JOHNSON COUNTY — Last June, the Boas family sought shelter in a first-floor bathroom of their Greenwood home as a tornado moved through their neighborhood.
After the storm, they emerged to a new landscape. Over 40 trees were uprooted, snapped off or heavily damaged, but their family was uninjured.
Research currently being done on the “next generation” of storm warnings in Norman, Oklahoma, at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) will enhance safety for all in the path of future storms.
"Weather computer modeling is being integrated into warning operations, bringing greater detail to warnings and the threats faced," according to Patrick Burke, a meteorologist at NSSL.
One area of research, called Threats in Motion, focuses on the warning outline.
Right now, polygon warnings are stationary. The storm is moving, but not the warning itself.
"Future storm warnings will allow that polygon to move with the severe storm. This change will allow residents in the path of the storm to receive earlier notice," Burke pointed out.
One goal of researchers is to update warning details every half mile and every two minutes to provide a nearly continuous risk assessment. Residents would be notified if the threat at their location is increasing or decreasing.
Burke explained, “computing ability is becoming so much greater that we can have confidence in some of the details earlier than we used to.”
Paula Boas realizes the benefit this can have when severe weather is cutting across central Indiana.
"To have a real-time app in front of us and not just a siren in the distance will really be nice," Boas said.
Meteorologists are already using Threats in Motion and other experimental severe weather programs behind the scenes.
These new tools from NSSL should be fully implemented by the end of the decade, according to Burke.
