CIWRO

Safe collection of high-quality data in the worst conditions takes a skilled team. Preparing to deploy to locations with the most intense weather requires days of careful planning. The most complete observations of high-impact phenomena come from a suite of mobile radars, atmospheric profilers, and deployable sensors and imagers, all of which require crews of trained scientists to navigate and operate.

When all the pieces come together, the results translate into powerful new knowledge of how storms form. Since 2021, CIWRO field work has concentrated on severe storms, damage surveys, hurricanes, extreme winter weather and boundary layer studies.

CIWRO empowers anyone impacted by a tornado to submit a personal story through the online Tornado Tales survey. Developed with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, the survey allows people to enter information about how they knew a tornado was coming, what protective actions they took and what happened during their experience. The National Weather Service and private broadcast sector help distribute the survey to people after a tornado has struck their area. CIWRO researchers are tracking behavioral patterns such as what devices people use most to receive warnings.

Link to the survey: https://inside.nssl.noaa.gov/tornado-tales/survey/

Weather-related disruptions cost the aviation and transportation industries over $130 billion each year — losses that could be significantly reduced with
improved weather predictions. With machine learning tools for automatic damage detection, CIWRO systems support U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) surveys, enhance EF-scale accuracy and provide decision-makers with unprecedented situational awareness during high-impact weather events.