{"id":38055,"date":"2022-10-04T11:59:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T17:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/is-colorado-using-the-right-weather-words-when-its-time-for-an-alerta\/"},"modified":"2022-10-04T17:59:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T17:59:32","slug":"is-colorado-using-the-right-weather-words-when-its-time-for-an-alerta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/is-colorado-using-the-right-weather-words-when-its-time-for-an-alerta\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Colorado using the right weather words when it\u2019s time for an \u2018alerta\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A tornado touches down in a largely rural area of northern Colorado on June 7, 2021, near Firestone. (Jennifer Finch\/Weld County Government via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For all of us who have ever weighed a tornado \u201cwatch\u201d versus a tornado \u201cwarning,\u201d it\u2019s no surprise that a growing number of researchers say distinguishing between Spanish words like \u201caviso\u201d and \u201calerta\u201d in weather bulletins can be a life or death choice.<\/p>\n

If a twister sprouts east of Pueblo, or a climate-driven wildfire threatens Jefferson County, or more hurricanes pummel Florida, Spanish-speaking communities need weather warnings to meet the moment. More and more meteorological and social science research shows they\u2019re failing.<\/p>\n

As Hurricane Ian bore down on the west coast of Florida, weather service parent agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was talking about its new research suggesting Spanish translations need to bump up in urgency. NOAA and the weather service \u2013 as well as FEMA \u2013 mean to say \u201cwarning\u201d when it comes to tornadoes and hurricanes and other hazards, but the Spanish word they have been using, \u201caviso,\u201d is not taken as seriously by Spanish speakers.<\/p>\n

Researchers asked more than 1,000 Spanish speakers to rank advisory words. The researchers were told that the words they\u2019d been using as strong, \u201caviso\u201d and \u201cvigilancia,\u201d were not heard as forcefully as the more urgent Spanish words \u201cemergencia,\u201d \u201camenaza\u201d and \u201calerta.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author of NOAA\u2019s study, which was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, said the study backs up other recent work comparing signals from English words versus signals from Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cAviso\u201d is a literal translation of \u201cwarning,\u201d but aviso is \u201cmore like advice you might get from a parent,\u201d and doesn\u2019t come across as an urgent official warning to act, said Joseph Trujillo-Falc\u00f3n, lead author from NOAA\u2019s Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

The difference can literally mean life and death, as Florida officials struggled to convey the dangers of Ian\u2019s intense ocean surge to evacuation stragglers around Tampa. How Spanish speakers accept the words is also key in tornado-prone spots with large Hispanic populations, from Colorado to Texas. As climate change makes emergency weather events more frequent, language and communication matter all the more, researchers say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so important to get people the right information at the right level of urgency,\u201d said Ben Hatchett, assistant research professor for atmospheric science at Reno\u2019s Desert Research Institute.<\/p>\n

In tornado advisories, for example, the word \u201cwatch\u201d means conditions are ripe for a tornado and residents should be alert. \u201cWarning\u201d means a tornado has been spotted or is imminent and residents should take shelter. The study notes that \u201c66% of the English speakers correctly identified the meaning of a tornado watch as an early notice of possible severe weather,\u201d but \u201conly 38% of the Spanish speakers chose this definition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur data supports using the Spanish word \u2018vigilancia\u2019 for a tornado watch and the Spanish word \u2018alerta\u2019 for a tornado warning,\u201d Trujillo-Falc\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

9News meteorologist Chris Bianchi, who often handles the regular Spanish-language weather casts for the station, agrees with the research and is writing about it at 9News.com. He commented on the studies just before leaving for Florida, where he joined the hurricane coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is absolutely critical,\u201d Bianchi wrote from DIA, as he waited for his Tampa flight. \u201cThere has long been a huge, discernible gap between English and Spanish forecasting and terminology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatchett also does research from his base in Santa Rosa, California, on whether English-speaking communities are hearing bad-weather warnings with the urgency forecasters and safety officials intend. It\u2019s crucial, he said, to study local dialect and geography, and which communicators are the trusted sources of information.<\/p>\n

In Reno, Hatchett said, weather listeners don\u2019t pay enough attention to warnings of \u201cup to 6 inches of snow in the area.\u201d They assume that means up on the mountains in the Tahoe area, not so much in the lower-lying Truckee Meadows.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you say, \u2018It\u2019s going to snow 6 inches down here,\u2019 everyone\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s gonna snow down here in the valley in downtown Reno. OK, got it. Got to think about how I\u2019m going to get to work tomorrow,\u2019\u201d Hatchett said.<\/p>\n

Climate and weather researchers are also trying to use high temperature ranges rather than one number when expressing growing dangers from urban heat waves, Hatchett said. Instead of saying just, \u201cIt\u2019s likely to hit 106 degrees tomorrow,\u201d they use probability forecasting: \u201cIt\u2019s very likely going to be above 95 and could hit 100.\u201d<\/p>\n

How then, Hatchett said, to best present that range visually or verbally, to enclaves of different speakers and listeners, from San Diego to the San Luis Valley? Will they be concerned enough to think about staying home from an outdoors job, or keeping kids out of an unairconditioned school?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201csuper important,\u201d he said, to use translation from native speakers familiar with a community to find the words \u201cthrough the lens of the local person who you\u2019re trying to convince to make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meteorologists appear to welcome the flurry of social scientists researching how to sharpen communication in their field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often forget how young meteorology is,\u201d Bianchi said, adding that 100 years ago weather warnings were coming primarily from priests on the hurricane frontlines in Cuba. He\u2019s worked on some of the NOAA research panels, and he sees the impact of words while talking with the 9News audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cTranslating and accounting for regional dialects and slang can be very difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studies show language used to issue warnings may not be strong enough in Spanish or in English<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,971,28,2681,414,88,1163],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-emergency-planning","tag-headlines","tag-language","tag-weather","tag-weather-news","tag-weather-science"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38055"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}