Emergency Management Institute

ESRL Earth System Research Laboratories

FACETs Forecasting a Continuum of Environmental Threats

FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FPHLM Florida Public Hurricane Loss Model

FY fiscal year

GSD Global Systems Laboratory

Hazus Hazards U.S., a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based natural hazard analysis tool 

developed and distributed by FEMA 

HAFS Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System

HFIP Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project

HRRR High Resolution Rapid Refresh

ICC International Code Council

IUCRC Industry-University Cooperative Research Center

IFEX Intensity Forecasting Experiment

JHT Joint Hurricane Testbed

MA Mission Assignment

MAT Mitigation Assessment Team

NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCST National Construction Safety Team

NFPA National Fire Protection Association

NGGPS Next Generation Global Prediction System

NHC National Hurricane Center

NHERI Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission

NSF National Science Foundation

NSSA National Storm Shelter Association
21

NSSL National Severe Storms Laboratory

NSTC National Science and Technology Council

NWIRP National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program

NWS National Weather Service

OMB Office of Management and Budget 

OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy

PAR Phased Array Radar

R2O Research to Operations

SDR Science for Disaster Reduction

SEI Structural Engineering Institute

SIP Strategic Implementation Plan 

SPC Storm Prediction Center

StEER Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance

TC tropical cyclone

TORUS Targeted Observation by Radars and UAS of Supercells

TWSE Tornado Wind Speed Estimation

UFS Unified Forecast System

U.S. United States

USVI U.S. Virgin Islands

VORTEX-SE Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment-Southeast

WHIP Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance

WWG Windstorm Working Group

WoF Warn on Forecast

WRN Weather-Ready Nation
22

Appendix B: NWIRP Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Priorities

Goal A. Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Processes and Hazards

Objective 1: Advance understanding of windstorms and associated hazards

Objective 2: Develop tools to improve windstorm data collection and analysis

Objective 3: Understand long term trends in windstorm frequency, intensity, and location

Objective 4: Develop tools to improve windstorm hazard assessment

Goal B. Improve the Understanding of Windstorm Impacts on Communities

Objective 5: Advance understanding of windstorm effects on the built environment

Objective 6: Develop computational tools for use in wind and flood modeling on buildings and

infrastructure

Objective 7: Improve understanding of economic and social factors influencing windstorm risk 

reduction measures

Objective 8: Develop tools to improve post-storm impact data collection, analysis, and archival

Objective 9: Develop advanced risk assessment and loss estimation tools

Goal C. Improve the Windstorm Resilience of Communities Nationwide

Objective 10: Develop tools to improve the performance of buildings and other structures in 

windstorms

Objective 11: Support the development of windstorm-resilient standards and building codes

Objective 12: Promote the implementation of windstorm-resilient measures

Objective 13: Improve windstorm forecast accuracy and warning time

Objective 14: Improve storm readiness, emergency communications and response

Strategic Priorities

SP-1: Develop Baseline Estimates of Loss of Life and Property due to Windstorms

SP-2: Obtain Measurements of Surface Winds and Storm Surge Current and Waves in Severe 

Storms

SP-3: Develop Publicly Available Databases of Windstorm Hazards and Impacts

SP-4: Develop Performance-Based Design for Windstorm Hazards

SP-5: Improve Windstorm Resistance of Existing Buildings and Other Structures

SP-6: Enhance Outreach and Partnerships to Improve Windstorm Preparedness and Hazard 

Mitigation

SP-7: Enhance and Promote Effective Storm Sheltering Strategies

SP-8: Develop the Nation’s Human Resource Base in Windstorm Hazard Mitigation Field
23

Appendix C: Detailed NWIRP Agency Activities

NIST

NIST Hurricane Maria Program

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria had a devastating impact on much of Puerto Rico, damaging 

buildings that its communities relied upon for medical care, safety, communications, education, business, 

and more. In 2018, NIST launched a multi-year effort to study this disaster across seven scientific 

research projects with the goal of making recommendations to encourage the widespread adoption of 

improved building codes, standards, and 

practices that would make communities in 

Puerto Rico and across the U.S. more resilient 

to hurricanes and other hazard events. The

NIST Hurricane Maria Program is conducted 

under two authorities, the National 

Construction Safety Team Act (NCSTA) and 

the NWIRA. Figure 3 shows the grouping of 

the various research projects with the attendant

legislative authority. However, as 

complementary components of the NIST

Hurricane Maria Program, the National Construction Safety Team technical investigation and the NWIRP 

research study are closely coordinated and despite the distinct project groupings, the research foci span all 

14 objectives contained within the NWIRP Strategic Plan, as indicated on the left side of Figure 3.

