Severe Thunderstorm Warnings Survey

Introduction

In 2003 the Commonwealth Government allocated funding to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to allow the Bureau to modernise its radar network and supplement its severe weather warning capabilities. One of the key deliverables of the Radar Network and Doppler Services Upgrade Project (RNDSUP) is improvements in severe thunderstorm warnings. This is being achieved through improvements to radar data and information systems such as the Thunderstorm Interactive Forecasting System (TIFS), which produces graphical severe thunderstorm warnings for specialised clients as well as the general public.

In order to assess the Bureau's performance in meeting the severe thunderstorm warning requirements of the Australian public, considering aspects such as the accuracy, timeliness and usefulness of the severe thunderstorm warning service, an online survey was conducted during the 2006/2007 summer. The survey resulted in over 37,000 responses over a 4 week period. To complement the information gathered from the online survey, three questions about severe thunderstorm warnings were included in the Bureau's autumn telephone surveys.

Click here to see the survey questions

The online survey will be conducted again in March 2008. Comparison of the results of successive surveys will allow the Bureau to monitor the Australian public's opinion of ongoing improvements to the severe thunderstorm warning service.

Survey Results In Brief

The online survey revealed that 92% of respondents found the severe thunderstorm warnings easy to understand, whereas the results of the telephone survey showed that 77% of respondents found the severe thunderstorm warnings easy to understand.

Survey respondents were asked what they thought of the Bureau's severe thunderstorm warning service compared to one year ago, with 84% of online survey respondents and 83% of telephone survey respondents indicating that they found the service either more useful or no different.

Survey respondents were asked if they had looked at a graphical severe thunderstorm warning, with 81% of online survey respondents and 46% of telephone survey respondents stating that they had. Of the online survey respondents who said that they had looked at a graphical severe thunderstorm warning, 93% indicated that the graphical section of the graphical severe thunderstorm warnings improves the warning. These responses indicate that the improvements to the severe thunderstorm warning service have been well received by the Australian public.