§8513 Tornado Warning Improvement and Extension Program

Summary

The Under Secretary must set up a tornado warning improvement and extension program with the U.S. weather industry and academic partners. The program’s goal is to cut deaths and economic harm from tornadoes by making tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings more accurate, useful, and timely, including predicting tornadoes more than 1 hour in advance. The program must regularly check new kinds of observations (for example, acoustic or infrasonic sensors, phased array radars, and mesonets) to see if they help. Within 180 days after April 18, 2017, the Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, working with the National Weather Service Director, must write a plan showing the research, development, technology transfer, resources, and timelines needed. After the plan is finished, the Under Secretary, through those officials, must send Congress a proposed budget for those activities at least once each year.