nsj: blog 
nsj's blog
countdown to colorado
Published Aug 4, 2008Views: 160
Later this week, I'll be hitting the road -- rather, the skies -- for Boulder, Colorado. I'll be participating in a most interesting workshop called "WAS*IS".
WAS*IS is an acronym for "Weather and Society - Integrated Studes". It's a group of meteorologists and other geoscientists combined with a group of sociologists and other social scientists. The point of the workshop is to foster research and ideasharing on how people receive and interpret weather information, or why certain groups are more likely to take action during bad weather.
For example, a study in the mid-1990s discovered that single people are more likely to be killed by a tornado than married people. Numerous studies have been done in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita back in 2005 to determine what factored into folks' decisions on whether or not to evacuate.
That's only a couple of the things that we'll be dealing with at the workshop. What we learn with WAS*IS may have an impact on how we talk about the weather, everything from lazy summer days up to hurricanes and snowstorms.
Filed under: Weather
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