Greetings everyone! I hope that you are well and your work is progressing nicely!
After our fun game session during last year’s CALMET, I had the chance to work on a learning game for an in-person course at COMET. My colleagues and I created a risk management game during a course about winter weather forecasting. The main goals of the game were to:
- Select an EPS product that will provide useful information depending on the expected winter event
- Interpret the EPS product guidance correctly and make a decision based on it
- Experience the pressures of emergency management decision-making
The participants took the role of an emergency manager preparing cities for several winter weather events. After a brief synopsis of the weather situation, the participants reviewed probabilistic model guidance (ECMWF probabilistic guidance featured prominently Anna!) and recorded the amount of snow, their confidence in the amount, and the level of preparation they will initiate in the city.
The participants had to carefully balance the level of preparation against the public confidence in their decisions. For example, if the participants prepared the city at the highest level but little snow occurred, the public confidence in their abilities would lower.
The course participants enjoyed the game very much:
- 100% of the 13 respondents to the survey thought that the game was excellent/good.
- 100% thought that it was effective for learning.
Their comments indicated that they learned a great deal about interpreting EPS guidance, risk management and the pressures of emergency managers. Several mentioned that the game gave them an appreciation of what happens with the information that forecasters provide to emergency managers.
Cheers,Tsvet