StormReady Resource Toolkit

Becoming StormReady is a big step toward building a Weather-Ready Nation in your community. However, it is also only one step toward greater community resilience. The National Weather Service encourages you to “go beyond StormReady” and, to help you do this, is providing some additional guidance as well as a collection of resources.  Take a look at these opportunities to strengthen community resilience and determine which ones are right for your community. If you have any questions regarding this toolkit of resources, please reach out to your local Weather Forecast Office contact.

Supplemental StormReady opportunities to discuss further with your NWS StormReady point of contact:

1. Are schools included in routine EM planning and exercises for weather related events? If no, then do districts handle their own planning and exercises that include a weather component? How can you help them?

2. Do you ensure that information is available to support the designation and identification of shelter-in-place areas in appropriate buildings (such as public and staff operated buildings) within your area of responsibility?

3. Do you encourage and support people in appropriate buildings (such as public and staff operated buildings) with their participation in shelter-in-place drills as needed?

4. Are NOAA Weather Radios, and/or other relevant alerting applications or tools readily available in appropriate buildings (such as public and staff operated buildings) within your area of responsibility? A best practice is to also have instructions for these applications or tools available.

5. Do locations which require evacuations have evacuation route signage? It is recommended that that signage be used for weather events at locations which routinely experience impacts (i.e. hurricanes, flash floods, mud-slides, river flooding, etc.)

6. Have you included, or plan to include, meteorologists in any drills and/or exercises?

Additional Resources:

Weather-Ready Nation Safety Pages: Dive deeper into specific hazards and the safety actions everyone can take to become “weather-ready.”

Lightning Toolkit for Counties/Communities: Click on the pdf to download the lightning preparedness toolkit.  

Marine Ambassador Toolkit: For coastal communities, there are tutorial videos on general marine products and services as well as on tropical cyclones. 

Drought Impacts Toolkit 

Climate Resilience Toolkit

Heat Health

Drought Planning/Preparedness

Mobile Home Safety 3-Step Plan 

FireWise

Other Government Partners:

FEMA’s Ready.gov

Preparedness Training for Community-based Organizations: FEMA’s Organizations Preparing for Emergency Needs (OPEN) 

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

Firewise 

For requests beyond the role of NWS offices, see the link below for additional resources provided by the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise*:

Weather Enterprise Resources

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*The Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise (hereafter referred to as “the Enterprise”) is the assembly of academic, governmental, and private-sector (i.e., industry) organizations that serve as generators and providers of weather, water, and climate information. The goal of the  Enterprise is to deliver the most accurate, timely, and relevant information to a wide array of users, from public safety officials and water managers to businesses and nonprofits.  All three sectors of the Enterprise – academia, government, and industry, play a critical collaborative role in understanding, observing, predicting, and communicating weather, water, and climate information. Specifically, the contributions of each sector include:

1. Academia: advances scientific literacy, discovery, and innovation that inform and contribute to operations by the government and industry.  Academic organizations include but are not limited to universities, basic and applied research laboratories, and government-funded research institutions.

2. Government (i.e., public sector): provides foundational earth system observations, tools, research, forecasts, and warnings, that support (a) decision makers and the public, (b) academic research, and (c)  commercial products and services developed by industry. 

3. Industry (i.e., commercial providers, private sector): advances innovation through private investment, commercializes academic and government information into value-added applications, and distributes weather, water, and climate information via TV, radio, smart phones, Internet, and proprietary business systems. This sector includes data collectors, prediction and decision service providers, media, consultants, equipment providers, etc.