New Publications in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and Weather, Climate, and Society! See below.
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Exploring the Unknown: Languages, Emerging Technology, and Science
Research Foci
Bilingual Risk and Crisis Communication
By 2060, nearly 1 in 3 Americans will be able to speak Spanish. Previous NWS Assessments have linked casualties and fatalities to faulty communication in Spanish. I study how Spanish-speaking communities receive, comprehend, and respond to life-threatening weather & climate hazards. Realizing that most local, state, and federal agencies leave these groups out in their disaster preparedness plans, I actively work to make sure marginalized populations are included in future policy measures.
Publications of Interest
Next-Generation Warning Technology
Scientists at NOAA are exploring how to use probabilities to communicate life-saving information during severe weather events, such as tornadoes. The visualization above, known as probabilistic hazard information, could fundamentally change the way practitioners warn communities. My research in this realm applies a social science lens to explore best risk communication practices, through recommendation and co-production with broadcast meteorologists, emergency managers, and NWS meteorologists.
Publications of Interest:
In The News
National Weather Service revises Spanish terms for severe storms
“Especially as our climate begins to make different types of disasters a lot more concerning, we need to make sure that everyone’s included in the disaster preparedness and response process,”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIWRO/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
“Our climate is changing every day, and although sometimes that can make us a little nervous, I believe that with the correct information, we can move forward as a community”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIWRO/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
“Muchas veces la gente no recibe esa información en su idioma natal y eso impide que vayan a refugiarse y, debo ser claro: eso es la diferencia entre la vida y la muerte.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIWRO/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
When Dangerous Weather Approaches, The Spanish Translation Problem Looms
“During its Spring 2021 meetings, the National Academies Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) heard from experts like Trujillo-Falcón on the need for incorporating equity, justice, and diversity within the nation’s weather, climate, and water enterprise.”
Dr. Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia
Language-inclusive Weather Information Saves Lives
“If a community has more of a Mexican population, for example, we need to focus on tornado threats. And if somebody is from Puerto Rico, we probably don’t need to spend more time looking at hurricane threats, because they’ve experienced them and [are] knowledgeable of them.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIWRO/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
‘Beyond the translation’: How Do You Convey ‘Tornado Warning’ in Spanish?
“Whenever we come to the United States, we might hear the word, say, ‘tornado warning’ or ‘hurricane warning,’ but we may not truly know the true implications of it just because of how we were raised and how we even came to learn about hazards in the first place,” Trujillo Falcón told AccuWeather. “The short answer is this can be applied across the board [to weather events], and not just translation, but also understanding of hazards and context in general.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIMMS/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
¡Alerta! Variations in Spanish Dialects Complicate Emergency Messaging
“It’s been something of a rally cry among a lot of bilingual meteorologists… It’s like, we know it, but we just haven’t been able to communicate it to the rest of our enterprise — but now people are listening. Our next step is to make sure we get a survey of the American audience, and we understand what words best convey the urgency.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIMMS/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
Translation Please: Improving Spanish Weather Forecasts
“By 2060, there will be more Spanish-speakers in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world other than Mexico. It’s important for us to diversify and better collaborate with and reach these communities.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, CIMMS/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
NWS Working on Building a Weather-Ready Nation and Spanish Initiative
“Dialects can get even more complicated in Spanish. So, I’ve embarked on a mission to make sure these translations would at least be a little more universal and fit all the Spanish dialects in the U.S. For example, you may tune in during the morning to a national network and see a different risk category than during your 5 p.m. newscast, because meteorologists may interpret the definitions differently since their Spanish is so different.”
Joseph Trujillo Falcón, OU CIMMS/ NOAA NSSL/ NWS SPC
Publications
Refereed Publications
Morales, A., Molina, M. J., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Lang, A. L., Barrett, B. S., Aviles, L., Camargo, S. J., Nuñez Ocasio, K. M., Bieri, C., & Murillo, E. (2023, in press). Hispanic and Latinx academics and researchers in the atmospheric sciences: The people, the challenges, and the future. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Accepted.
Tripati, A., Shepherd, M., Morris, V., Andrade, K., Whyte, K. P., David-Chavez, D. M., Hosbey, J., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Hunter, B., Hence, D., Carlis, D., Brown, V., Parker, W. L., Geller, A., Reich, A., & Glackin, M. (2023, in press). Centering equity in the Nation’s weather, water, and climate services. Environmental Justice. Accepted.
