North & Central Georgia Partners Workshop (IWT)

[ATL IWT logo]

North and Central Georgia (Atlanta) Integrated Warning Team / Partners Workshop

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Georgia Tech Research Institute – Conference Center

Recap of this year's Integrated Warning Team (IWT) Meeting

A big thanks to all our partners who attended our half-day 12/6/22 workshop! We had more than 110 participants! Also, thanks to all our speakers who did a fantastic job presenting important material that will hopefully help strengthen the North and Central Georgia Integrated Warning Team!

Below is the final agenda from the meeting/workshop, along with links to the presentations (in PDF).

Agenda + Presentations (click links to open):

8:45-10:15 AM --

Session Title: An Interactive Discussion of the Newnan GA EF-4 Tornado (March 25-26, 2021)

A Meteorological Review of the Tornado Event (Katie Martin-Ehmann, Meteorologist - NWS Atlanta)
Emergency Management Preparedness & Response + Lessons Learned (Nic Burgess & Michael Terrell w/ Coweta County EMA)
Media Perspective ahead of, during, and after the event (Brad Nitz, Chief Meteorologist, WSB-TV, Atlanta)
Social science perspective addressing vulnerable populations, etc. (Dr. Stephen Strader, Associate Professor - Villanova University)

10:30-11:45 AM --

Session Title: A look at the upcoming Winter Season with a brief Overview of Weather Tools & Resources

Winter Outlook (Sid King - Lead Forecaster / Dave Nadler - Warning Coordination Meteorologist - NWS Atlanta)
[NEW] SPS Winter Product (Ryan Willis / Katie Martin-Ehmann, Meteorologists - NWS Atlanta)
[NEW] Tornado Database **operational - January 2023** (Ansley Long, Meteorologist - NWS Atlanta)
Social Media / Live Streaming Update **no slides** (Katie Martin-Ehmann / Marissa Pazos, Meteorologists - NWS Atlanta)
Brief Look at the National Water Prediction Service [NWPS] **web demo** (Laura Belanger, Senior Service Hydrologist - NWS Atlanta)

12:00-12:45 PM --

Session Title: Understanding the Benefits of Probabilistic (Ensemble) Forecasting / Messaging “impact-based” scenarios (Dylan Lusk, Meteorologist - NWS Peachtree City/Atlanta)

Please check this out -- **UPDATED December 2022** Helpful Weather Links and Resources

Photos (from most recent workshop):

What is an Integrated Warning Team (IWT)?

An IWT is an ad-hoc “team” of people/entities who are involved in the preparedness and response to high-impact weather event. An IWT Workshop is a meeting of IWT team members to discuss best practices, challenges, and ways to improve preparedness and response, and specifically to disseminate a unified message during severe/high-impact weather events.

Who is part of an IWT?

Each IWT group is unique to their specific area and needs, but an IWT primarily consists of the National Weather Service (NWS), Emergency Management (EM) (local, state, and federal) and broadcast media. The IWT also includes (though is not necessarily limited to) school/university officials, first responders, transportation officials (ground and air), healthcare officials/organizations, power companies, forestry and agricultural groups, the U.S. Geological Survey, amateur radio operators, officials with large event/outdoor venues, and private companies (especially those involved with weather, safety/security, and emergency management). Again, anyone involved in the preparedness and response to high impact weather.

One of the primary objectives of these workshops is to bring together these diverse groups of decision makers that depend on, and help relay, critical weather information. We also want to continue learning (and sharing) roles, responsibilities, and challenges that face our emergency managers, our TV, radio, and print media, and even our private sector partners.

Links to past North & Central Georgia IWT workshops

2020 & 2021 -- virtual

2015

2012

2011 (inaugural workshop)