BeauDodson Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 Live Blog from NWA 2011 http://www.nwa2011.com/ WeatherBrains highlights the upcoming conference in their lasting show http://weatherbrains.../weatherbrains/ This week features a special show highlighting the upcoming National Weather Association (NWA) national conference which will be held in Birmingham, AL, beginning on October 15th. So the WeatherBrains gang along with numerous other folks will be discussing the program and providing some insight into the events for this spectacular event. Local Broadcast Chair James Spann pledges that this year’s National Weather Association Annual Meeting in Birmingham will help attendees to reconnect with that passion, find that lost spark and go back to work excited and re-energized. Come be a part of the connecting, learning and fun that will be NWA2011 in Birmingham! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 NWA conference is looking for people to help with social media http://www.nwa2011.com/?p=784 Copy and pasted from their page Hey NWA Member! My name is Wes Wyatt. I am a meteorologist at FOX6 in Birmingham and a member of the Birmingham Program Committee. Our entire team is looking forward to you coming to our hometown in less than three weeks. One thing we will need your help with during the event is social media. Please be an active participant in this huge event by helping with our social media efforts. Here are four ways you can help. 1. Blog Posts on NWA2011.com: If you like writing, please consider helping us to write stories on the blog. I can supply you with a list of prospective topics. If you are familiar with WordPress, here is a great way to help by writing posts before and during the meeting. 2. Twitter: help us to get out a steady stream of tweets about the meeting @NWAS2011. If you are interested in doing this, I can provide you with the password to HootSuite and our Twitter account. 3. Hashtag City: Please use your Twitter account to tell your followers about activities regarding the conference. Use the hashtag: #NWAS11. Please retweet information from @NWAS2011 as well. 4. Flickr: Please post as many pictures as you can to our Flickr photostream during the event. Flood that sucker! If you want to do this, please let me know. We would love to have you sign up to be a social media correspondent during the sessions you will be attending. Tweet and post interesting things from the presentations, photos of the presenters and attendees, and share what you are learning. Sign up for the sessions you can cover at: http://www.doodle.com/i5rmtdyktp55u3ad Please send me your contact information to: [email protected]. Once I receive your contact information I will be sure to message you with more details. Thanks in advance for your help and we look forward to help making your visit to Birmingham a wonderful experience! End copy and paste Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 WeatherFest October 15th http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au3qZLkoWKg&feature=player_embedded Here is an update on some of the demonstration and activities planned for the first NWA WeatherFest on Saturday, October 15, 2011 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The National Weather Service local offices from Birmingham and Huntsville will be well represented at WeatherFest, with representatives meeting/greeting the public and handing out brochures and their Tornado Machine, which demonstrates the principles behind tornado formation up close. They will also be doing safety talks in the City gallery on the 2nd Floor of McWane. The University of Alabama in Huntsville Atmospheric Science Student Chapter will do the Pin the Eye on the Hurricane game for the kids. We will also have a cloud chamber experiment involving a hot plate, glass jar with water. We also will have a hail demonstration using a blow dryer and ping pong balls. They are focusing on a general convective theme. The Weather Museum from Houston will do their How Fast Does the Wind Blow exhibit. They will help children make make a hand-held anemometer. Each visitor to the booth can make a card anemometer which can be used to find out how fast the wind is blowing in mph. The University of Alabama in Huntsville will demonstrate their mobile weather research instrumentation including their Mobile Profiler and Mobile Doppler Radar. They will also tether a weather balloon. Mississippi State Hail Estimation Activity – MSU will have a series of mock hailstones that represent the different sizes of hailstones commonly found with severe thunderstorms. Participants will have the opportunity to observe the hailstones and guess its size. CBS 42 – Meet and greet with kids and adults. Give them a chance to do weather on a green screen. Giveaways, including school supply gear. ABC 33/40 – Who Wants to be a Meteorologist? – Ashley Brand from ABC 33/40 will have the station’s portable chromakey wall so that kids and adults can record themselves as if they were on television. Weather Expositions of America will promote their upcoming Weather Expos. They will release pilot balloons on the hour (11, noon, 1 and 2) They will provide solar telescope to view sun and sunspots Also various handouts and trinkets. (Pibals provided by San Joaquin Valley NWS office, helium obtained in Birmingham. Telescope availability TBA). Outdoor location requested. Phone clearance from Birmingham airport for balloon launch. Additionally, a PowerPoint on laptop with cloud type definitions, examples and present weather types. NASA’s Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Program – SPoRT’s booth is intended to be for information/education about the NASA Marshall Earth Sciences program. Specifically, representatives from the NASA SPoRT program, who work to transition unique NASA data to the National Weather Service will be the presenters. They will have several posterboards (featuring NASA data in weather activities), hand outs (pens, papers, children activity books, stickers, NASA decals), and personnel to describe the program and how we interact with local forecast offices like the office in Birmingham. They will have rain gauges (for individuals interested in joining CoCoRaS) and coffee mugs for door prize type drawings. Musical Meteorology – Nick Walker – 3 15-20 minute programs on stage