Just got back from the annual meeting of the National Weather Association (NWA) in Louisville, KY. Unlike the American Meteorological Service, the NWA emphasizes operational meteorology, particularly for National Weather Service forecasters. So it's a different crowd and the conference presentations are much more commonly dealing with recent and historical case studies rather than purely theoretical studies.
One complete session this year was focused on the tornado and severe storm outbreak that occurred on February 5-6 of this year, during the Super Tuesday primary election. Some noteworthy talks on tools for operational meteorology included: "High Resolution, Lower Tropospheric Radar Networks: The CASA Program" by Brenda Phillips et al.; "Using Google Earth as a Situational Awareness Tool: An NWS Central Region Headquarters Example" by Brian Walawender; and "GR Level 2 Analyst" by Mike Gibson. Some other talks that I especially enjoyed were: "The Columbus Day Windstorm of 1962" (Wikipedia) by Brad Coleman; "Wintertime Mesoscale Vortices over Lake Michigan" by Sam Lashley; and "Forecasting Cold Air Damming and the Position of the Wedge Front over Northern Georgia" by Patricia Atwell et al.
Interesting poster presentations included: "Analysis of an Undular Bore over the Gulf of Mexico on March 15, 2008" by Roger Erickson; "West Texas Mesonet Proximity Observations for Wind-Driven Wildfire Starts" by Jeffrey Vitale and T. Todd Lindley; "Point Verification of Acceptable Temperature Forecasts Across the NWS Southern Region" by Bernard Meisner and Mark Fox; and "Case Study of the 3 February 2008 Valdez Bora Wind Event" by Louise Fode and James Nelson.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Omar Va Por El Mar
After its rapid intensification over the last couple days, Hurricane Omar has skirted Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Now it will continue to accelerate northeastward into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Winds have already decreased from a peak of 125 mph to only 70 mph.
Speaking of hurricanes, recent preoccupation with the economic crisis and presidential election has taken hurricane recovery in Texas and Louisiana out of the spotlight even faster than usual. Nevertheless, challenges still remain for many whose homes were damaged by Gustav and Ike.
Speaking of hurricanes, recent preoccupation with the economic crisis and presidential election has taken hurricane recovery in Texas and Louisiana out of the spotlight even faster than usual. Nevertheless, challenges still remain for many whose homes were damaged by Gustav and Ike.
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