II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 258
To improve forecasting and understanding of tornadoes and other hazardous
weather, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY27, 2025
Mr. W
ICKER(for himself, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. MORAN,
Mr. S
HEEHY, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. CRUZ, Mr. PETERS, and Mr. WARNOCK)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To improve forecasting and understanding of tornadoes and
other hazardous weather, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tornado Observations 4
Research and Notification Assessment for Development of 5
Operations Act’’ or the ‘‘TORNADO Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) HAZARDOUS WEATHER AND WATER 1
EVENTS.—The term ‘‘hazardous weather and water 2
events’’ means weather and water events that have 3
a high risk of loss of life or property, including— 4
(A) severe storms, such as hurricanes and 5
short-fused, small-scale hazardous weather or 6
hydrologic events produced by thunderstorms, 7
including large hail, damaging winds, torna-8
does, and flash floods; 9
(B) winter storms, such as freezing or fro-10
zen precipitation (including freezing rain, sleet, 11
and snow), or combined effects of freezing or 12
frozen precipitation and strong winds; and 13
(C) other weather hazards, such as ex-14
treme heat or cold, wildfire, drought, dense fog, 15
high winds, river flooding, and lakeshore flood-16
ing. 17
(2) H
ISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGE OR UNI -18
VERSITY.—The term ‘‘historically Black college or 19
university’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘part B 20
institution’’ in section 322 of the Higher Education 21
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1061). 22
(3) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 23
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 24
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Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 1
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 2
(4) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 3
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 4
meaning given the term in section 101(a) of the 5
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)). 6
(5) N
ATIONAL LABORATORY .—The term ‘‘Na-7
tional Laboratory’’ has the meaning given the term 8
in section 2 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 9
U.S.C. 15801). 10
(6) U
NDER SECRETARY .—The term ‘‘Under 11
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 12
for Oceans and Atmosphere. 13
SEC. 3. HAZARDOUS WEATHER AND WATER EVENT RISK 14
COMMUNICATION. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall main-16
tain and improve the system of the National Oceanic and 17
Atmospheric Administration by which the risks of haz-18
ardous weather and water events are communicated to the 19
general public, with the goal of informing action and en-20
couraging response to prevent loss of life and property. 21
(b) H
AZARDRISKCOMMUNICATION IMPROVEMENT 22
ANDSIMPLIFICATION.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 24
maintain a hazard risk communication office (in this 25
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subsection referred to as the ‘‘Office’’), for the pur-1
poses of simplifying and improving the communica-2
tion of hazardous weather and water event risks. 3
(2) T
ERMINOLOGY.—The Office shall identify, 4
eliminate, or modify unnecessary, redundant, or con-5
fusing terms for hazardous weather and water event 6
communications and add new terminology, as appro-7
priate. 8
(3) C
OMMUNICATIONS IMPROVEMENT .—The Of-9
fice shall improve the form, content, and methods of 10
hazardous weather and water event communications 11
to more clearly inform action and increase the likeli-12
hood that the public takes such action to prevent the 13
loss of life or property. 14
(4) E
VALUATIONS.—The Office shall, in coordi-15
nation with the performance branch of the National 16
Weather Service, develop metrics for that branch to 17
track and evaluate the degree to which hazardous 18
weather and water event communications inform ac-19
tion and encourage response. 20
(5) S
UPPORT PLAN.— 21
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Office shall de-22
velop a plan for the purpose of supporting the 23
activities described in paragraph (3). 24
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(B) PERIODIC UPDATE AND ELEMENTS .— 1
The plan developed under subparagraph (A) 2
shall be periodically updated and informed by 3
internal and extramural research and the re-4
sults of the evaluation of hazardous weather 5
and water event communications conducted 6
under paragraph (4). 7
(6) M
ETHODS.—In carrying out this subsection, 8
the Office shall develop and implement recommenda-9
tions that— 10
(A) are based on the best and most recent 11
understanding from social, behavioral, risk, and 12
