We are educating the public through exhibits at museums, posters, software, and other educational tools, presentations to educators, as well as the NSSL and other NOAA web pages. Aspects currently include exploring the forecast value contained in new operational data streams, clarifying use of new forecasting technologies, developing the scientific basis of new hazardous weather forecasting techniques including winter weather, and utilizing the collaboration between NSSL and the SPC in a feedback process in which NSSL staffs provides forecasting support and partnership in collaborative research of mutual relevance.
Ensemble forecasting plays a significant role.
The goal of this effort is to enhance our understanding of tornadoes as well as the mechanisms that cause tornadogenesis so that we can better predict and warn of tornado occurrences. The approach taken is to collect in-situ data very near storms that have the potential to produce tornadoes so that we can determine why some storms produce tornadoes while others do not. We then analyze these data in conjunction with operational data streams to determine the fundamental causes of tornado production as well as how we can utilize operational systems to predict tornado occurrence. The goal of this effort is to increase our understanding and enhance forecasting capabilities of summer and winter storms that affect western North America. We are doing this through the careful analyses of the synoptic, mesoscale and storm-scale environments of these events utilizing both routine operational and experimental observing systems and output from numerical prediction models.