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29 April 2010 Meeting Minutes |
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Barb called the meeting to order at 1152. President’s Report: Recently put together the Chapter of the Year award. “Our chapter looks pretty good on the application!” We had to CUT items because we did so much. She thanked the group for the hard work and contributions this past year. Next meeting Wednesday May 19th, a dinner meeting, Tom Butler from Mid America Energy to discuss wind farms. Vice President’s Report: “Nothing to add” Treasurer’s Report: Beginning balance = $1574.98 March speaker’s meal + Power strip = ($41.02) Petty Cash = $196.46 Total = $1732.40 Recording Secretary’s Report: Minutes posted to website & FB, short and sweet. Motion carried to submit the minutes to the record. Corresponding Secretary's Report: Nothing to add Open to the Floor: Bruce Telfeyan.: “10 year in the row that I’m heading the nominating committee for this chapter.” The elections will take place at the May 19th meeting. This year will be more difficult, since 4 of this year’s officer positions are vacant. This is a large, proud chapter to be a leader in (2nd oldest in the nation). Bruce, Daniel Neidfeld or Jay Martinelli are the election committee. Open positions: VP, both Secretaries and Treasurer. The jobs are all-volunteer, not terribly demanding, and very rewarding. Barb: A reminder that to be an officer in the AMS chapter, you need to be a chapter dues-paying member. She emphasized that we welcome members from the spectrum of professional areas represented in the Omaha/Offutt area. Karen Sittel: Programming weather radios. Need folks for May 8th to program at 156th and Maple. May 22nd at 144th & Stony Brook. Both are from 1000-1300. Programmed 91 weather radios at the Shadow Lake event a couple weeks ago. Barb: Announcement about her upcoming brown-bag talk about the meteorology of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “The Long Winter”.. Thursday 13 May at 1300. Becky: Requesting $150-200 for additional speaker gifts. Previously $200 was allocated for speaker gifts. Estimating $10-20 per gift. The motion for allocation passed. Stephanie Ludwig discussed her presentation from Des Moines a few weeks ago just before our guest speaker, TSgt Jade Bell from 55th OSS, discussing his deployment to South America. Motion made to adjourn at 1203. |
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Save the Date - May 19th |
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Save the date for the next Omaha/Offutt AMS Chapter meeting: Wednesday, May 19th -Speaker Tom Budler from Mid-American Energy will talk about wind energy. Additional details will be sent as they become available. |
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Lunch AMS Meeting - April 29, 2010 - Lo Sole Mio |
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Thursday, April 29th - 2010 - Lunch - Omaha/Offutt AMS Chapter Meeting Hello everyone, our next meeting of the Omaha-Offutt Chapter of the American Meteorological Society will be a lunch meeting and will feature Technical Sergeant Jade C. Bell. Tsgt Bell will speak about his recent deployment to Columbia, South America. His talk will focus on deployment from an enlisted forecaster's perspective and highlight unique opportunities and difficulties of forecasting on a different continent, including preparations to deploy, cultural differences, mission, weather and equipment challenges, and the camaraderie. Speaker Bio: TSgt Bell is originally a farm boy from Northwest Oklahoma where the varied weather sparked his interest in meteorology and forecasting. He has been an Air Force forecaster for 10 years and worked in many different focus areas including severe convective, tropical, arctic and space weather. He has deployed three times in his career, using his expertise and passion for weather to provide key support in operations around the globe. Date: Thursday, 29 April 2010Location: Lo Sole Mio (Villa location - west side of the street) 3020 S. 32nd Ave.
Omaha, NE 402 345-5656
Note: We need at least 40 people to use the "Villa"
Time: 11:30 a.m.–13:30 p.m.
Lunch Cost: $13.00 - Lunch will be a buffet that comes with: A fresh tomato basil starter, baked lasagna, shells primavera, homemade bread, roasted garlic, tossed salad, ice tea or coffee. Sales tax and gratuity are included.RSVP with the number of people to
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by Noon Tuesday, April 27th, 2010.
If you are unable to attend after the RSVP has been called in, please contact the restaurant to cancel your order as you will be responsible to pay for your lunch. Thanks for your cooperation.