communication science research; 13
(B) are validated by social, behavioral, 14
risk, and communication science, taking into ac-15
count the importance of methods that support 16
reproduction and replication of scientific stud-17
ies, use of rigorous statistical analyses, and, as 18
applicable, data analysis supported by artificial 19
intelligence and machine learning technologies; 20
(C) account for the needs of various demo-21
graphics, vulnerable populations, and geo-22
graphic regions; 23
(D) account for the differences between 24
various types of weather and water hazards; 25
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(E) respond to the needs of Federal, State, 1
and local government partners and media part-2
ners; and 3
(F) account for necessary changes in the 4
infrastructure, technology, and protocols for 5
creating and disseminating federally operated 6
watches and warnings. 7
(7) C
OORDINATION.—In implementing this sub-8
section, the Office shall coordinate with— 9
(A) Federal partners, including National 10
Laboratories, Cooperative Institutes, and re-11
gional integrated sciences and assessments pro-12
grams; 13
(B) State and local government partners; 14
(C) Indian Tribes; 15
(D) institutions of higher education; and 16
(E) media partners. 17
(8) T
IMELINESS AND CONSISTENCY .—The Of-18
fice shall develop best practices and guidance for en-19
suring timely and consistent communication across 20
public facing platforms that disseminate hazardous 21
weather and water event information. 22
(c) H
AZARDCOMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND EN-23
GAGEMENT.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 1
establish or maintain a research program— 2
(A) to modernize the creation and commu-3
nication of risk-based, statistically reliable, 4
probabilistic hazard information, with the goal 5
of informing effective actions and encouraging 6
responses to hazardous weather and water 7
events; and 8
(B) to improve the fundamental social, be-9
havioral, risk, and communication science re-10
garding hazardous weather and water event 11
communication. 12
(2) C
OORDINATION.—In carrying out the re-13
search program required by paragraph (1), the 14
Under Secretary shall coordinate and communicate 15
with States, Indian Tribes, localities, and emergency 16
managers on research priorities and results. 17
(3) P
ILOT PROGRAM FOR TORNADO HAZARD 18
COMMUNICATION REQUIRED .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—To further research 20
into hazard communication, the Under Sec-21
retary, in collaboration with one or more eligible 22
institutions, shall establish a pilot program for 23
tornado hazard communication to test the effec-24
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tiveness of implementing the research conducted 1
under this subsection with respect to tornadoes. 2
(B) E
LIGIBLE INSTITUTION DEFINED .—In 3
this paragraph, the term ‘‘eligible institution’’ 4
means any of the following: 5
(i) A historically Black college or uni-6
versity located in an area of persistent pov-7
erty that is subjected to frequent severe 8
weather, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, 9
and floods. 10
(ii) An institution of higher education 11
in close proximity to a Weather Forecast 12
Office of the National Weather Service. 13
(d) D
ATAMANAGEMENT.—The Under Secretary 14
shall establish, maintain, and improve a central repository 15
system for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-16
istration for social, behavioral, risk, and economic data re-17
lated to the communication of hazardous weather and 18
water events, including data developed or received pursu-19
ant to paragraphs (3), (4), and (5) of subsection (b). 20
(e) D
IGITALWATERMARKING.—The Under Secretary 21
shall develop methods to reduce the likelihood of unauthor-22
ized tampering with online hazardous weather and water 23
event risk communication, such as developing digital wa-24
termarks. 25
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SEC. 4. WARN-ON-FORECAST STRATEGIC PLAN. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 2
date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary 3
shall prepare and submit to Congress a strategic plan for 4
developing and prioritizing the implementation of high- 5
resolution probabilistic forecast guidance for hazardous 6
weather and water events using a next-generation weather 7
forecast and warning framework. 8
(b) P
LANELEMENTS.—The strategic plan required 9
by subsection (a) shall include the following: 10
(1) A discussion of— 11
(A) the priorities and needs of vulnerable 12
populations and National Weather Service part-13
ners; and 14
(B) high-performance computing, visualiza-15
tion, and dissemination needs. 16
(2) A timeline and guidance for implementation 17
of— 18
(A) high-resolution numerical weather pre-19
diction models; 20
(B) methods for meeting the high-perform-21
ance computing, visualization, and dissemina-22
