Cultivating a Model for Post-Tornado Fieldwork at NSSL

In just a few decades’ time, the physical science of meteorology has evolved rapidly, aided in part by increasingly sophisticated field campaigns of many kinds. Spurred by an explosion of scientific development, including improved theoretical and empirical research in recent years, alongside growth in the hiring of social scientists within meteorological organizations, social science fieldwork is now experiencing its own surge of growth. This article will describe a little bit of the NSSL team’s approach, highlighting our study of the December 10, 2021 tornado outbreak as an example of what we hope to do for many key events now and in the future.