Can’t act or won’t act? Predictors of barriers to responding to severe weather warnings

To support risk reduction, severe weather warnings need to be received, understood and appropriately acted upon by their intended audience. While a growing body of work is striving to establish best practice in ensuring that warnings are interpreted as intended, important gaps remain in our understanding of why people do not respond to them. In a survey of 1,100 members of the UK public, we asked participants about: 1) how long they estimated it would take to perform protection behaviours after receiving a warning; 2) barriers to undertaking a series of behavioural responses to warnings; 3) reasons for choosing not to act on warnings despite being able to do so; and 4) whether they had preparedness measures and supplies at home. Respondents with caring responsibilities for disabled, ill or elderly adults were also asked about the impact of severe weather on the people they care for. Descriptive analysis of barriers to acting on severe weather warnings showed that a substantial proportion of respondents reported difficulties following guidance to change working patterns (25%), challenges leaving home during flood or wildfire if advised to do so due to lack of transport (23%) and  difficulty accessing a cool place to stay in hot weather (22%). Amongst carers, over 30% indicated that maintaining thermal comfort was a significant challenge for the person they care for. When respondents chose not to act on warnings, the most commonly selecting reason was perceiving the warning as irrelevant (41%), followed by perceived inaccuracy of warning (18%) and feeling that the benefits of not acting outweighed potential costs. Logistic regression revealed that barriers to adhering to advice to cancel travel and avoid exposure to severe weather at work were more common amongst younger respondents. Men were more likely to report being unable to avoid outdoor exposure to severe weather and physical exertion during hot weather in the workplace. Barriers related to movement, taking physical protective action and maintaining thermal comfort were all associated with poorer health. These findings suggest that individuals most vulnerable to the impacts of severe weather remain less likely to be able to undertake key protective behaviours. We discuss the implications of these results for improving public-facing weather warning communication.