This bill directs the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (NOAA) to improve how the National Weather Service (NWS) and NOAA communicate risks from hazardous weather and water events, especially tornadoes. It would create a hazard risk communication office to simplify language, set metrics, and use social and behavioral science to improve public warnings. The bill requires a research program on probabilistic hazard information and social-behavioral communication, and a pilot tornado hazard communication program with certain colleges. It creates a central data repository for social, behavioral, risk, and economic data and asks NOAA to develop ways to reduce tampering of online alerts (for example, digital watermarking).
The bill also requires a strategic "warn-on-forecast" plan within one year to guide high-resolution probabilistic forecasts, computing and data needs, observations (radar, satellites, uncrewed systems), and communication frameworks. It directs NOAA to evaluate and, if needed, update the system used to rate tornado severity. NOAA must perform post-storm surveys and assessments for events deemed societally important, share the data publicly, study the use of uncrewed aerial systems, and increase community impact studies. It also requires training and counseling support for employees doing post-storm work.
The legislation renames and adjusts the existing VORTEX-USA program to continue rapid improvement of tornado forecasts and warnings, adds a grants program for social and physical science research (with priority for minority-serving institutions), and authorizes $11,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2025 through 2032 for that section, with at least $2,000,000 per year for grants. The bill asks the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for a report, within 540 days, reviewing NWS information technology and alert dissemination. It also removes certain prior reporting requirements from earlier NOAA-related laws.
No publicly available information.