Minnesota is known for harsh winters, filled with snow storms and below-zero temperatures. When the snow melts and the ground thaws, dangerous thunderstorms can bring flooding, hail, and tornadoes. As a result, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists in Minnesota’s Twin Cities need all the help they can get in spreading the word about weather safety. To meet this need, the Twin Cities Weather Forecast Office (WFO) developed a creative way of connecting with their partners through the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors (WRN) initiative. Their approach has been so successful that it is now being replicated in forecast offices across the country.
Instead of creating a traditional gift basket for their annual holiday auction, these second-graders decided to prepare a weather-ready kit. (Image credit: Michael Lewis, National Weather Service)
The NWS works with partner organizations through the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador initiative. Through this program, organizations like schools, community organizations, government agencies, hospitals, the media, and a wide variety of private businesses get resources from the NWS and play a role in keeping their communities safe. As its ambassador program flourished and expanded, the Twin Cities office saw a growing need to diversify communication and education strategies. Staff in the Twin Cities WFO conducted needs assessments and listened to their ambassadors. The Ambassador Care Model (ACM) emerged out of their desire to enhance WRN Ambassador communication and education, revolutionizing their ability to connect with new ambassadors and strengthen relationships with existing ones.
The ACM outlines how to interact with WRN Ambassadors and is a ground-breaking way to provide service in today’s NWS. Instead of communicating about weather hazards on a case-by-case basis, the NWS Twin Cities office now works with WRN Ambassadors year-round to empower them to become champions of weather safety and weather preparedness information. The Twin Cities office opened the line of communication to all their ambassadors, listened to their questions about weather preparedness, and gave them the tools they needed to get their employees, students, or clients weather-ready. Using the tools in the ACM, the Twin Cities WFO provides tool to guide effective life and property decision making. This guidance integrates hazard education with preparation, communication, and real-time weather information.
After implementing their Ambassador Care Model, the Twin Cities office saw a sharp rise in ambassadors sharing NWS safety content on social media and websites. More organizations and private businesses began displaying weather safety posters in their buildings or sharing weather safety information in publications. WFO staff have also been invited to outreach events that the office was unaware of before establishing the ACM.
The Ambassador Care Model has now been distributed to every weather forecast office in the nation, allowing individual WFOs to build long-term relationships with their ambassadors and to provide richer and more integrated community education experiences. With nearly 6,500 ambassadors and over 2,800 new ambassadors enrolled over the last year, the initiative has grown significantly.
This story was originally published as part of the 2017 NOAA Education Accomplishments Report.
