Building Bridges: On Effective Weather Communication to, and with, Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Weather renders all people vulnerable, but due to various factors some are more naturally vulnerable than others. What of those vulnerable populations and individuals who cannot take, or are limited in taking, protective actions? This paper contributes to the mission of the Weather Ready Nation initiative (WRN), established by the U.S. National Weather Service, by shining light on weather communication considerations for those on the autism spectrum and those with color vision differences. It also discusses ongoing efforts centered around the Deaf and hard-of-hearing and those who are blind or who have limited vision, and discusses problems existing in weather communication for vulnerable populations at-large. The first section defines vulnerability and clarifies associated concepts while the second section, on ways to improve weather communication practices for autistic people and those who are blind, vision-limited, Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and those with color vision-processing differences, focuses on the importance of recognizing lived, vulnerable population experience in weather messaging efforts and the use of language in communicating with the aforementioned populations.

File Drawer Report: A Preliminary Test of Video-Mediated Severe Weather Exposure and Note on the Potential Role of Mindfulness in Decreasing Storm-Associated Negative Affect

“…Topics include but are not limited to forecast uncertainty (e.g., Grounds & Joslyn, 2018;Joslyn & Savelli, 2010;Joslyn & LeClerc, 2012;LeClerc & Joslyn, 2012), extreme weather risk perception (e.g., Allan et al, 2020;Krocak et al, 2020;Ripberger et al, 2020), hurricane evacuation (e.g., Allen et al, 2020;Stewart, 2011Stewart, , 2015, and more general uses of weather information (Bolton, Blumberg et al, 2020;Stewart, 2009;Stewart et al, 2012). Much of this work can be practically applied to vulnerable populations (Bolton et al, 2021;Lazrus et al, 2012;Sherman-Morris et al, 2020).…”