Full version of HIWeather News Letter in May 2021: 

HIWeather News Letter in May 2021

May 2021

Dear Colleagues,

After several years of co-leading the Communication Task Team, I am excited to be taking on the role of co-chair of HIWeather with Brian Golding. I’d like to thank David Johnston, who has stepped down as co-chair, for his valuable contribution and guidance to HIWeather since the programme was initiated.

As a social scientist in New Zealand, I conduct research on behavioural response to warnings and how to communicate forecasts and warnings more effectively. I research impact-based severe weather warning systems, as well as conducting research on forecasts for geohazards. I am fortunate to be in a position to then directly apply the results to improve our forecasts. Recently I became co-located with an emergency management team and have been learning about how they use our forecasts, and generally more about their context and decision-making. By strengthening this relationship between scientists and practitioners, I know that our forecasts and science advice information will improve further.

Building relationships to strengthen communication is a key part of the book we have been working on for HIWeather. The writing is progressing nicely, and I’m looking forward to seeing the final versions of the chapters coming together. I encourage you to read more about the book, the citizen science project, and the value chain project in this newsletter and in previous editions. I love it how these activities and HIWeather in general bring together such a diverse array of people from across so many disciplines, to build relationships, awareness and understanding of each other’s areas of expertise. I’m looking forward to learning more about other groups within the WMO and seeing how we can build our connections and develop pathways to implementation. By doing this, I hope that our research is useful, usable and used, and can contribute towards reducing the risk of high impact weather.  

Best Wishes

Sally Potter

Co-Chair