The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) High-Impact Weather (HIWeather) research project was designed to increase the effectiveness of forecasts and warnings of high-impact weather. In achieving this, it created a global momentum toward a growing partnership between the social and physical sciences in the weather enterprise, building a community of researchers and practitioners who understand the importance of working across disciplines and are passionate about the value of warnings in reducing the impact of weather-related hazards. Through its promotion of "Warning Chain Thinking" within the Warning Value Cycle, it focused attention on the whole warning system, from monitoring and forecasting through communication and response, emphasizing the role of partnerships among disciplines, organizations, decision-makers, and the public. It brought together a wide body of research from multiple disciplines involved in making warnings more effective, in a series of publications which are increasingly used in education, training, and operations. In doing so, it helped bridge gaps between weather information providers, emergency managers, and humanitarian organizations on a global scale. It has provided a community and a body of evidence as a foundation for the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative and for the next generation of warnings research. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The article highlights the importance of considering the high-impact weather forecasting and warning chain as an integrated whole, involving a range of actors from different organizations and disciplines. Three strands of science motivated this work: the need for progress in translating weather hazards into impacts; evidence to underpin the appropriate introduction of impact-based forecasts and warnings; and addressing the gap between the science of community response, espoused by humanitarian organizations, and the science of weather information production, exemplified by national weather services.

Abstract. Natural hazards pose a threat to human life and health. As a tool of risk communication and disaster education serious games are being used with increasing frequency. Even though an increase in research in the field is observable, little is known about serious games’ actual effectiveness. This systematic review gives an overview of existing publications on serious games dealing with natural hazards and evaluations of reported effects on users. We analyse 132 scientific articles and conference papers published between 2007 and 2025. Most publications describe digital serious games; analogue or hybrid formats were rarely explored. Flooding is the hazard addressed most frequently. 17 publications introduce and describe the serious games, while about half of the publications (n=73) report a usability evaluation of the games. This review focuses on the 42 publications that also include an evaluation of the serious games’ impact on the player. Most of these effectiveness evaluation studies do not apply any theoretical frameworks for the game development and/or evaluation processes. A noticeable concentration of findings concerns positive impacts on knowledge and self-efficacy. Behaviour, motivation, intention, further psychological impacts as well as specific competencies are explored in comparably few publications. Our findings show that theoretical frameworks play a subordinate role in the current research landscape examined. The quality of applied evaluation methods varied considerably. Most commonly reported impacts and outcomes for players were increased knowledge and self-efficacy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in disaster risk reduction, including early warning systems (EWS) for weather hazards. While AI promises faster data processing and improved forecast accuracy, concerns remain about automation bias, reduced human oversight, or accountability, and erosion of professional judgment. Despite rapid technological advances, the perceptions of the weather warning community remain underrepresented in current research. To address this, we conducted an Argumentative Delphi study with experts from the 2024 WMO HIWeather Final Conference. Participants assessed AI's impact on 13 key aspects of weather warnings - including quality, interpretability, accountability, and social bias - and shared hopes and concerns. Overall, participants expressed cautious optimism. AI is expected to improve the goodness of warnings, potentially cascading into broader dimensions of warning efficacy, public trust, and institutional responsibility. However, concerns include over-reliance on AI, erosion of human involvement, and challenges in maintaining a single authoritative voice in warning communication. Rather than viewing AI as replacement for human decision-making, it is seen as decision-support tool that augments professional expertise. Tailored warnings and multilingual communication emerged as promising areas for AI application, though issues of data bias and accessibility remain. Thus, ethical implementation is vital to ensure inclusiveness and alignment global disaster risk reduction goals. Finally, the introduction of AI touches the 'professional core' of weather warning as an occupation and prompts experts to define their evolving roles and core competencies in the face of technological advancements. Future research should explore how generative AI may reshape forecasting and the profession itself.

