My interest in communicating atmospheric science to the non-scientific community has led me to my current research work at the University of Arizona, which focuses on the societal impacts of landfalling tropical cyclones. I am approaching this subject with a global perspective and attempting to address the combination of factors within communities, which determine their vulnerability to the impacts of tropical cyclones as well as their resilience in the aftermath. In partnership with the National Weather Service, I will be working with J.J. Brost (Science Operations Officer) here in the Tucson office to develop a series of three teaching modules designed for middle and high school students which will explore the risks of high impact, low frequency weather events on communities and the methods by which decisions are made to reduce the vulnerabilities of communities to the associated risks.

The modules will use hurricanes as an example of such high impact events. The modules will culminate in students participating in a board game which J.J. Brost and I designed to address the question of communication and comprehension of vulnerabilities with respect to rare but inevitable extreme weather events and the ability to make critical decisions based on probabilistic uncertainty forecasting. Using the Tucson Flood of 1983, which was the result of extremely high precipitation amounts caused by the remnants of tropical storm Octave as an example of a rare but inevitable extreme meteorological event, the students are placed in the role of a city planner, making decisions on mitigation strategies for several different locations within their town. The modules can provide an approachable way of investigating the process of planning for high impact/ low frequency events and investigate any bias involved in the decision making process due to lack of personal experience with such an event.