§9705 Improving National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Communication of Future Flood Risks and Hazardous Flash Flood Events

Summary

NOAA must, within 2 years after December 27, 2022 (by December 27, 2024), review its flash flood watches and warnings and how it gets flood information to the public. The agency must send a report of its findings to Congress. The review must check if watches and warnings clearly show risk, help people and officials act to save lives and property, support flood preparation and response, and present information so people take the right steps. The review must look at ways to explain flash flood risk, give usable location-based information (including working with emergency agencies), and judge how information is delivered. NOAA must talk with scientists (including social and behavioral experts), other weather services, media, emergency managers, government users (like the Federal Highway Administration), and other federal agencies. NOAA should get review help from the National Academy of Sciences and use methods accepted by the weather community. After the review, NOAA must improve watches and warnings to better show risks and give actionable location info. Any big changes must be tested by social and behavioral science with a generalizable sample, meet the needs of different groups and regions, serve federal, State, local, Tribal, and media partners, and consider needed updates to federal systems that send out watches and warnings. A “watch” or “warning” here means NOAA products for the public that alert to possible or current flash floods and tell people to act; it does not mean technical forecasts or model outputs. "Weather enterprise" is defined elsewhere.