Webinar #72 - Wednesday, October 15, 2020

Awesome or Awful? Ranking Winter Severity with the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI) 
Barb Boustead
NOAA/NWS’s Warning Decision Training Division
Norman, OK


(biography)

This webinar will look at the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index (AWSSI).  AWSSI provides a scientific way to quantify the severity of a winter at any given location compared to its weather history. Using daily temperature, snowfall, and snow depth measurements, the AWSSI assigns a point total to each day of winter. Daily points add up through the winter season, giving a whole-season total at the end of winter. Besides the curiosity factor of having the numbers to support perceptions of whether a winter was severe or mild, AWSSI can be used to compare severity among sites or to compare the severity of one winter to others at a given site. The index can provide insight into wildlife and vegetation patterns, transportation and education impacts, and relationships between winter severity and other weather and climate patterns. 

View the Webinar by clicking here: AWSSI

View Barb's presentation slides  


Resources:

AWSSI main page

Wilder Weather Blog

Medium Site

Wilder Weather on Facebook

”The Long Winter of 1880-1881” in the Bulletin of the AMS