John Fear, NC Sea Grant deputy director, and Susan White, director, spread the word about the WRN Ambassadors Initiative on a recent trip to Clearwater, FL.

Are you ready to Be A Force of Nature? North Carolina Sea Grant is! We recently became the latest Sea Grant program accepted into NOAA’s Weather Ready Nation Ambassadors Initiative.

The WRN initiative helps communities become more resilient to extreme weather events in order to protect lives and prevent injuries. What does being resilient mean in this context? It means understanding the types of severe weather that can happen where you live and work.

In North Carolina it’s easy. If you can think of a weather event, we’ve had it — hurricanes, droughts, snow and ice storms, floods, lightning and tornadoes. Knowing how to find out when a weather event is imminent, and then taking the right action to make sure you don’t get hurt or killed during severe weather or as you repair the damage are key to being weather-ready.

NOAA’s WRN Ambassadors Initiative is a great way for NOAA, and especially the National Weather Service, to partner with local groups to get the word out and help communities be more resilient. For North Carolina Sea Grant, status as a WRN Ambassador is a natural fit. We have a long history of working with the three NWS offices that serve North Carolina’s coastal counties on everything from rip current awareness to our newest work on how to improve flood resilience in Hyde County.

Look for Facebook posts and tweets from us on how to be more resilient and ready at home and at work, and more materials on WRN initiatives from us at the various events we attend. You can also explore these on your own at NOAA’s WRN page.

Folks of all ages can get ready to #BeAForce. Owlie Skywarn’s Weather-Ready Kids page has interactive online games and even coloring pages for the littlest of aspiring meteorologists. My owl-obsessed toddler thinks these are a hoot. And as you can see from the photos, the rest of NCSG’s staff has taken a shine to him, too.

Got more ideas for new projects on how to achieve a Weather Ready Coastal North Carolina? As NCSG’s lead for participation in the WRN Ambassador Initiative, feel free to contact me. And if you tweet about your family’s or your business’s weather-ready activities, be sure to tag it with #BeAForce!