NIST Hurricane Wind Mapping Products 

Since the 2017 hurricane season, NIST has collaborated with Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) to 

develop surface wind speed mapping products showing the maximum estimated wind speed of hurricanes 

as they move inland. These maps are created through FEMA MAs. The wind speed maps serve as critical 

input data to FEMA’s Hazus catastrophe modeling system. The maps and underlying data are also 

distributed to a broad group of disaster researchers throughout the public, private, and academic sectors. 

During the reporting period, wind speed maps were produced for several hurricanes and notable

improvements to the map product suite have occurred with each successive storm. Chief among these is 

the comparison of a given hurricane’s event wind speeds with those from the ASCE 7-16 design level 

wind speed standard, which are broadly used to support and guide civil engineering design. Figure 4 

shows the wind speed maps for two major hurricanes that made landfall along the Gulf Coast during the 

reporting period - category 5 Hurricane Michael and category 4 Hurricane Laura. Both of these storms are 

notable for causing catastrophic wind and storm surge damage and with the aid of the wind mapping 

products have been classified as above design-level events. The shaded areas (warm colors) in both of the 

maps depict where the estimated surface wind speed is estimated to be above that of the ASCE 7-16 

design level. In Hurricane Michael, above design-level wind speeds were observed from the coast 

penetrating well into southwestern Georgia. Hurricane Laura had a different pattern, with winds slightly 

Figure 3. The projects comprising the NIST Hurricane Maria Program
24

below design level near the coast (blue shading), however well above design level well inland (pink/red 

shading). 

Figure 4. Surface wind speed mapping products for Hurricane Michael (left) and Hurricane Laura (right). Areas shaded in pink/red 

indicate where wind speed exceeded ASCE 7-16 design level for risk category II buildings. 

NOAA

NOAA Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program. The HFIP was established within NOAA in 2007, 

in response to devastating hurricanes such as Charley in 2004, and Wilma, Katrina, and Rita in 2005 to 

accelerate the improvement of forecasts and warnings of TCs and to enhance mitigation and preparedness 

by increasing confidence in those forecasts. One of the key strategies defined in the revised HFIP plan in 

response to the proposed framework for addressing Section 104 of the Weather Research Forecasting 

Innovation Act of 2017, is to advance an operational HAFS at NOAA/NWS. HAFS will be a multi-scale 

model and data assimilation package capable of providing analyses and forecasts of the inner core 

structure of the TC out to seven days, which is key to improving size and intensity predictions, as well as 

the large-scale environment that is known to influence the TC's motion. HAFS will provide an operational 

analysis and forecast system out to seven days for hurricane forecasters with reliable, robust and skillful 

guidance on TC track and intensity, storm size, genesis, storm surge, rainfall and tornadoes associated 

with TCs. It will provide an advanced analysis and forecast system for cutting-edge research on modeling, 

physics, data assimilation, and coupling to earth system components for high-resolution TC predictions 

within the outlined Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS)/Strategic Implementation Plan 

(SIP) objectives of the Unified Forecast System (UFS). 

One of the major accomplishments of the 2020 hurricane season was the advancement and real-time 

testing of four basic configurations of FV3-based, NOAA’s next-generation HAFS including three 

regional configurations (including an 11 member-ensemble) and one global nested configuration. Led 

jointly by developers at NWS/NCEP and OAR/AOML and supported by NCAR/DTC, these efforts will 

efficiently and effectively transition the latest advances to operations for Hurricane models in 2021 and 

serve as prime examples of successful community-driven R2O efforts for the broader UFS community. 

More information on HFIP and HAFS real-time experimental products can be found at the HFIP website: 

http://hfip.org/.

NOAA Warn-on-Forecast Program. WoF is a NOAA research program tasked to increase tornado, 

severe thunderstorm, and flash flood warning lead times. Increasing the lead time and accuracy for 
25

hazardous weather and water warnings and forecasts, in order to reduce loss of life, injury, and damage to 

the economy, is one of the strategic goals of NOAA. Trends in yearly-averaged tornado warning lead time 

suggest that the present weather warning process, largely based upon a warn-on-detection approach using 

NWS Doppler radars, is reaching a plateau and further increases in lead time will be difficult to obtain. A 

new approach is needed to extend effective lead time. This will involve probabilistic hazard guidance 

provided by an ensemble of forecasts from convection-resolving numerical weather prediction models.