interspersed throughout the day of weather songs to teach weather science and severe weather preparedness. NWS Hydrology – River Flood Model – Diane Cooper will provide 3 scenarios of the impacts of development on a river and flood plain. the first scenario is a relatively undeveloped river with a marsh/wetland upstream. Second scenario is to replace the marsh with a parking lot and demonstrate how the same amount of rain will produce a completely different river response. Third scenario will discuss what can be done to protect infrastructure in low lying areas, such as building a levee or rink dike. But this scenario also shows that while you protect the upstream infrastructure there are downstream implications. It will take between 10 to 15 minutes to run through the 3 scenarios. CoCoRaHS – The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network:Three contestants will race against the clock to see how much water they can wring out of their sponges into a CoCoRaHS rain gauge. Contestants will then learn to read a rain gauge as they check their amounts. How The Weatherworks – All the Weather You Want Under the Sun: Will demonstrate water cycle, sun and clouds along with other activities. Author Jack Williams – The Ultimate Guide to America’s Weather: Author Jack Williams will be signing his book: The Ultimate Guide to America’s Weather Baron Services: Baron Services will have a 10 ft. pop-up booth and will be showing Mobile Threat net, Threat Net and examples of their consumer products. Dan Satterfield plans a presentation on my time at NEEM on top of the North Greenland ice cap where they pulled up the oldest ice core ever recovered from the N Hemisphere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 8, 2011 Author Share Posted October 8, 2011 Town hall meeting will be available live - online http://www.nwa2011.com/?p=875 The National Weather Association will host a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from 7-9 p.m. at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover. The event will bring together professionals involved in the severe weather enterprise to listen to the thoughts and opinions of a scientifically chosen sample of everyday people who experienced that fateful day here in Central Alabama. This meeting will feature a wealth of information, as well as questions/answers concerning the tragic April 27 tornado outbreak across not only Alabama, but the entire Southeast region as well. The questions will be directed from two social scientists to the specially selected audience members. Attendance to the event will be limited to NWA Annual Meeting Registrants and the 200 audience participant who have been authorized to invite one guest. But, the NWA will stream the event free on the internet. The stream will be available at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nwa-2011-town-hall. Also, in the right hand side-bar of this page towards the bottom, you will find a U-Stream player embedded so anyone can watch Tuesday night’s Town-Hall meeting. More... April 27th, 2011, was a day that most people across the Southeast will never forget. Forecasters had been talking about the coming severe weather for days, but no one was fully prepared for the long day of multiple rounds of severe storms and tornadoes. As a vigorous system approached in early morning hours, reports were already coming in of tornadoes associated with lines of storms across Mississippi, Alabama and other surrounding states. By about noon, large portions of north Alabama were without power due to storm damage. But many of those same locations would be raked by even stronger tornadoes later that evening. When all was said and done, dozens of violent tornadoes had caused millions of dollars in damage, thousands of injuries and hundreds of deaths. On that long day, meteorologists in the broadcast media and in the National Weather Service worked tirelessly with Emergency Management Agencies and other first responders to inform the public of the danger that was approaching and help protect lives. In the weeks that followed, surveys of the damage were performed to determine exactly what happened while search & rescue and recovery efforts were ongoing. Many have posed the question: What went wrong on that day to lead to so many fatalities? But by examining the question of “what happened that day”, a special WAF Town Hall session on Wednesday afternoon at the NWA Annual Meeting in Birmingham intends to study what went right that day to keep the death toll from being much greater. This event will be in addition to the Tuesday evening Town Hall event. Speakers from the Social Science field will join representatives from Emergency Management Agencies, the broadcast media, and the National Weather Service to share lessons learned from the experiences of those working during the outbreak. The primary focus for this session will be on the working relationship across borders of agencies that are on the front lines of response to weather disasters. Topics will include preparations leading up to the 27th, experiences from the day of the event, and survey & recovery efforts under the additional complications from widespread damage and power outages. This panel of speakers will then lead a town hall meeting in which members of the NWA can discuss ideas or questions sparked by this event. The Tuesday night event Alabama is no stranger to storms. But the events of April 27th were historic in every sense of the word. The tornadoes caused a death toll that we never thought we would see again. Many things worked well that tragic day: the system was forecast well in advance, tornado watches were posted early in the day and the killer tornadoes were preceded by warnings that had an average lead time of 24 minutes, all of which undoubtedly saved many lives. Still, 243 people died. Meteorologists, broadcasters, emergency managers and social scientists want to know “what went wrong” so that the deaths tolls in future tornado outbreaks can be lowered. The National Weather Association will host a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 from 7-9 p.m. at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover. The event will bring together professionals involved in the severe weather enterprise to listen to the thoughts and opinions of a scientifically chosen sample of