Digitalisation has a significant impact on most aspects of society. State agencies with safety and security tasks have to develop effective strategies to manage the opportunities and risks associated with technological innova-tions and increased networking. Emerging digital technologies have the potential to affect work practices and thus the organisational culture of such agencies. To examine the extent to which scientific research has addressed the impact of digitalisation on organisational culture so far, a systematic scoping review was conducted. Preliminary results show that the overall research topic is still in an exploratory phase and studies are primarily from the global north. The analyses show that the majority of studies focuses on artefacts around information data leading to respective work practices around data work.

In forest fire management, uncertainties are inherent. One major challenge for forest fire managers is the uncertainty of whether a fire will start at all, where, when and with what effect. In particular, human negligence and arson are unforeseeable. This research focuses on these uncertainties affecting the preparatory practices of forest fire managers in Brandenburg, Germany, and how they are anticipated and dealt with. Qualitative content analysis of expert interviews and focus group discussions generate in-depth insights into the role of uncertainties in the prevention phase and during the control of the event. Findings shows that uncertainties pose barriers to preparatory action. Coping mechanisms rely on individual sensemaking that are in turn influenced by one’s role, knowledge and experience as well as organizational habits and values. Analysis of German firefighters’ perceptions of and coping with uncertainty shows that practices of imagination help to anticipate uncertain futures and to cope with dynamic, complex disasters.

"Enhancing the Value of Weather and Climate Services in Society: Identified Gaps and Needs as Outcomes of the First WMO WWRP/SERA Weather and Society Conference" published on 17 Mar 2023 by American Meteorological Society.

The phase before an extreme weather event is crucial for the actual reaction to the impacts of such an event. In this phase, professionals in the field of civil protection and emergency management anticipate the intensity and impact of the event and use these expectations for action. We argue that anticipation is-beyond others-shaped by the organizations' shared narratives of past crisis that resulted from extreme weather events. The findings focus on the frame of 'blame' in the narration and are based on two fields of study, road maintenance services and forest fire control. Qualitative group discussions and semistructured interviews show two very different views on blame depending on the organization: human factors and fate. This contrast can be traced back to the character of the weather events itself, but also with the self-image of the organization and perceived external expectations. Depending on the narrative plot and threshold of the event, narratives can affect and alter practices of anticipation through narrations of renewal. Findings contribute to the understanding of organizational sensemaking through narratives of blame and consequences.

Impact-based forecasts and warnings (IBFs) are seen as important drivers for adequate anticipation and assessment of potential threats to public safety as they give a better understanding of the weather event's impacts. To prepare for impacts of weather events and prevent weather-related accidents, road maintenance services are actively using weather information in their daily work routine. This paper looks into the requirements that road maintenance services have for IBFs and how weather forecasts are used at the moment. The study is part of an interdisciplinary research project and follows a qualitative social science research approach. Findings show that the following factors are general user requirements: relevance of information, recognition of spatial and temporal requests, acceptability, comprehensibility, and technical demands. These are also applicable to IBFs with the extension to provide a benefit for road maintenance services in situations that rarely occur and where no embodied knowledge in the organization is existent.

AbstractIn this chapter, we explore the challenges of achieving a level of awareness of disaster risk, by each person or organisation receiving a warning, which allows them to take actions to reduce potential impacts while being consistent with the warning producer’s capabilities and cost-effectiveness considerations. Firstly we show how people respond to warnings and how the nature and delivery of the warning affects their response. We look at the aims of the person providing the warning, the constraints within which they must act and the judgement process behind the issue of a warning. Then we address the delivery of the warning, noting that warning messages need to be tailored to different groups of receivers, and see how a partnership between warner and warned can produce a more effective result. We include illustrative examples of co-design of warning systems in Argentina and Nepal, experience in communicating uncertainty in Germany and the Weather-Ready Nation initiative in the USA. We conclude with a summary of aspects of the warning that need to be considered between warner and decision-maker when designing or upgrading a warning system.