tion needs discussed under paragraph (1)(B); 23
(C) real-time high-resolution probabilistic 24
forecasts; 25
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(D) improved observations, including 1
through radars, satellites, and uncrewed aerial 2
systems; 3
(E) a flexible framework to communicate 4
clear and simple hazardous weather and water 5
event information to the public; and 6
(F) social, behavioral, risk, and commu-7
nication research to improve the forecaster 8
operational environment and societal informa-9
tion reception and response. 10
SEC. 5. TORNADO RATING SYSTEM. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall, in col-12
laboration with such stakeholders as the Under Secretary 13
considers appropriate— 14
(1) evaluate the system used as of the date of 15
the enactment of this Act to rate the severity of tor-16
nadoes; and 17
(2) determine whether updates to that system 18
are required to ensure that the ratings accurately re-19
flect the severity of tornadoes. 20
(b) U
PDATEREQUIRED.—If the Under Secretary de-21
termines under subsection (a) that updates to the tornado 22
rating system are necessary, the Under Secretary shall up-23
date the system. 24
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SEC. 6. POST-STORM SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENTS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall per-2
form one or more post-storm surveys and assessments fol-3
lowing each hazardous weather or water event determined 4
by the Under Secretary to be of sufficient societal impor-5
tance to warrant a post-event survey and assessment. 6
(b) C
OORDINATION.—The Under Secretary shall co-7
ordinate with Federal, State, and local governments, In-8
dian Tribes, private entities, and relevant institutions of 9
higher education when conducting post-storm surveys and 10
assessments under subsection (a) in order to optimize data 11
collection, sharing, and integration. 12
(c) D
ATAAVAILABILITY.—The Under Secretary shall 13
make the data obtained from each post-storm survey and 14
assessment conducted under subsection (a) available to the 15
public as soon as practicable after conducting the survey 16
and assessment. 17
(d) I
MPROVEMENT.—The Under Secretary shall— 18
(1) investigate the role of uncrewed aerial sys-19
tems in data collection during post-storm surveys 20
and assessments conducted under subsection (a); 21
(2) identify gaps in and update tactics and pro-22
cedures to enhance the efficiency and reliability of 23
data obtained from post-storm surveys and assess-24
ments; and 25
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(3) increase the number of post-storm commu-1
nity impact studies, including by— 2
(A) surveying individual responses; 3
(B) conducting review of the accuracy of 4
prior risk evaluations; 5
(C) evaluating the efficacy of prior mitiga-6
tion activity; and 7
(D) gathering survivability statistics. 8
(e) S
UPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES.—The Under Sec-9
retary shall provide training, resources, and access to pro-10
fessional counseling to support the emotional and mental 11
health and well-being of employees conducting post-storm 12
surveys and assessments under subsection (a). 13
SEC. 7. VORTEX-USA PROGRAM. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 103 of the Weather Re-15
search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 16
8513) is amended— 17
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘
TOR-18
NADO WARNING IMPROVEMENT AND EXTEN -19
SION’’ and inserting ‘‘VORTEX-USA’’; 20
(2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘establish a 21
tornado warning improvement and extension pro-22
gram’’ and inserting ‘‘maintain a program for rap-23
idly improving tornado forecast and warnings’’; 24
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(3) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as 1
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; 2
(4) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(d) W
ARNINGS.—The program required by sub-5
section (a) shall— 6
‘‘(1) continue the research necessary to develop 7
and deploy probabilistic weather forecast guidance 8
technology for tornadoes; and 9
‘‘(2) incorporate, as appropriate, hazard com-10
munication research. 11
‘‘(e) R
ESEARCH.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall, 13
through the program required by subsection (a), 14
award grants for research that focuses on improv-15
ing— 16
‘‘(A) the social, behavioral, risk, commu-17
nication, and economic sciences related to 18
vulnerabilities, risk communication, and delivery 19
of information critical for saving lives and prop-20
erty related to tornadoes; and 21
‘‘(B) the physical sciences, engineering, 22
and technology related to tornado formation, 23
the interactions of tornadoes with the built and 24
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natural environment, and the interaction of tor-1
nadoes and hurricanes. 2
