Stranded For 30 Hours…And, Counting

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There are drivers still stuck in the 5+ feet of snow near Buffalo. The entire article is here. While this blog does not cover lake effect snow, I knew this would be a major event so went ahead and mentioned it twice before it occurred. The first of those is here.

Just this morning I was reading a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society titled "The Dynamics of Hurricane Risk Perception." One of the points it makes is that -- in spite of good warnings -- many people in Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac "didn't think it could happen to them."

Meteorologists are increasingly engaging social scientists to help us sharpen our warnings and make them more understandable. We had a social scientist here at AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions just a few weeks ago. While I certainly accept responsibility to make our warnings as clear, as timely, and as accurate as possible, I don't know what to do with the "it can't happen to me" attitude. I believe, ultimately, it is decision of adults to make: Do I follow the warning advice or not?

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