Citizens as voluntary weather observers have long contributed to weather and climate science. The density of the professional observation network is enriched by lay observations of weather phenomena and their impacts. Some statements about the impact of climate change on the environment and people would not be possible without them. A better public understanding is also particularly interesting in order to build up decision-relevant knowledge about climate change, as citizens not only gain key scientific insights, but also increase their understanding of the topic and gain a growing interest in the research process. In two projects in Germany (in Brandenburg, within the FESSTVaL (Field Experiment on submesoscale spatio-temporal variability in Lindenberg) measurement campaign initiated by the Hans-Ertel-Center for Weather Research, and in Bavaria, in the KARE-Citizen Science project), we use a weather station to be assembled by pupils as a participatory vehicle to increase interest in and understanding of weather and climate, as well as of weather forecasting, and to generate high resolution data for research. The pupils measure weather data such as temperature and precipitation with self-built weather stations out of a 3D-printer. They also report weather impacts such as observed damages. These data are evaluated in workshops involving the students, their teachers, local partners and scientists. Interesting meteorological phenomena were discovered in the dataset, e.g. a cold pool that can form during a thunderstorm and trigger new ones. Thus, our network of higher spatial and temporal resolution data collected by the pupils has the potential to study these small-scale phenomena in more detail than with professional networks of about 25 km spacing.

The project KARE-citizen science established a layperson weather network with two schools in the Bavarian Prealps, Germany, to build up decision-relevant knowledge about weather and climate. Over the summer of 2020, pupils collected weather data with self-assembled low-cost autonomous weather stations and reported weather impacts.The project included a pre- and post-test of pupils' weather literacy and awareness of climate change and their expectation of local weather before summer and perception in hindsight. The ongoing COVID-19 situation had a major impact on the intended activities. A comprehensive analysis is therefore deferred to a full experiment planned in summer 2021.

Voluntarily measuring atmospheric characteristics by citizens has a long tradition. Possibilities has been increasing in the last years with the rise of smart devices and the internet-of-things (IoT). Atmospheric measurements are also prototypical project examples within the Maker community. Maker projects (i.e. IoT-/technology-oriented projects) are popular means of strengthening interest in STEM subjects among pupils. In the frame of two projects, we use an IoT-based weather station to be assembled by pupils as a participatory vehicle to a) raise interest in and understanding of weather and climate, as well as weather forecasts, and b) obtain additional data to be used in scientific projects.In the project KARE-CS (funding: German Ministry for Education and Research, BMBF), a lay weather network has been set up together with pupils in the Bavarian Oberland south of Munich in 2020 and 2021. The students' devices measure temperature, pressure, humidity, solar radiation and precipitation in their direct environment, data is visualized on their smartphones (or any device running a browser) and updated every few minutes. Pupils also report weather impacts such as observed damages or their own concernment about weather events. These data are evaluated in workshops involving the students, their teachers, local partners and scientists. Atmospheric as well as impact data is evaluated for further use in scientifc studies, such as within the mother project KARE (). KARE-CS focuses on upper secondary school students as participants and aim at a development of competences among teachers as multipliers and pupils, particularly in terms of climate change adaptation, understanding natural hazards and risks and in taking personal precautions.A similar setup is used for supporting the measurement campaing FESSTVaL ( initiated for 2021 by the Hans-Ertel-Centre for Weather Research ( ). The pupils' network will consist of 100 instruments within and close to the campaign's main site. Additionally to the communication and education-oriented goals mentioned above, the resulting spatially and temporally high-resolution data is used for research on thunderstorm development and cold pool characteristics within the Hans-Ertel-Centre.

