Outreach and Communication

Phenomena include strong winds, heavy rain, fog, forest fire risks, avalanches and storm surges. The meteoalarm concept is based on assessing impact and damage. Thus awareness levels are assigned in a coherent and consistent way all over Europe, down to the regional and departmental scale. For example a 10 cm snowfall event in the Low Countries will trigger an orange alert, while the same amount in Alpine regions will only cause a green or perhaps yellow awareness level. The National Weather Services coordinated in EUMETNET assemble their most detailed weather alerts on this platform. The warnings are available in 28 languages.

Success factors

At its one-year anniversary on 23 March 2008, the site counted almost 3 million unique visitors, amounting to 500 million of hits.

Recommendation

"www.meteoalarm.eu informs successfully people worldwide about weather hazards in Europe because the system provides up to date information which is not to be found on any other platform. Targeted and well harmonized hazard information across Europe differs very much from general weather reports and helps to minimize risks for travellers and people working abroad. With a straightforward 4-level colour scheme hazards for 10 different hazard types are made very easily understood." Michael Staudinger, ZAMG, Austria.

The project also spawned inniatives to actively involve schools and the general public; an outstanding example is the Rain Check. 

Ekstremværuka is a co-operative effort by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (Video, 140 MB).

Success factors

The Extreme Weather Week contributed to increased awareness about an intriguing and important issue for society as a whole through a finely tuned mix of serious and entertaining programmes. Twinning the professional knowledge from scientists with journalistic skills and the distribution network helps meet the public need for sound knowledge about weather and climate.

Recommendation

“Climate change is one of the most important issues in our time. Through the “Extreme weather week” NRK has tried to contribute to a deeper understanding of what’s going on. The philosophy of the “Extreme weather week” has been based on the fact that most people have a need for new information on a subject they already know something about, like weather and climate. People have a lot of questions. Media can, in cooperation with scientists, contribute to give the audience more and better answers.
Our guidelines have been: Keep it simple, be creative and playful in the approach. Even if the perspectives might be depressive, don’t fall into depression. Give the audience a chance to take part in a process. Very often this will lead to a deeper understanding and a stronger commitment.“ Svein Haaland, Project Leader, NRK, Norway.

Emphasis is put on the most representative weather events in Romania or abroad, and the “secrets” of various meteorological phenomena are unveiled to the public. Answers to simple but important questions related to atmospheric phenomena are provided by two meteorologists and sometimes by invited specialists (Video, 36 MB).

Success factors

The rating of “Saptamâna de vreme” reached 2.6 while the TV news channel that broadcasts the show has an average of 0.7 rating points. The audience measurements show a market share over 3.5. 

Recommendation

"Our guidelines are: the programme has to answer simple but important questions, the topics of discussion have to be closely related to actual and current weather and climate phenomena and should also include those aspects that are directly linked to everyday life, the issues - regardless of their complexity - should be approached in an easily understandable way, and discussions should be visually supported by images, pictures, movies, charts,etc." Elena Cordoneanu and the Saptamâna de vreme team, Realitatea TV.

Actual radar data as front-end of the website provide an easy access point for the general public, from which users are lead to forecast results of modern weather prediction systems. This appears to stimulate the use of forecasts in daily practices and to raise the general interest for weather forecasting as a science, resulting in a more motivated way of looking at weather and climate conditions.  

Success factor

In a short time MeteoX.com became the second most visited weather information site in The Netherlands and is now expanding rapidly across the European continent. In Scandinavia, recently www.väderradar.se (ie. Weatherradar) was launched.

Recommendation

"With the internet becoming more and more easily accessible for people, weather information can be provided locally and real time. On www.MeteoX.com you can see the "Here & Now" of the weather acoss Europe. This information is available within just 1 or 2 clicks which is one of the success factors of MeteoX.com. Another item contributing to this success is that all the real-time weather information is provided for free to the public." Wijnand Rijkaart, Buienradar BV.

Also discussed were the ways in which science could play a more effective role in supporting policymaking processes. Presentations

Recommendation

"Communication between the science community and both the political and the wider civil community is an area of weakness. The science community must learn to deliver its message through a succinct, understandable “story” without the use of jargon and presumed knowledge. This is a difficult task and in general science is ill equipped for it. There is a need for positive action to enhance and develop this skill within the science base." Tanja Cegnar, BTG Conference Project Manager.

This is a good vehicle to educate the general public about the atmospheric science, the way to use the weather forecasts, and an open window towards several science fields and a good knowledge on the environment. The format is limited to a studio discussion and a graphic display of weather charts and graphs on a flat panel monitor in the TV studio. This program represents a solid attempt to draw the awareness of the general public to the science behind weather forecasting.

The innovative content of such a programme is the combination of the scientific information on meteorology with a classical weather forecast. It also builds on the fact that weather forecasts, in particular on the weekends, raise considerable interest and warrant a large audience and a very good share, about 180.000/300.000 people every Friday evening and Saturday morning (Friuli Venezia Giulia has 1.200.000 inhabitants). 

• Video, 18 MB

Success factor

The viewer appreciates the completeness of the weather forecast for the region, the macro-region Triveneto and the neigbour countries of Slovenia and Carinthia, The selection of the weekly topic and its connection with the local territory, The high-qualified guests and the easy but effective speech used.

Recommendation

"In Italy Meteo Weekend is the only broadcast in prime time (start at 20.30 - lenght 30 minutes) completely dedicated to meteorological and climatological topics, a demonstration that people don't watch TV only for entertainment but appreciate scientific and tecnical subjects." Marco Virgilio, MeteoWeekend.