Meteorological terminology has long been at odds with plain language in storm warnings and the resulting gaps in understanding—the connotation of “storm” versus “hurricane,” for instance—can be dangerous.

“It boils down to what the common person thinks, you have to put in terms your grandmother can understand,” U.S. Army Lt. General Russel Honore is quoted as telling audiences at the National Hurricane Conference last month. “If you tell her a storm is coming ashore, she may not do a thing. If you tell her a hurricane is coming, she'll react differently. That key word—hurricane—causes people to act.”

That’s not necessarily a problem when a hurricane can be called a hurricane. But sometimes—as we saw recently when Sandy struck the East coast—a storm might lose the characteristics that allowed it to be termed a hurricane. Or perhaps, as with Hurricane Isaac last year, a hurricane’s Saffir-Simpson category is a poor indicator of the damage it can wreak.

“We need a storm surge warning,” National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb is quoted as saying in The Advocate. “The thing with storm surge is the public doesn’t understand their risk very well. We want to move toward calling out each of these hazards individually.”

The good news is that weather experts are working on it. The NHC expects to be able to introduce storm surge warnings by 2015 and is rolling out more immediate changes, as well. Those include five-day tropical weather outlooks and some definitional changes that would address transitioning storms, like Sandy. (For more information on these upcoming changes, tune in to EMForum’s talk with NHC Senior Hurricane Specialist Daniel Brown next week).

The timing is fortuitous, considering longtime Colorado State University storm oracles Philip Klotzbach and William Gray have predicted yet another season of above average hurricane activity, with 9 hurricanes and 18 named storms.

“I expect we're going to come out with a busy forecast for this year,” Gray told the Herald-Tribune in March.

The forecasts are based on statistical analyses of 60 years worth of storm data and do not predict landfall. The Landfalling Hurricane Probability Project, a related effort by Klotzbach, allows users to access information about possible landfalls by state and county.

While the upcoming hurricane warning and forecast improvements are welcome, they’re part of a longstanding struggle to adequately characterize hazards of all kinds for the public. From earthquakes to tornadoes to storm surges, emergency officials are likely to struggle with communicating possible impacts for some time to come. And, as Federal Emergency Administration Manager Craig Fugate recently told the audience at the National Hurricane Conference, that’s what really matters.

“It’s hurricane season, what more can you say,” Fugate is quoted as saying by The Advocate. “It doesn’t tell the story. It is the impacts we have to plan for.”