Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science

1729 NOVEMBER 2007 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | E very year, weather affects society in innumerable ways. Extreme weather—such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods—garners the most attention because of the damage extent, extreme conditions, economic loss, injuries, and deaths often associated with these events. But, nonextreme weather, including nonsevere thunderstorms, aboveor below-average temperatures, or even small amounts of precipitation, can also significantly affect people. To date, most of the attention focused on weatherrelated research has been led by the physical sciences. Great strides have been made in building observational networks, understanding fundamental physical processes, and developing numerical weather prediction models. These accomplishments have reaped immeasurable rewards by contributing to improved monitoring, understanding, and modeling of the atmosphere, which in turn has led to better forecasts. Despite these physical improvements, disasters like Hurricane Katrina serve as stark reminders that even well-forecasted events can have devastating effects on society. Many have noted that the ultimate purpose of weather forecast information is to help users make informed decisions (cf. National Research Council 1999; Pielke and Carbone 2002; National Research Council 2006), yet much remains to be done to translate weather forecast information to societal benefits and impacts. To work toward this goal, a closer connection between meteorological research and societal needs is essential, because problems are not meteorological or societal alone. As discussed by Pielke (1997):