Providing Long Range Outlook Summaries to the Climate Community for Decision Support Services Shawn Rossi NWS Hastings, NE Ray Wolf NWS Quad Cities, IA Barb Mayes Boustead NWS Warning Decision Training Division, Norman, OK
Central Region Climate Services Program Ray Wolf (DVN) Timothy Kearns (ABR) Shawn Rossi (GID) Jeff Boyne (ARX)
The Long Range Climate Outlooks History Started over 10 years ago to provide long range climate outlooks to the Central Region climate community and mainly intended for internal use. Consisted of a brief (10-12 page) PowerPoint presentation that was emailed to CR Climate focal points and management staff to highlight the latest climate forecast from the CPC Had minor tweaks over the years, but the format generally has stayed the same since its inception.
November 2015 Outlook
After many years without a significant refresh, an update was needed Wanted outlooks to have: Clear and concise messaging Share-ability: with both our internal (NWS) and external (non-nws) partners More than just a summary of CPC wording Useful resources for internal and external customers Readability and brevity A broader reach through the use of social media
So where did we start? We identified other products we liked
Legacy climate outlooks included around 10 different graphics, a summary page and an additional resources page But what to include?
The ideas started flowing Who is the audience? Wanted to keep it a regional product with hands on opportunities for climate focal points to participate. Wanted a bottom line up front approach Wanted bulleted messaging Wanted the outlook to stay fresh Wanted to provide social media templates for repurposing Wanted it to be short. 2 pages? 4 pages? Wanted it to be looked at and used.
Several drafts were made
January 18, 2018: The February April Outlook was issued
And for the 1 st time, the outlook included 3 social media templates:
So what kind of feedback did we see? (Month 1) Limited feedback overall Only 1 person used the embedded link to provide feedback A handful of comments were submitted directly to the monthly author
Some of the feedback we received: Month 1 Overall: Generally positive feedback on the new format Much easier to digest Some of the constructive feedback: Desire for an Important Messages section near top Suggestion to re-arrange the format to align CPC outlooks in one column in order to appeal to our partners and increase distribution Too much text still Text too repetitive
The March May 2018 Outlook was issued February 15, 2018:
Feedback from Month 2: Extremely limited Request for feedback was not included this month Did receive feedback on google form like new layout, even if it is a bit busy Did have a report of trouble loading some of graphics reported by author What about Social Media Feedback? Some local successes here!
Social Media Success? Month 2: About 10,000 people reached Over 9% engagement Several Comments All benign - from Smiley faces to people wishing they lived in a warmer portion of the graphic.
The April June 2018 Outlook: Month 3
Additional Comments: Months 3-5 It s very nice to see the pertinent information on 2 slides rather than 20 NOAA user Thank you. This is good material! State Climatologist I like the format. Great job! another state climatologist Absolutely fantastic content within these outlooks!! Quick and east to glean impactful talking points to guide our messaging. Thanks for developing these! NOAA user
Important to understand users: There will be some negativity because users want more. BUT, the information we have to share is useful to many!
Final thoughts: Strong desire from our users to provide long range climate outlooks Should we be blasting these out to our partners via email? Do we need to establish specific climate email lists of our users? How can we get more offices involved? How to encourage offices to post to social media? Can we provide more detail? Yes? No? Maybe? We can always point out value to the forecast and what those impacts may be locally. Shawn.Rossi@noaa.gov