Voluntary weather measurements have a long tradition and the opportunities have recently expanded with that the advent of the Internet of Things. Atmospheric measurements are prototypical examples for the maker community and popular means to strengthen interest in STEM subjects. In two projects in Germany (in Brandenburg, within the FESSTVaL (Field Experiment on submesoscale spatio-temporal variability in Lindenberg) measurement campaign initiated by the Hans-Ertel-Center for Weather Research, and in Bavaria, in the KARE-Citizen Science project), we use a weather station to be assembled by pupils as a participatory vehicle to increase interest in and understanding of weather and climate, as well as of weather forecasting, and to generate high resolution data for research. The devices measure e.g. temperature, humidity, radiation, pressure and precipitation in the students' immediate environment. They can be placed in almost any location, since they operate independent of W-LAN and external power supply. The data is visualized directly via a web app. Students report weather impacts, such as observed damage or their own exposure to weather. Due to the pandemic, only a few dozens pupils were able to participate and building their devices had to be done with digital guidance and video support. Further online materials on understanding weather forecasting and its uncertainty were provided. Understanding of weather risks was surveyed before and after participation to detect any changes. Students were asked questions about thunderstorm, rain and heat events and climatic changes since 1880. The results show a good understanding of weather risks compared to a population of all ages representative study. In online workshops pupils together with the scientists scetched and discussed the influence of the placement of their stations on their measurements. Interesting meteorological phenomena were discovered in the dataset, e.g. a cold pool that can form during a thunderstorm and trigger new ones. Thus, our network of higher spatial and temporal resolution data collected by the pupils has the potential to study these small-scale phenomena in more detail than with professional networks of about 25 km spacing.

Road transportation is considered the most vulnerable mode of transport in terms of weather impacts (Molarius et al., 2014). Extreme weather events like winter storms, heavy rain or glazed frost can have a significant impact on road quality and hence, public safety. In addition, seasonal and daily changes in traffic volume or commuter flows influence the occurrence of accidents. German road safety organisations like maintenance services receive weather information through a road condition and weather information system (SWIS) that provides information like precipitation and road surface temperature. Hence, these information give an overview over the weather conditions on the roads - not what the impacts of those conditions can have on traffic. With predictive modelling, it is possible to assess the impacts of weather on road safety as hourly probabilities of weather-related road accidents (Becker et al. 2020). It is assumed that such information on impacts of weather events on road infrastructure can be of value for road maintenance services that are responsible for ensuring road safety. However, it is still unclear how such statistical information on accident probability would be used in practice. Early warning systems are encouraged to be ‘people-centred’ (UNISDR 2015), allowing users to act in sufficient time and in an appropriate manner. In order to become people-centred, those implementing a warning system must know who their audience is and understand their information requirements for an optimal response (Zhang et al. 2019). This conference contribution will shed some light on the requirements that practitioners of road safety organisations in Germany have for impact-based forecast on weather-related road accidents. The study is part of an interdisciplinary research project in collaboration with Germany's National Meteorological Service DWD and follows a qualitative social science research approach. With the aim of stakeholder engagement in the process of developing predictive weather-related accident models, focus group discussions with managers of highway and road maintenance services as well as representatives of road and transport authorities were carried out and first results will be presented. Findings contribute to the understanding of professional recipients’ responses to weather warnings and weather information for their daily work tasks and hence, provide a deeper insight into weather service requirements from a set of stakeholders that are instrumental to public safety. Road safety organisations use weather information for the preparation of events, e.g. in planning of personnel and adjusting equipment at hand. In the focus groups, interest in further information for decision-making was expressed, while individual experience of the road’s conditions in practice was also highlighted.

Around the world, high impact weather events continue to represent a serious threat to lives and livelihoods. Effective forecast and warning systems can play an important role in reducing the harm caused by these events. However, in order for continuing improvements in the science of weather forecasting to support disaster risk reduction, forecast information must be communicated in a way that is accessible, understandable and provides a useful input into decision making processes. In keeping with this, the papers featured within this special issue focus on: 1) the move towards providing impact based weather warnings to better support decision making processes; 2) trust and its relationship with forecast uncertainty; 3) tailoring forecasts and warnings to meet the decision needs of different user groups; 4) the emerging role of social media in the dissemination and verification of weather warnings; and 5) the wider behavioural, social, cultural and political context in which weather warnings and forecast information are used in decision making. Together they highlight both the challenges of communicating about high impact weather in different contexts, and the potential ways to address them.