Researchers at NOAA’s NSSL are developing WoF to improve forecasts, warnings, and decision support 

for high-impact thunderstorm events within the watch-to-warning time frame, 0-6 hours in advance of an 

event. WoF is designed to provide accurate predictions of thunderstorm hazards—like tornadoes, hail, 

wind, and flash flooding—to people who need them earlier than is currently possible with detection based 

techniques. The fundamental concept of WoF is to provide continuous, probabilistic predictions of 

hazards in individual thunderstorms. WoF is an important component of FACETs, or Forecasting a 

Continuum of Environmental Threats. FACETs aims to provide continuous probabilistic hazard 

information guidance to the public from time frames of multiple weeks through less than one hour. 

NOAA is using social and behavioral science to evaluate this probabilistic hazard information and how to 

best communicate this information to the public.

In addition to real-time demonstrations, WoF guidance has been tested within NOAA’s Hazardous 

Weather Testbed by researchers, and forecasters as a part of the annual Spring Forecast Experiment, as a 

part of the Hydrometeorological Testbed, and presented to emergency managers within the HWT for the 

first time in spring 2019. The feedback provided by participants guides subsequent improvements to the 

WoF System as NOAA NSSL collaborates with partners to reduce the billions in economic impacts from 

severe storms. More information can be found at https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/wof/.

NSF

NSF Overview of the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI). The NSFsupported NHERI is a distributed, multi-user, national facility that provides the natural hazards 

engineering community with access to research infrastructure (earthquake and wind engineering 

experimental facilities, cyber-infrastructure, computational modeling and simulation tools, post-disaster 

field equipment, and research data), coupled with education and community outreach activities, building 

upon the NHERI vision and operations goals and requirements for each NHERI-type award outlined in 

the program solicitations NSF 14-605 and NSF 15-598 that established NHERI. NHERI enables research 

and educational advances focused on earthquake and wind engineering that can contribute knowledge and 

innovation for the nation's civil infrastructure and communities to prevent natural hazard events from 

becoming societal disasters. NHERI also support NSF's core value to broaden opportunities and expand 

participation of groups, institutions, and geographic regions that are underrepresented in science, 

technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Grand challenge research that can be conducted using

NHERI resources is described in the NHERI Science Plan https://www.designsafeci.org/facilities/nco/science-plan/. Knowledge and innovations produced by research utilizing NHERI 

resources during 2016-2020 is described in the NHERI Impact 2020 book https://www.designsafeci.org/community/nheri-impact-2020/.
26

NSF NHERI Awards as of FY 2020.

Facility Institution NSF Award Number

Network Coordination Office (NCO) Purdue University 1612144

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) University of Texas at Austin 2022469

Computational Modeling & Simulation 

Center (SimCenter)

University of California -

Berkeley 1612843

Experimental Facility (RAPID Facility) University of Washington 1611820

Experimental Facility (Wave Flume & Wave 

Basin) Oregon State University 1519679

Experimental Facility (Geotechnical 

Centrifuges) University of California - Davis 1520581

Experimental Facility (Hybrid Simulation) Lehigh University 1520765

Experimental Facility (Mobile Field Shakers) University of Texas at Austin 1520808

Experimental Facility (Wind Tunnel) University of Florida 1520843

Experimental Facility (Wall of Wind) Florida International University 1520853

Experimental Facility (Shake Table, currently 

undergoing upgrade to 6 DOF)

University of California-San 

Diego 1520904

Upgrade of the Large High Performance 

Outdoor Shake Table to Six Degrees of 

Freedom

University of California-San 

Diego 1840870

NHERI Resource: CONVERGE- Coordinated 

Social Science, Engineering, and 

Interdisciplinary Extreme Events 

Reconnaissance Research

University of Colorado, Boulder 1841338
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Appendix D: NWIRP Coordinated Budget

The National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP) was established by Congress in 2004 

“...to achieve major measurable reductions in the losses of life and property from windstorms through a 

coordinated federal effort, in cooperation with other levels of government, academia, and the private 

sector, aimed at improving the understanding of windstorms and their impacts and developing and 

encouraging the implementation of cost-effective mitigation measures to reduce those impacts.”19 

The NWIRA Reauthorization of 2015 (Public Law 114-52) requires submission of a coordinated NWIRP 

budget to Congress each FY within 60 days after the date of the President’s budget 

submission.20 Descriptions of the planned activities for each of the four Program agencies (NIST, NSF, 

NOAA, and FEMA) are provided below, and the associated budgets are listed in the table at the end of 

this report. 