everyday people who experienced that fateful day here in Central Alabama. The National Weather Association will choose two hundred people from a wide pool of applicants to participate in the audience and give input for scientific research into the severe weather warning process. Social scientists and a professional moderator will lead a focus group of ten audience members on the stage while the remainder of the group answers multiple choice questions utilizing hand held audience response devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Thanks for posting this info, Beau! I'll definitely be there...flying out next Sunday. Unfortunately, I will miss WeatherFest, as well as the first day of the meeting. Why? Because we will be running a Teachers' Weather Workshop with about 150 teachers from across Alabama coming for a day long informational workshop! I'm the co-chair of the NWA Education Committee, and will be helping run this meeting as well as presenting. Hope to see some of you there! --Turtle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 A few photos I took this morning at WeatherFest A group of young people check out the mobile weather instruments. Photo by Beau DodsonA group of young people check out the mobile weather instruments. A young man is captured by the science of wind and measuring wind speed. The Doppler On Wheels displays mobile weather instruments. So if I blow on this it will go faster and faster? The Doppler On Wheels displays mobile weather instruments. 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 -1 You are on the air - a young lady aspires to replace James Spann's severe weather coverage ABC 33/40 works along side others to help teach young people about weather broadcasting. Members of CoCoRaHS teach young people how rainfall is measured. Young people raced to fill their rain gauges - competing against each other. Members of CoCoRaHS teach young people how rainfall is measured. Young people raced to fill their rain gauges - competing against each other. A member of CoCoRaHS helps educate the public on the importance of volunteers and accurate rainfall measurements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 Fox 6 registers WeatherFest participants for a weather radio drawing. They also showed off their Storm Tracker vehicle. A beautiful day with perfect weather. Nick Walker sang today and signed autographs for local residents at WeatherFest, held in downtown Birmingham, Alabama at the McWane Science Center. CD's were for sale - "Don't Get Scared Just Get Prepared" - by Nick Walker aka The Weather Dude. CD's sold for a $15 donation Nick Walker signs an autograph for a young weather enthusiast outside of the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Nick Walker also know as "The Weather Dude" performed by singing songs off of his CD "Don't Get Scared - Just Get Prepared" Mississippi State University plays the "what size do you think that hail was" - participants were asked to determine different hail sizes - from penny all the way up to softballs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 More photos here from NWA http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwa2011/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solak Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Looks like things got off to a great start today! I'll be looking forward to tuning in for the town hall meeting on Tuesday evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Can't WAIT to get down there later today. Probably won't be at the hotel til 730 PM or so. Oh well... Looks like a GREAT day for WeatherFest! --Turtle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Broadcast meteorology workshop is starting - Bill Murray speaking - James Spann about to speak. The legend. Nick Walker from TWC speaking and thanking all of the volunteers and those who helped put together the conference. Nick now speaking about the tornado outbreaks and the damage done to local communities. Asking for donations for the Alabama Governors Tornado Relief Fund. More info here http://www.servealabama.gov/2010/default.aspx Jim Cantore and Dr. Greg Forbes and Mike Bettes are all here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 James Spann very passionate about the recent tornado outbreaks and how we can better inform the public - is still too emotional to talk about the event. Says that all he wants to talk about is what went wrong and how we can do better during the next outbreak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Bob Baron from Baron Services talking about the Governors Recovery Council - 62 tornadoes hit AL on April 27, 2011 Alabama tornadoes caused 10 million cubic yards of debris - tracks are three times the length of TN Dr. Forbes showing some interesting slides concerning debris balls and tornado ratings - most debris balls on radar are EF3 or greater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Twitter follow along #nwas11and #nwas2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Wow - nice day at the NWA - Ton of Weather Channel meteorologists here - endless list of talent. Some great presentations - although not nearly long enough in some cases. How do you cover an hours worth of subject matter in 10-15 minutes? You can't. Several discussion left people wanting more - including the topic of squall line tornadoes. Heated subject - to say the least. There are some blog entries here http://www.nwa2011.com/?cat=5 There will be some poster presentation videos later this evening. Will post the links once they have them finished. Couple of interesting power-point slides - hopefully you can read the test. The debris ball info from Dr. Greg Forbes is of interest to many AmericanWx forum members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 This guy might excite some of you He is saying that the late winter/spring of 2012 has the potential for a 1993 type weather event Moon cycles Perhaps some of you follow his studies? Jon Rao, News 12 Westchester/Hudson Valley, Yonkers, New York discusses long range weather prediction in relation to the moon. Does the moon cause an atmospheric tide much like it causes the ocean tides? Many papers have been published discussing this possibility. The Astronomical Almanac is published every year, just like the Farmer’s Almanac. Very interesting discussion on the lunar cycle and its effects on the weather. Recycling past weather events based on the future lunar cycles. http://www.nwa2011.com/?p=1114 He had an entertaining presentation and admits that the science is controversial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderhead Hawkins Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 I got to go down to Weatherfest yesterday. It was a nice day. I didn't know Nick Walker was a "singing weather dude". