Effective Use of Meteorological Illustration in Communicating with the Public

The adverse phenomena of ocean-meteorology can be complicated and difficult for people not from a meteorological background to understand. Scientific illustrations create a base knowledge in meteorological concepts so that in adverse situations, the public can evaluate the risks and how to act in order to reduce the socioeconomic impacts. 

In collaboration with the Universidad del País Vasco(UPV/EHU) and the basque meteorological service(Euskalmet), the principle objective of this project is to investigate which are the best technical methods of scientific illustration to explain and advise about the risks of different adverse phenomena. The work will center around the phenomena most frequent in the Basque Country and the highest priorities for Euskalmet, the regional meteorological service who publish the results. This project will create a collection of illustrations for Euskalmet for their different communication channels. Such illustrations may consist within scientific articles, books, information pamphlets, social media, diagrams, or posters. The objective within each work is to explain the content of the phenomena in an attractive and accessible way to any potential audience. In order to achieve this objective, the communication between the illustrator and environmental engineer must be fluid. The experience of this collaboration will enhance the learnings from past meteorological illustrations and how they have evolved over time, which is the first and crucial start to this work. 

In this historical study, we will analyze the evolution of meteorological understanding alongside the graphic techniques used within their context (scientific, informative, educational) up to what is being used in the present day. This work aims to follow this year’s motto of the World Meteorological Organization “the future of weather, climate, and water across generations”, learning from the past to project into the future, using the most effective and modern techniques to make the population more aware of meteorology in general, climate change, and the socio-economic influence the weather has on our lives.