National Institute of Standards and Technology 

NIST was designated as the Lead Agency for NWIRP through the enactment of Public Law 114-52 on 

September 30, 2015. As such, NIST’s responsibilities include planning and coordination as well as 

technical activities. 

Lead agency activities include the following:

• Plan and coordinate NWIRP, in cooperation with other federal agencies and the broader 

stakeholder community; and 

• Coordinate all federal post-windstorm investigations, to the extent practicable. 

Planned technical activities include the following:

• Continue efforts on the NIST Technical Investigation of the effects of Hurricane Maria on the 

U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The goals of the investigation are to characterize: (1) the wind 

environment and technical conditions associated with deaths and injuries; (2) the performance of 

representative critical buildings, and designated safe areas in those buildings, including their 

dependence on lifelines; and (3) the performance of emergency communications systems and the 

public’s response to such communications;

• Continue development of performance-based design approaches for wind hazards;

• Develop computational wind engineering capability for simulating turbulent atmospheric 

boundary layer flow and the resulting wind pressures on buildings;

• Continue development of tornado hazard maps and begin efforts to propose incorporation of the 

maps into building codes and standards;

• Subject to the availability of funds, solicit grant proposals for research aimed to improve 

resilience of buildings and infrastructure against windstorm hazards, including storm surge; and

• Continue technology transfer, translating windstorm impact reduction research to practice 

through participation in codes and standards development processes.

19 42 U.S.C. § 15703(a).

20 42 U.S.C. § 15703(e)(7).
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National Science Foundation 

NSF will support research in engineering and the atmospheric sciences to improve the understanding of 

the behavior of windstorms and their impact on buildings, structures, and lifelines; and research in the 

economic and social factors influencing windstorm risk reduction measures.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

NOAA activities fall under two categories: hurricane-related and local severe weather activities. 

Planned hurricane related activities include the following:

• Continue the HFIP;

• Operate the National Hurricane Center/Joint Hurricane Testbed; and 

• Operate the AOML Hurricane Research Division. 

Planned local severe weather activities include the following:

• Operate the Storm Prediction Center, including Hazardous Weather Testbed;

• WoF development;

• Operate the National Severe Storms Laboratory Tornado and Severe Weather Research; and 

• Research and deliver technologies developed by the Global System Laboratory that include the 

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh forecasts, Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System 

Hazard Services, renewable energy, and aviation tools and products.

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

FEMA receives no appropriated funding for NWIRP; however, FEMA leverages available resources as 

appropriate to support NWIRP goals and objectives. An estimate of the leveraged resources is provided in 

the budget table. A high-level summary of the wind related activities that FEMA’s Building Science 

Branch and Earthquake and Winds Programs Branch has or will be pursuing includes post-windstorm 

related data collection and analysis; development of risk assessment tools and guidance for effective 

mitigation; integration of mitigation measures into consensus codes and standards; and public outreach, 

training, and information dissemination consistent with the agency’s all-hazards approach.

National Windstorm Impact

Reduction Program (NWIRP)

FY 2019

Actuals ($K)

FY 2020

Enacted ($K)

FY 2021 

Request ($K)

NIST 1 5,595 5,320 5,320

NOAA 2 16,964 16,848 16,309

NSF 3 46,745 * *

FEMA 4 435 450 450

Total 69,739 22,618 22,079

1) NIST FY 2019 actuals and FY 2020 enacted reflect allocation to support the Hurricane Maria Investigation.

2) NOAA totals are not reflective of hurricane supplemental funds.

3) The NWIRA Reauthorization of 2015 authorized funding for NWIRP activities at NSF in the amount of $9,682 million in each 

of fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2017. *As NSF has no dedicated NWIRP activities with their own solicitations, funding levels 

beyond the amounts authorized in the NWIRA Reauthorization of 2015 are calculated and reported only after each fiscal year’s 

NWIRP-relevant awards across the Foundation are completed.

4) Due to the ad-hoc nature of how FEMA supports NWIRP activities, an estimated amount is included in the FY 2021 request, 

considering in prior years FEMA has been able to fund some level of activity by leveraging other resources.