National meteorological services are continually working on improvements of their weather and warning information. Based on five workshops with members of the German national meteorological service and with forecast end-users from emergency management, water management, road maintenance, the media, and others, we discuss operational practices regarding the processing of weather information and specific end-user needs. We focus on the question what users' requirements for a warning are and how meteorological services can address the various user needs. Results show that in order to improve weather (warning) communication, spatial and temporal precision, acceptability and comprehensibility as well as identification of relevant information and technical requirements need to be addressed. A new challenge is the inclusion of impact information provided by e.g. emergency services and social media. As we identify opportunities and constraints for future developments, we emphasise the importance of a strong cooperation and a constant dialogue and discussion of needs between meteorological services and end-users to ensure quality of impact-based forecasts.

Communicating meteorological uncertainty allows earlier provision of information on possible future events. The desired benefit is to enable the end-user to start with preparatory protective actions at an earlier time based on the end-user's own risk assessment and decision threshold. The presented results of an interview study, conducted with 27 members of German civil protection authorities, show that developments in meteorology and weather forecasting do not necessarily fit the current practices of German emergency services. These practices are mostly carried out based on alarms and ground truth in a superficial reactive manner, rather than on anticipation based on prognoses or forecasts. Emergency managers cope with uncertainty by collecting, comparing, and blending different information about an uncertain event and its uncertain outcomes within the situation assessment to validate the information. Emergency managers struggle most with an increase of emergency calls and missions due to the impacts of severe weather. Because of the additional expenditures, the weather event makes it even harder for them to fulfill their core duties. These findings support the need for impact-based warnings.

Research suggests that providing weather forecast end users with additional information about the forecast uncertainty of a possible event can enhance the preparation of mitigation measures. But not all users have the same threshold for taking action. This paper focuses on the question of whether there are influencing factors that determine decision thresholds for numerical weather forecast information beginning at which the general public would start to take protective action.In spring 2014, 1342 residents of Berlin, Germany participated in a survey. Questions related to the following topics: perception of and prior experience with severe weather, trustworthiness of forecasters and confidence in weather forecasts, and sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Within the questionnaire a scenario was created in order to determine individual decision thresholds and see whether subgroups of the sample lead to different thresholds.Results show that people's willingness to act tends to be higher and decision thresholds tend to be lower if the expected weather event is more severe or the property at risk is of higher value. Several influencing factors of risk perception have significant effects such as education, housing status, and ability to act, whereas classic sociodemographic determinants alone are often not sufficient to fully grasp risk perception and protection behavior.

The uncertainty of weather warnings is mostly expressed only in textual form (e.g., "thunderstorms are possible tomorrow afternoon"). Thus linguistic uncertainty might be added to the numerical uncertainty of the warnings. Two questions arise: can human forecasters estimate the uncertainty and how well is this done in verbal terms.Subjective and statistical forecasts of the probability of the occurrence of severe weather events for the city of Berlin were verified. Human estimates of the probability for the occurrence of thunderstorms and wind gusts > 14 m/s in Berlin were found to be reliable and possess significant skill in comparison to the statistical reference forecast. Additionally, the verbal description of warning uncertainty in an operational textual warning report was classified and objectively verified. Results indicate that forecasters actually are aware of the inherent uncertainty, yet express this by means of a multitude of verbal terms. In order to improve the communication and reduce confusions arising from linguistic uncertainty inherent to severe weather information, forecasts should thus contain few and well defined verbal phrases expressing forecast uncertainty. Relating numerical to verbal descriptions of uncertainty revealed a fundamentally different usage of wording when comparing warnings of thunderstorms and wind gusts >14 m/s, with "stronger" wording used in case of thunderstorms. This might indicate that risk information rather than probability information is communicated to the users of the considered warning information.

This paper discusses the impact of different dimensions of risk perception on people’s decision to take protective measures against natural hazards. Initial basis of the analysis was the winter storm XAVER which affected huge parts of Northern Europe including Berlin, Germany on 5 December 2013. Preliminary results of a representative online survey within the Berlin population show that affective variables such as fear of severe weather and confidence in weather forecasts showed a significant effect on people’s decision to take protective action. Contrary, high experience of natural hazards did not necessarily lead to action.