National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

What is the Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador initiative?
One of NOAA’s missions is to save life and property by providing critical environmental intelligence, including weather forecasts and warnings, to our partners and the general public. NOAA wants everyone, from communities across the country, businesses, and the public at large to be ready, responsive, and resilient to extreme weather, water, and climate events. Government cannot achieve success without the support and contributions from partners. NOAA recognizes to build a Weather-Ready Nation requires innovative collaborations with the media, emergency management community, the Weather Enterprise, and other organizations such as businesses and all levels of government. WRN Ambassadors are formally recognized by NOAA as organizations committed to collaborating with NOAA, sharing preparedness messaging in outreach to the public, and serving as examples themselves by implementing resilience best practices.

How does this benefit the nation?

NOAA wants to find ways to collaborate with external organizations in innovative ways to maximize all our efforts toward national resilience. Increased dialog and information sharing will result in reduced redundancy, more consistent weather safety messaging, and improved communication with stakeholders and the general public.

Why become an Ambassador?
Strengthening partnerships begins with greater, more meaningful dialog. The WRN Ambassadors initiative improves the two-way communication between NOAA and its partners. NOAA will send Ambassadors information relevant to the Weather-Ready Nation strategic priority, such as toolkits for preparedness weeks and planning information for WRN-sponsored events. Greater dialog will lead to new innovative opportunities for collaboration, all leading toward greater preparedness, responsiveness, and resilience to extreme events.

What are the duties of a WRN Ambassador?
WRN Ambassadors are expected to maintain active dialog with NOAA (e.g., maintain current point-of-contact and contact information), use where appropriate NOAA-generated information such as preparedness messages, and identify opportunities for collaboration including research initiatives and outreach events.

Who can become a WRN Ambassador? Any organization across all levels of government, businesses large and small, non-profit and non-governmental organizations, and academia can become WRN Ambassadors.

How does this initiative differ from NWS StormReady®, TsunamiReady™ and other external NOAA preparedness campaigns?
WRN Ambassador initiative focuses on organizations wanting to partner with NOAA toward building a Weather-Ready Nation. National Weather Service (NWS) StormReady and NWS TsunamiReady are well-established programs with a higher level of requirements that need to be met to become recognized. To become a WRN Ambassador, an organization must provide an up-to-date point of contact and contact information, and a commitment to engaging in dialog with NOAA. Other campaigns, such as FEMA’s Ready campaign, are complementary efforts focused on all hazards preparedness. WRN Ambassadors is primarily focused on building unique/customized partnerships to improve not just preparedness but longer-term resilience.  

What parts of NOAA are participating in the WRN Ambassadors initiative?
WRN Ambassadors initiative is a NOAA-wide effort to strengthen partnerships toward a unified effort to increase national resilience against extreme weather, water, and climate events. This includes areas such as satellite services and information, coastal resilience, maritime safety, and the NOAA research labs that support NOAA services. WRN Ambassadors initiative is also targeting partnerships at the national, regional, and local levels.

With the Ambassador initiative, is NOAA endorsing products, services and companies?
Becoming a WRN Ambassador does not imply any NOAA endorsement of any third party products or services. NOAA recognizes WRN Ambassadors as organizations that share a commitment to protecting communities, businesses, and individuals from devastating extreme weather events.

Why is it an “initiative” rather than a “program”?
WRN Ambassadors is an initiative, and not considered a program, because it is not a budget line within NOAA. This initiative is a commitment by NOAA to expand and enhance partnerships, including engaging in dialog, exploring innovative opportunities for collaboration, and providing periodic communications “toolkits” of relevant information, events, and preparedness messages.

How can I obtain an Ambassador logo for my web site or publication?
Once your organization’s submission to become an Ambassador is approved, an Ambassador “toolkit” of information will be sent to the point of contact, including a high-resolution image of the Ambassador logo.

Who can I contact for more information?
Any organization that is interested in becoming a WRN Ambassador can submit the required information from our online application form. To contact the NOAA Weather-Ready Nation team directly, email wrn.feedback@noaa.gov