[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 137 (Tuesday, July 19, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43007-43008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-15365]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Weather.gov Visitor Experience Survey

AGENCY: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of information collection, request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce, in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information 
collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information 
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. The 
purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment 
preceding submission of the collection to OMB.

DATES: To ensure consideration, comments regarding this proposed 
information collection must be received on or before September 19, 
2022.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments to 
Adrienne Thomas, NOAA PRA Officer, at [email protected]. Please 
reference OMB Control Number 0648-xxxx in the subject line of your 
comments. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or otherwise 
sensitive or protected information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
specific questions related to collection activities should be directed 
to Dr. Tyra Brown Harris, Project Manager, DOC/NOAA/NWS/DISS, 11691 SW 
17th

[[Page 43008]]

Street, Miami, FL 33165-2149, (202) 468-8972, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    This is a request for a new collection of information.
    The data collection is sponsored by DOC/NOAA/National Weather 
Service (NWS)/Office of Dissemination (DISS) in consultation with the 
NWS Communications Division. Weather.gov is the main entry point to NWS 
forecasts, warnings, and other information for a diverse user 
community, including the public, partners and emergency managers, 
academia, researchers, and employees. The user interface is intended to 
serve many purposes for these audiences but regular feedback through 
Customer Satisfaction Surveys from all users emphasizes varying levels 
of difficulty locating basic information. Such difficulty diminishes 
the overall customer experience. Additionally, during high impact 
events, Weather.gov is known to suffer performance issues due to 
increased traffic.
    The Weather.gov Survey is permitted under 15 U.S.C. Ch. 111, 
Weather Research and Forecasting Information. It also advances the NWS 
Strategic Plan (2019-2022) ``Transformative Impact-Based Decision 
Support Services (IDSS) and Research to Operations and Operations to 
Research (R2O/O2R). The Survey also addresses the NWS Weather Ready 
Nation (WRN) Roadmap (2013) Sections 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.8, and 
3.1.4.
    The purpose of this collection is to help determine the appropriate 
web content for weather.gov so the customer experience can be improved 
and the content can be better accessed and used. NWS is looking to 
improve functionality, ease of use, and formatting but feedback on any 
other areas of weather.gov that NWS should consider updating is welcome 
as well. The collection will create a high-level data requirements 
document that identifies a set of high-priority NWS products, services, 
and observations that provide mission-critical, timely, and reliable 
information to make decisions with when seconds count. The document 
will also identify high-level partner requirements for accessibility 
(mobile versus desktop), timeliness, and reliability.
    This information would be collected on a one-off basis and analyzed 
by Forrester Research, who has assisted NWS in creating a survey 
instrument and would provide NWS with a summary of findings, raw data 
and access to interactive ``dashboards'', or tools, to visualize the 
aggregated data. Respondents include the general public, defined as 
(adults ages 18+) who reside in the United States, as well as NWS 
partners. Forrester will oversee recruitment of U.S. adults by an 
online market research company that aggregates large panels of people 
who sign up to complete internet surveys. Respondents will be asked 
questions about their preferred way of getting weather information 
(including weather on regular days and during severe/hazardous 
weather), their use of Weather.gov and other weather websites, interest 
in different types of weather information on a website, priorities and 
preferences in accessing weather-related information online, and 
preferred format of receiving weather information. This data collection 
serves many purposes, including gaining a better understanding of the 
online weather information needs (including information about hazardous 
weather) of different customer groups, including historically 
underserved and socially vulnerable communities, how they prefer to 
receive this information, how they would like the Weather.gov main page 
to be organized, what additional functionality they expect that would 
make them feel better prepared for hazardous weather, and has the 
potential to explore possible correlations and causal relationships 
with other observed variables of interest. This data will be used by 
the OSTI in NWS to develop a set of website content requirements to 
improve the structure and navigation on Weather.gov.

II. Method of Collection

    Since the primary objective is to inform website content 
requirements for Weather.gov, the method of data collection will be a 
web-based survey interface. Survey sample respondents (from an online 
panel) will be nationally representative, using demographic questions 
captured in the survey to set quotas that mirror the distribution of 
demographic groups in the U.S. and Territories. The survey will be 
translated to Spanish.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0648-XXXX.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Review: Regular (New information collection).
    Affected Public: Individuals and Households.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 14,750.
    Estimated Time per Response: Weather.gov Survey: 15 minutes.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 3,688.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: None.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: 15 U.S.C. Ch. 111, Weather Research and 
Forecasting Information.

IV. Request for Comments

    We are soliciting public comments to permit the Department/Bureau 
to: (a) Evaluate whether the proposed information collection is 
necessary for the proper functions of the Department, including whether 
the information will have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the accuracy 
of our estimate of the time and cost burden for this proposed 
collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions 
used; (c) Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; and (d) Minimize the reporting burden 
on those who are to respond, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. We will include or summarize each comment in our request 
to OMB to approve this ICR. Before including your address, phone 
number, email address, or other personal identifying information in 
your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment--including 
your personal identifying information--may be made publicly available 
at any time. While you may ask us in your comment to withhold your 
personal identifying information from public review, we cannot 
guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-15365 Filed 7-18-22; 8:45 am]
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