The following are resources from within the weather, water, and climate enterprise that I have found to be useful in communicating disaster risk to Spanish-speaking populations in the United States. Check back from time to time! I will be updating this page as more is found. If you have an addition or suggestion, please email joseph.trujillo@noaa.gov.
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise indicated, the following sources are not affiliated with me. Some of these resources may be working documents. For any questions or to provide feedback on these resources, please contact the respective organization by visiting their webpage.
Social Media
Provided by the NWS Spanish Outreach Team, weather safety graphics en español are ready for download. Captions are attached to each post so that you don’t have to translate. Graphics for every season!
English graphics are also available (click here!). It is wise to put both the English and Spanish versions next to one another to expand your audience and reach.
One-Stop Shop for Hurricane Information
Provided by the National Hurricane Center, FIU, and the Florida Division of Emergency Management. The general public and practitioners alike can access hurricane educational material, preparedness recommendations, in addition to NHC products in Spanish.
#HurricaneStrong is a national hurricane resilience initiative to save lives and homes through collaboration with leading organizations in the disaster safety movement. They also have a Spanish page with helpful content.
Disaster Preparedness En Español
In conjunction with its English counterpart, ready.gov, “Listo” is a National public service campaign designed to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies, including natural and man-made disasters. Within this website, there are graphic and information in Spanish.
Lightning Safety Awareness En Español
In collaboration with the National Lightning Safety Council, AMS CHALA Ambassadors created graphics and activities that was part of National Lightning Safety Awareness Week in July 2021. Practitioners can share these graphics year round, as lightning is a recurring threat. The following graphics were made sure to be dialect neutral and informative to the Hispanic/Latinx community.
U.S. Spanish Dictionaries and Glossaries
Did You Know?
There is no official English to Spanish weather and climate dictionary in the U.S. Therefore, the following resources may be inconsistent with each other, but it’s a great start!
Existing Spanish Weather Dictionaries and Glossaries in the U.S.
Provided by the AMS Committee for Hispanic and Latinx Advancement, Spanish-language dictionaries and glossaries are provided for practitioners to use. The existing dictionaries and glossaries belong to COMET and NWS.
EPA English to Spanish Dictionary
The following terminology is used by the Environmental Protection Agency when publishing their reports and updates in Spanish. For our climate scientists and communicators, this resource may be very valuable!
COMET Training Modules En Español
Meteorologists use COMET modules to learn more about atmospheric phenomenon throughout college. Now, it’s available in Spanish! The terminology used here comes from the COMET English to Spanish dictionary.
When visiting the website, make sure you filter to “Spanish.” There’s also 9 languages you can choose from!
International English to Spanish Dictionaries
¡Nivel internacional!
The following resources are from Spanish-speaking countries outside the United States. Since various dialects exist in Spanish-speaking countries, some terminology might not line up with one another. That’s okay: language is beautiful and diverse.
For risk communicators in the U.S.: I recommend you first use the resources provided from U.S. agencies, like AMS, NWS, COMET, etc., for consistency purposes.
United Nations Terminology Database
United Nations Terminology Database is a multilingual terminology database maintained jointly by the Secretariat and certain specialized agencies of the United Nations system, including the World Meteorological Organization.
Scientific terminology, including weather and climate jargon, can be found in Spanish, English, French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, and German
Catalonia Dictionary of Meteorology
The Polytechnic University of Catalonia has a dictionary of meteorology that translates from Catalonian to Spanish, English, and French. There are 957 words in this dictionary!
Fun fact: Catalonia is an autonomous region northeast of Spain, and they speak Catalán. The everyday American may think this is Spanish. It is not!
Servicio Meteorológico Nacional de México
Mexico’s equivalent of the National Weather Service has a glossary of weather and climate terminology. Mexicans represent the largest portion of the U.S. Spanish speaking community, so this glossary might provide some good insight with terminology they have seen before.
Uruguayan Institute of Meteorology Glossary
Uruguay’s equivalent of the National Weather Service has a glossary of weather and climate terminology. While it is not a comprehensive list of terminology, it does cover a good number of them!
Joseph Trujillo Falcón 