Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS)

The Weather Risks and Decisions in Society (WRaDS) program builds fundamental understanding of how weather- and climate-related risks intersect with society, with an emphasis on how different types of information influence decision making and societal outcomes. Our research focuses on multiple overlapping themes, including:

• creation, communication, interpretation, and use of information about weather and climate impacts and risks, including probabilistic and uncertainty information
• perceptions of and responses to forecasts, warnings, and other weather- and climate-related information
• intersections of experiences, cultural worldviews, vulnerabilities, and other factors with weather- and climate-related risk communication, perceptions, and responses
• integrated physical-social science research on weather and climate prediction, uncertainty, and impacts
• weather forecast and warning system dynamics and strategies for improvements
• design and implementation of weather and climate research, modeling, and risk communication efforts that help address critical societal needs

WRaDS research is interdisciplinary, integrating social sciences approaches and methods with modeling, prediction, and predictability research in the atmospheric and related sciences. We collaborate closely with weather and climate researchers, forecasters, and science policy-makers. Our work includes studies with geophysical scientists, engineers, members of the public, public officials and public agency personnel, private sector and broadcast meteorologists, and other stakeholders. We draw from and contribute to the atmospheric science, natural hazards, risk communication, environmental anthropology, and related communities of research and practice.

WRaDS also helps build capacity for weather-climate-society research and activities at universities and colleges, in public agencies, and in the broader community. This includes developing, demonstrating, and sharing interdisciplinary frameworks, research methods, and knowledge that others can utilize and build on.

In conjunction with our research, we lead and help guide multiple U.S. and international community efforts, including:

• Rising Voices: Collaborative Science for Climate Solutions
• Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS)
• NCAR's Early Career Faculty Innovator Program
• VORTEX Southeast (tornadoes in the U.S. southeast)
• The Alliance for Integrative Approaches to Extreme Environmental Events
• American Anthropological Association Global Climate Change Task Force
• Multiple National Academies of Sciences and Engineering efforts, such as:
  • Committee on Advancing Social and Behavioral Science Research and Application within the Weather Enterprise
  • Committee on Estimating and Communicating Uncertainty in Weather and Climate Forecasts
  • Committee on Progress and Priorities of U.S. Weather Research and Research-to-Operations Activities
  • Keck Futures Initiative Steering Committee on Ecosystem Services
  • Indo-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium
• Multiple American Meteorological Society efforts, such as:
  • 2018 and 2019 Annual Meeting Planning Committees
  • Symposium on Societal Applications: Policy, Research and Practice
  • Board on Societal Impacts
  • Committee on Severe Local Storms
  • Committee on Effective Communication of Weather and Climate Information
  • Statement on Strengthening Social Sciences in the Weather–Climate Enterprise
  • Planning Commission
• Multiple World Meteorological Organization / World Weather Research Program efforts, such as:
  • High Impact Weather (HIWeather) Project
  • The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX)

Interested in more information about our work or in collaborating with us? Please contact Rebecca Morss.