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benfica356 Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Some of my friends from Kean are at that conference because of the research they did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 I'm here...finally! Got in around 745 PM CDT. Long day traveling. Got to see some friends here, but had to get stuff done for the Teachers' Weather Workshop that will start at 9 AM. Got 150 teachers from across Alabama registered! WOW!!! Dr. Greg Forbes will be our keynote speaker at 10 AM. Also have James Spann doing his retrospective on the April 27th tornadoes. And, the Weather Dude will also sing to our teachers!!! (hehe) I will miss out on the general session today, but will be there tomorrow through midday Thursday. Hope to run into some of you there!!! --Turtle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 17, 2011 Author Share Posted October 17, 2011 Poster presentations are now being placed online They are adding more and more with each hour There are going to be somewhere close to 200 poster presentations Here is where you will find them http://www.youtube.com/user/nwameetingchannel#p/u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 17, 2011 Author Share Posted October 17, 2011 I'm here...finally! Got in around 745 PM CDT. Long day traveling. Got to see some friends here, but had to get stuff done for the Teachers' Weather Workshop that will start at 9 AM. Got 150 teachers from across Alabama registered! WOW!!! Dr. Greg Forbes will be our keynote speaker at 10 AM. Also have James Spann doing his retrospective on the April 27th tornadoes. And, the Weather Dude will also sing to our teachers!!! (hehe) I will miss out on the general session today, but will be there tomorrow through midday Thursday. Hope to run into some of you there!!! --Turtle Nice to see you this morning - briefly - sounds like the teacher conference went well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeauDodson Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 Live streaming WeatherBrains from the conference http://www.ustream.tv/channel/weatherbrains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solak Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Live streaming WeatherBrains from the conference http://www.ustream.t...l/weatherbrains Tomorrow night's stream sounds really interesting. Tonight's is, as well. Thanks for the heads-up on tonight's viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Nice to see you this morning - briefly - sounds like the teacher conference went well. Yes, it was nice to see you here in Birmingham, too, Beau! Also ran into Martin (Conference I folks will remember the mild mannered Martin). Hope to run into you, too, Solak! And a very big YES to the success of the NWA Teachers' Weather Workshop yesterday. It was simply fabulous! Over 130 teachers attended for a full day (including a working FREE lunch during the breakout sessions) of weather information. James Spann did speak about the April 27th tornadoes with the teachers. He was still very emotional about what happened, and couldn't leave the videos on the screen up very long. The teachers fully understood. The "Weather Dude" (i.e. Nick Walker) also sang to our teachers, and at the end, Jim Cantore even put in a brief appearance. The teachers went wild!!! All in all, the teachers got so much (including LOTS of freebies to bring back to their schools) out of their day. Highly successful!! Getting ready for the general session today! --Turtle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 OK, I wasn't totally awake this morning. Solak is NOT here, but will be tuning in for the Town Hall session this evening. Would have been nice, though. Not sure if anybody else is here either. Oh well... Hope you guys do tune in. It should be a very interesting and informative session that will be streamed for all to see (hopefully!). --Turtle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tornadotony Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 OK, I wasn't totally awake this morning. Solak is NOT here, but will be tuning in for the Town Hall session this evening. Would have been nice, though. Not sure if anybody else is here either. Oh well... Hope you guys do tune in. It should be a very interesting and informative session that will be streamed for all to see (hopefully!). --Turtle We're hosting an event here at Valpo to view the Town Hall. I'm going to be giving a brief review of the outbreak and then we'll all be watching it together. There's going to be a lot to be learned this evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 The info I am reading from NWA 2011 is very interesting but not surprising. Social media is huge, the public knows nothing about weather, and confusions abounds about weather "sources". Nothing is a surprise, but we, as meteorologists, have quite a ways to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoMo Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 The info I am reading from NWA 2011 is very interesting but not surprising. Social media a huge, the public knows nothing about weather, and confusions abounds about weather "sources". yeah, nothing really shocking. It would all apply to Joplin as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 yeah, nothing really shocking. It would all apply to Joplin as well. Geez you are fast See me final reply after edits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Yes, it was nice to see you here in Birmingham, too, Beau! Also ran into Martin (Conference I folks will remember the mild mannered Martin). Hope to run into you, too, Solak! --Turtle Mild mannered? Sure you ran into me? It was awesome seeing you and Beau! NWA Conference is certainly one of the funnest conferences I have been to! How long until Madison?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.