Tripp, D. D., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Klockow-McClain, K.E., Reeves, H. D., Berry, K. L., Waldstreicher, J. S., & Nelson, J. A. (2023). Foundational needs of forecasters for probabilistic winter forecasting. Weather and Forecasting, 38(1), 3-15, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-22-0116.1
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gaviria Pabón, A., Ripberger, J., Bitterman, A., Thornton, J. B., Krocak, M. J., Ernst, S. R., Cassiani Obeso, E., & Lipski, J. (2022). ¿Aviso o alerta? A national survey on Spanish-speaker reception and interpretation of the current watch and warning system. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Early Online Release, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0050.1
Obermeier, H., Berry, K., Klockow-McClain, K. E., Campbell, A., Carithers, C., Gerard, A., & Trujillo-Falcón, J. E. (2022). The creation of a research television studio to test Probabilistic Hazard Information with broadcast meteorologists in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed. Weather, Climate and Society, 14(3), 949-963, https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0171.1.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Reedy, J. Klockow-McClain, K. E., Berry, K., Stumpf, G. J., Bates, A. V., & LaDue, J. L. (2022). Creating a communication framework for FACETs: How Probabilistic Hazard Information affected warning operations in NOAA’s Hazardous Weather Testbed. Weather, Climate and Society, 14(3), 881-892, https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-21-0136.1.
Hurst, E. H., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Reedy, J., & Anderson, C. (2021). Citizen deliberation at South Carolina’s ‘Our Coastal Future Forum’: Talking through risk related to climate change. Journal of Risk Research, 25(6), 764-777, https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2021.2020882..
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Bermúdez, O., Negrón-Hernández, K., Lipski, J., Leitman, E. M., & Berry, K. (2021). Hazardous weather communication en español: Challenges, current resources and future practices. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 102(4), 765-773, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0249.1.
Government and Policy Reports
Bitterman, A., Ripberger, J., Krocak, M., Silva, C., Jenkins-Smith, H., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., and Gaviria Pabón, A. (2022). Developing a baseline: Public perception, understanding, and responses to severe weather forecasts and warnings for U.S. Spanish speakers. Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis Reference Report. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/IZNQVA.
Krocak, M. Ernst, S., Ripberger, J., Williams, C., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gallo, B., and Marsh, P. (2021). The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center’s convective outlook: Conclusions from past research and recommendations for future development. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration FY 2021 Milestone Report.
Non-Refereed Publications
Trujillo, J. E. (2019). Rhetoric and climate: Organizational influence on public policy related to Hurricane Harvey (Embargoed– Available upon request) [Thesis, Texas A&M University]. OAKTrust Repository.
Work In Progress
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E. (In Review). Reimagining Survey Methodology to Better Serve U.S. Hispanic and Latinx Communities in Disaster Contexts. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Bitterman, A., Krocak, M. J., Ripberger, J. T., Ernst, S., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gaviria Pabón, A. G., Silva, C., & Jenkins-Smith H. (In Review). Assessing public interpretation of original and linguist suggested SPC Risk Categories in Spanish. Weather and Forecasting.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Gaviria Pabón, A. R., Reedy, J. & Klockow-McClain, K. E. (In Review). Systemic Vulnerabilities in Hispanic and Latinx Immigrant Communities Led to the Reliance of an Informal Warning System in the December 10-11, 2021 Tornado Outbreak. Natural Hazards Review.
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Lipski, J., Leitman, E., Bermúdez, O., Negrón, K., & Berry, K. (2021, January). Creating unifying risk messages en español: Frameworks for translation and interpretation. 16th Symposium on Societal Applications, 101st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. (First Place Overall Oral Presentation)
Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Lee, S. K., Berry, K., Obermeier, H., Klockow-McClain, K. E., Campbell, P. A., Meyer, T., Williams, S., Ernst, S., & Landeros, E. (2021, January). Applying social scientific concepts to enhance R2O: Analysis of 2018 and 2019 NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed Probabilistic Hazard Information experiments. 11th Conference on Transition of Research to Operations, 101st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. (Second Place Overall Oral Presentation)
Yas, V., Sánchez Núñez, P., Trujillo-Falcón, J. E., Schultz, C. J., Murphy, K. M., Romero, A., Torres, M., & Bianchi, C. (2021, January). ¿When thunder roars go indoors? Spanish-Language resources for National Lightning Safety Awareness Week. 9th Symposium on the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise, 101st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
Hurst, E. H., Trujillo, J. E., & Reedy, J. (2020, November). Citizen deliberation at South Carolina’s Our Coastal Future Forum: Talking through risk related to climate change. 106th National Communication Association Annual Convention, Indianapolis, IN.
Trujillo, J. E., Bermúdez, O., Lipski, J., & Leitman, E. (2020, September). The Storm Prediction Center Spanish language initiative. 45th National Weather Association Annual Meeting, Virtual.
Trujillo, J. E., Berry, K., Obermeier, H., Gerard, A., Klockow-McClain, K. E., Campbell, P. A., Meyer, T. C., & Ripberger, J. T. (2020, January). Plumes, probabilities, and posts: How social media coverage evolved in the 2019 Hazardous Weather Testbed Probabilistic Hazard Information experiment. 15th Symposium on Societal Applications, 100th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Trujillo, J. E. (2020, January). Introducing the AMS Latinx Committee. 8th Symposium on Building a Weather-Ready Nation, 100th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Joseph Trujillo Falcón 