From New Orleans to McAllen, NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Staff Educate Thousands

NEW ORLEANS, LA, January 13, 2016 – Warning Coordination Meteorologist Barry Goldsmith and Spanish Language Liaison and Forecaster Maria M. Torres solidly represented both the local office and the National Weather Service overall with two well–received presentations at the American Meteorological Society’s biggest annual gathering. The 96th Annual Meeting drew a record of more than 3800 attendees spread across more than thirty individual conferences. More than one hundred attended each presentation, which were coicidentally scheduled between 11 AM and Noon on Tuesday, January 12th. Maria’s presentation, co–authored by former NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley Tropical Program Manager Justin Gibbs and assisted by Goldsmith and Social Media Program Manager and Meteorologist Chris Birchfield, described efforts by the office to improve hazardous weather communications to a highly vulnerable community whose first language is Spanish. From the Spanish Early Weather Warning Notification System to the Spanish Hurricane Local Statement, methods were explained to improve communication and messaging. The presentation slides, given at the 11th Symposium on Societal Applications: Policy, Research, and Practice, can be found here. An abstract and recording of the presentation can be found here.

Goldsmith presented From the ’Statement Heard ’Round the World’ to Hurricane Threats and Impacts: The Evolution of Communicating Potential Impacts and Safety Messages since Katrina, at the Special Symposium on Hurricane Katrina. Co–authored by David Sharp (NWS Melbourne, FL), Dr. Pablo Santos (NWS Miami/South Florida), Robert E. Ricks (NWS New Orleans, LA), and Matthew Moreland (NWS Key West, FL), the talk described how far hurricane threat, impact, and risk communication has come since Robert Ricks, using words originally written by Goldsmith, made history with "The Bulletin" which was credited with increasing the number of evacuees from southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf coast and likely saving hundreds, if not thousands, of lives – to the development of probabilistic forecasts of wind and storm surge that were incorporated into Hurricane Threats and Impacts in 2015 which provide decision makers a reasonable, worse case scenario forecast for which to prepare. The abstract and recording of the presentation can be found here.

"The American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting is the ultimate place to meet stakeholders across the Weather Enterprise each winter," said Goldsmith. "To have not one but two members of the NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley staff present to large audiences on the important topics of hurricane threat, impact, and risk communication in English and Spanish is at the core of what building a Weather Ready Nation is all about, and a great honor!"  More information on the American Meteorological Society can be found at https://www.ametsoc.org.

McALLEN, TX, January 20, 2016 – Warning Coordination Meteorologist Barry Goldsmith and Information Technology Officer Pablo Gonzalez brought NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley to several thousand temporary residents who annually escape the frigid temperatures and winds of the northern U.S. and southern Canada to find winter refuge in the Valley at the 23rd Annual Winter Texan Expo at the McAllen Convention Center on January 19 and 20. Gonzalez, assisted by Goldsmith, waved more than 500 visitors over to the booth to discuss everything from local, regional, and national weather to military service. In all, at least 2,000 folks passed by the NWS Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley booth, out of a total of more than 8,000 visitors spanning two glorious days. In the process, dozens of cell phones were programmed to the NWS Mobile Weather Web App, and questions were answered on everything from El Niño to Climate Change. "The Winter Texan Expo is NWS Brownsville’s largest one–on–one meeting place between our most inquisitive audiences and our staff," said Goldsmith. "We wouldn’t miss this event for the world!" A special thanks to Kristi Collier, who’s group, Welcome Home Rio Grande Valley did a superb job organizing the event in 2016.