The NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center's Integrated Machine-based Predictive Analytics for Convective Threats to Society (IMPACTS) Statistical Model (288)

Patrick Marsh, NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Norman, OK

Robert Clark, University of Oklahoma Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies

Russell Schneider, NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center

Harold Brooks, NOAA/OAR National Severe Storms Laboratory

Somer Erickson, DHS Federal Emergency Management Agency

 

Abstract:

NOAA's Weather-Ready Nation is about readying communities for extreme weather, water, and climate events. This effort requires not only accurate and timely forecasts and warnings but also building the capacity, by working with key public and private partners, to respond effectively to these high-impact events. The NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has built a statistical framework, Integrated Machine-based Predictive Analytics for Convective Threats to Society (IMPACTS), to simulate potential societal impacts of tornadoes. IMPACTS consists of two separate components: a weather generator, based upon SPC's Convective Outlooks, that simulates the number, location, and strength/intensity of potential tornadoes, and a method of assessing the potential societal impacts from these simulation(s).

A primary outcome of IMPACTS is the creation, sharing, and use of transformational datasets that enhance emergency managers' abilities to recognize the potential, and prepare, for high-impact tornado events. This presentation will give a brief overview of IMPACTS and its initial operating capacity. Preliminary results and findings of IMPACTS' probabilistic forecasts of societal impacts during the traditional severe weather season of 2018 will be discussed.

IMPACTS will improve our nation's tornado response capabilities by providing reliable, probabilistic predictions of potential societal impacts to decision-makers at the local, regional (FEMA and states), and national (FEMA) level. Additionally, the methods underlying IMPACTS will serve as the foundation for societal-impact prediction involving other hazardous weather phenomena at a multitude of temporal and spatial scales. These methods are therefore uniquely positioned to capitalize upon NOAA's FACETs initiative.