Longmont Museum - Hurricane Forecasts: Communicating Risk to Communities

IR image of Hurricane Harvey
Lecture
Apr. 13, 2023

7:00 – 8:30 pm MDT

Longmont Museum

The 2022 hurricane season caused devastating damage, loss of life, and disruption in the U.S. and Caribbean. While forecasting has improved significantly, accurately predicting where and when a hurricane will make landfall remains a challenge. It is even more challenging to predict the high wind and flooding hazards and associated impacts that different people will experience, especially with enough advance warning for coastal residents to evacuate safely before landfall.

This event is co-hosted with the Longmont Museum and the Thursday Nights @ the Museum event series.

Rebecca Morss

Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory, NSF NCAR

Rebecca Morss is a senior scientist in NSF NCAR’s Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory, where she is also deputy director. She has interdisciplinary expertise in weather forecasting systems and risk communication, with an emphasis on high-impact weather including hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. Her research focuses on the communication and interpretation of hazardous weather risks, the use of weather-related information in decision making, and weather hazard prediction and predictability. She has served in multiple national and international leadership roles, including on several U.S. National Academies committees and as an elected councilor of the American Meteorological Society. Morss received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.