The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched Tornado Tales, an online survey to enable people to anonymously report their tornado experiences.
Researchers at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory created this citizen science tool so people can share their stories to help improve weather communication to keep people safe, project coordinator Justin Sharpe said, according to a NOAA release.
“While NOAA collects a lot of physical science data about storms from satellites and radars, the weather community has much less information about what people actually do when tornadoes strike,” Sharpe, a NOAA research scientist said, according to the release.
The ultimate aim of the survey is to gather information on how people actually respond and deal with tornadoes, the release said. NOAA projects this survey will supply a better data set than what is currently available, which has been collected by its social scientists. Survey questions include asking how individuals prepared for and monitored the weather and where they sheltered when a warning was issued by NOAA’s National Weather Service.
“Understanding people’s experiences gives scientists a much better picture of where research is needed, whether it’s research to improve safety messages or to assess the need for local changes, such as developing reasonable shelter options,” Sharpe said, according to the release.
