Collaboration Across the Road Weather Enterprise: The Pathfinder Project

APPENDIX H. EVENT DATA ARCHIVING CHECKLISTS

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHECKLIST

The purpose of this checklist is to guide the documentation of important event information for post-event and post-season review. Many of the items in the table below, especially in the "Messaging" and "Observations" categories, are routinely archived, either at the National Climate Data Center or locally at Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). Thus, focus on archiving items in the "Collaboration" and "Impacts/Public Response" categories. It is not necessary to archive every event. Instead, seek to archive those events of significant societal impact and/or where societal impacts for a potential high impact event were mitigated due to collaboration.

Table 7. National Weather Service Archiving Checklist for Events.

Collaboration	Messaging	Observations	Impacts / Public Response
☐ Conference calls ☐ NWSChat ☐ Emails ☐ Webinars ☐ Media interaction ☐ In-person meetings (pre-event, during, etc.) ☐ Collaborative website	☐ Text products (outlooks, watches, warnings, advisories, forecasts, etc.) ☐ Social media ☐ Weather stories ☐ YouTube briefings ☐ Webinars ☐ Media interviews	☐ Public information statements and local storm reports ☐ Radar imagery ☐ MesoWest ☐ Locally produced maps and/or event summaries	☐ News stories (accidents, travel delays, power outages, etc.) ☐ Service assessments (local, regional, national) ☐ Local surveys ☐ After action reviews ☐ Public feedback

Notes

Collaboration - Please log dates and times that key coordination calls, webinars, media interaction, in person meetings, etc. took place. Also, include participants and nature of calls. An online operations log and/or Google Docs approach is recommended. NWSChat information is available from the NWSChat page. Use the following instructions:

1. Login in via the "Access Online Tools" interface.
2. Select "Chatroom Logs" in the interface.
3. Use the interface to select the chat room or chat rooms of choice and year, month, and day information.

Messaging - Please note any specific messages shared and/or used, specifically concerning anticipated impacts and/or precautionary actions, such as do not travel, or adjust your commute time. Social media information can be retrieved from WFO Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube sites.

Observations - As noted above, many of the items are routinely archived, either at the National Climate Data Center or locally at the WFO. If not, please manually capture.

Impacts/Public Response - Capture news stories, including URLs, which highlight impacts of the event and key items from any service assessments, surveys, and/or after actions reviews. Also, please note any public comments (social media, website, phone, etc.), specifically with respect to storm messaging.

Please use the "Post-event Questionnaire for National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices" to guide any after action reviews with partners. The after action review is a structured review or debriefing process for analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better by the participants and those responsible for the event. All partners and key participants should be included, and a detailed weather, traffic, and collaboration review should take place.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CHECKLIST

The purpose of this checklist is to guide the documentation of important event information for post-event and post-season reviewing.

Table 8. Department of Transportation Archiving Checklist for All Events.

Traveler Information	Road Weather Info	Collaboration	Public Response
☐ Variable Message Signs (VMS) & 511 messages ☐ Social media ☐ Local media	☐ Road Weather Information System (RWIS) data ☐ Camera images ☐ Maintenance logs	☐ Phone calls & emails ☐ NWSChat logs ☐ In-person meetings	☐ Traffic data ☐ News stories ☐ Public feedback

Notes

Variable Message Signs and 511 Messages - Depending on your software capabilities, you can automatically or manually log any pertinent pre-event Variable Message Sign (VMS) messages concerning upcoming impacts. For example, "HEAVY SNOW/5 PM TODAY/PLAN TRAVEL" with sign locations and time of message deployment. Format can be text-based, map-based, graphical, etc. Weather-related messages placed on the 511-phone line or weather graphics or information posted to 511- websites can be saved as images or transcripts.

Social Media - Save Twitter or Facebook messaging regarding the forecasted travel impact of the upcoming storm.

Local Media - Save pre- or during-event messages from local media that mirror the message being disseminated by the DOT and NWS.

RWIS Data - Save data trends from pertinent Environmental Sensor Stations (RWIS-ESS).

Camera Images - Save any images you notice that tell the story of what happened.

Maintenance Logs - Include relevant storm-specific maintenance logs that relay the impact of the event and how it was mitigated.

Phone Calls - Every time a phone call takes place between entities, document the details – date, time, participants, and nature of call. A shared spreadsheet, a website or even a white board accessible by all can help.

NWSChat Logs - Chatroom logs can be compiled in the NWSChat Live interface.

In-Person Meetings - Document any in-person meetings that were had before, during or after the event – who was there and what action items came from the meetings.

Traffic Data - Utilizing traffic data, can you show that the public responded to the event warnings? For example, did they change the time they normally travel? Changes in a.m./p.m. peak times? Were there less delays (than might be expected relative to previous similar events)? Event-related data should be compared to baseline days with normal traffic.

News Stories - Save post-event news stories that highlight the impact experienced from the event.

Public Feedback - Save any comments (whether on social media or through your agency's feedback forms) the public shares regarding storm messaging.

Please use the Post-event Questionnaire to guide an after-action review with all partners. The after-action review is a structured review or de-briefing process for analyzing what happened, why it happened, and how it can be done better by the participants and those responsible for the event. All partners and key participants are at the table, and a detailed weather, traffic and collaboration review is given.

PRIVATE SECTOR

A checklist for private sector entities is difficult to present due to the fact that many may have their own procedures, which may be proprietary, and specific activities may be highly variable based on specific terms laid out in their contract. However, the private sector entities should collaborate with NWS and DOT resources to guide the documentation of important event information for post-event and post-season review.