‘‘(2) P
RIORITY INSTITUTIONS.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In awarding grants 4
under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary may 5
prioritize awarding grants to minority-serving 6
institutions. 7
‘‘(B) D
EFINITION OF MINORITY -SERVING 8
INSTITUTION.—In this paragraph, the term ‘mi-9
nority-serving institution’ means— 10
‘‘(i) a part B institution (as defined in 11
section 322 of the Higher Education Act 12
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1061)); 13
‘‘(ii) a Hispanic-serving institution (as 14
defined in section 502(a) of that Act (20 15
U.S.C. 1101a(a))); 16
‘‘(iii) a Tribal College or University 17
(as defined in section 316(b) of that Act 18
(20 U.S.C. 1059c(b))); 19
‘‘(iv) an Alaska Native-serving institu-20
tion (as defined in section 317(b) of that 21
Act (20 U.S.C. 1059d(b))); 22
‘‘(v) a Native Hawaiian-serving insti-23
tution (as defined in section 317(b) of that 24
Act (20 U.S.C. 1059d(b))); 25
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‘‘(vi) a Predominantly Black Institu-1
tion (as defined in section 318(b) of that 2
Act (20 U.S.C. 1059e(b))); 3
‘‘(vii) an Asian American and Native 4
American Pacific Islander-serving institu-5
tion (as defined in section 320(b) of that 6
Act (20 U.S.C. 1059g(b))); or 7
‘‘(viii) a Native American-serving, 8
nontribal institution (as defined in section 9
319(b) of that Act (20 U.S.C. 10
1059f(b))).’’; and 11
(5) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(h) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13
is authorized to be appropriated to the Under Secretary 14
to carry out this section $11,000,000 for each of fiscal 15
years 2025 through 2032, of which not less than 16
$2,000,000 each fiscal year shall be used for grants 17
awarded under subsection (e).’’. 18
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 19
in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting 20
Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 131 Stat. 21
91) is amended by striking the item relating to section 22
103 and inserting the following: 23
‘‘Sec. 103. VORTEX-USA program.’’.
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SEC. 8. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT 1
ON HAZARDOUS WEATHER AND WATER 2
ALERT DISSEMINATION. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 540 days after the 4
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 5
of the United States shall submit to the Committee on 6
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 7
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 8
House of Representatives a report that examines the infor-9
mation technology infrastructure of the National Weather 10
Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-11
tration, specifically regarding the system for timely public 12
notification of hazardous weather and water event alerts 13
and updates. 14
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The report required by subsection 15
(a) shall include the following: 16
(1) An analysis of the information technology 17
infrastructure of the National Weather Service, in-18
cluding software and hardware capabilities and limi-19
tations, including an examination of server and data 20
storage methods, broadband, data management, and 21
data sharing. 22
(2) An identification of secondary and tertiary 23
fail-safes for the timely distribution of hazardous 24
weather and water event alerts to the public. 25
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(3) A determination of the extent to which pub-1
lic notifications are delayed and an identification of 2
corrective measures that do not add additional noti-3
fication time. 4
(4) An assessment of whether collaboration with 5
other Federal Government offices, States, or private 6
entities could reduce delays in notifications to the 7
public. 8
(5) A description of actions being undertaken to 9
better identify critical steps in the hazards notifica-10
tion process that may be vulnerable to disruption or 11
failure in the event of communication, technologic, 12
or computational failure. 13
SEC. 9. ELIMINATION OF CERTAIN REPORT REQUIRE-14
MENTS. 15
(a) W
EATHERRESEARCH ANDFORECASTINGINNO-16
VATIONACT OF2017.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 403 of the Weather 18
Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 19
(15 U.S.C. 8543) is amended by striking subsection 20
(d). 21
(2) T
ECHNICAL AMENDMENT .—Section 403(a) 22
of such Act (15 U.S.C. 8543(a)) is amended by in-23
serting ‘‘the’’ after ‘‘Director of’’. 24
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(b) NATIONALOCEANIC ANDATMOSPHERICADMIN-1
ISTRATIONAUTHORIZATIONACT OF1992.—Section 106 2
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 3
Authorization Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–567; 106 4
Stat. 4274) is amended by striking subsection (c) (15 5
U.S.C. 1537). 6
Æ
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