National Weather Service launches new effort to improve weather warning systems

2011 will likely go down as one of the more extreme weather years on record.

In addition to hundreds of lives lost, the National Weather Service says so far this year, extreme weather and major disasters have cost a total of $35 billion, and hurricane season is still ramping up.

Now the agency is looking to improve the nation's warning system.

The National Weather Service has launched a pilot program aimed at making the nation weather-ready.

Analysts will continue to work closely with NASA scientists and use satellites to track major threats like last winter's Christmas blizzard.

Across the country elite teams will be based in cities prone to extreme weather, working with emergency managers and the public on ways to respond to a threat more quickly.

Investigators in Indiana are looking into the stage collapse to see if more could have been done to warn fans.

State officials say they received up-to-the-minute reports from the National Weather Service.

"They were in constant contact, in repeated contact with the folks here at the fairgrounds and they were right about the arrival of the storm, it came 15 or 20 minutes after the tragedy," said Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Signs that even with warning, mother nature can still be unpredictable.

At the end of the pilot project the national weather service hopes to implement the new system nationwide.