Abstract Submission: Climate-related disasters are increasingly common, costly, and deadly, posing challenges to communities and local emergency managers. These events impact infrastructure, public health, agricultural systems, and more, resulting in significant social disruption. The Extreme Weather Index shows that Wisconsin has experienced its most extreme weather in the past decade since record keeping began in 1895. Rural communities are especially impacted due to minimal funding and a lack of capacity. Emergency managers are well versed in disaster response, but less prepared for anticipating extremes, even though they acknowledge potential benefits. Tailored climate prediction tools, such as expected seasonal precipitation totals, numbers of large-scale events, or expected temperature conditions can provide emergency managers essential information to take anticipatory actions. Current prediction tools, however, are often viewed as too coarse, poorly performing, or misaligned with decisions. We examine emergency manager and hazard planner use of climate prediction tools in rural Wisconsin to understand how these tools are currently applied to disaster planning and opportunities for improvement. We subsequently develop prediction tools specifically tailored for emergency managers and hazard planners to enhance rural community resilience to increasing climate extremes.