Dues for 2009-2010: $10 for regular members and $5 for student members.
2009-2010 AMS Officers
President - Barb Mayes
Vice President - Rachel Hughes
Corresponding Secretary - Cathy Zapotocny
Recording Secretary - Patricia Vollmer
Treasurer - Becky Adams-Selin |
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9 March 2010 Meeting Minutes |
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Barb called the meeting to order at 1932. President: Barb welcomed Adam Houston from UNL, who will be presenting about UAVs being deployed in VORTEX 2 this spring, and past stuff Elections: The Corresponding Secretary & Treasurer have reached her term limits. = term limit. The Vice President and Recording Secretary are not re-running. The President will re-run. Feel free to discuss the roles/responsibilities with current officers. We will need an Election Committee, only requirement = dues paying member not running for office We would like to generate interest by the April meeting, the elections will be held for the May Meeting. No date yet for the next meeting. Wind energy speaker unconfirmed. Probably a lunch meeting at Lo Sole Mio Treasurer’s Report: Beginning balance: 1692.31 Income: 425 checks, 250 cash for Kiewit Lodge meeting Expenses: KC AMS $252.09, Ludwig = $400 Bank account balance as of 3/4/2010: 1911.68 We have 69 dues-paying members. Recording Secretary’s Report: Minutes posted to website & FB, short and sweet. Motion carried to submit the minutes to the record. Information from other members: Ken Dewey: Told the members about the UNL Weather Fest/Weather Symposium, 27 March @ UNL Karen Sittel: Thanks for volunteering for Science Fairs, she now has “plenty” of people. Motion made to adjourn at 1945. Submitted by Patricia Vollmer Recording Secretary 26 April 2010 |
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24 February 2010 Meeting Minutes |
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The February 2010 chapter meeting was held at the Peter Kiewit lodge at Mahoney State Park. Three students presented their research. Congratulations to Stephanie Ludwig of Creighton University on winning the contest. She plans to present her work on hodographs at the NWA Des Moines Conference this month. Barb called the meeting to order at 1858. Barb started by thanking the group for making the trek out to Mahoney. The tab for Greg Carbin’s travel was higher than the $200 allocated. Ended up spending $252.09. Unless there are objections, the AMS will cut the check for their part Karen Harder-Sittel: We need more science fair judges! Information about science fairs will be sent out separately. - Sat. March 13, OPS Metropolitan Science Fair @ UNO: 0800-1000 - Sat. March 27, @ Nebraska City 0930-1130 Treasurer’s Report: - Beginning balance: $1692.31 - Income: Meals from Anthony’s payments: $919 - Expenses: $915 to Anthony’s, $140 to Kiewit Lodge to reserve the conference room - Total expenses: 1055.24 - Bank account balance as of 2/24: $1546.17 - Petty Cash = $196.46 - Final Balance = $1742.63 Recording Secretary's Report: Patricia moved to submit the January minutes for the record. The motion passed. Jay Martinelli: Fri. May 7, OPS Science Fair at Metropolitan Community College, 0730-1400. Could someone cover the morning shift while Jay administers a final exam? Ken Dewey: Central Plains Weather Symposium @ UNL Saturday 27 March Motion made to adjourn at 1905. Submitted by Patricia Vollmer Recording Secretary 9 March 2010 |
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March 9th-2010-Omaha/Offutt AMS Chapter Meeting |
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Tuesday, March 9th - 2010 - Omaha/Offutt AMS Chapter Meeting Hello everyone, our next dinner meeting of the Omaha-Offutt Chapter of the American Meteorological Society will feature Dr. Adam Houston from the UNL faculty. Dr. Houston's talk is entitled "Using Unmanned Aircraft to Probe Tornadoes in VORTEX-2". We hope you can join us! Speaker Bio:
Dr. Adam Houston joined the UNL faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences in 2006. Prior to this he served as a visiting instructor at UNL and visiting assistant professor and postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University. Dr. Houston received his Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his B.S. in meteorology from Texas A&M University. Dr. Houston’s research addresses fundamental mechanisms and environmental controls that regulate deep convection (deep tropospheric air transport manifested as cumulonimbus clouds). He is principally concerned with the initiation of deep convection and the impact of airmass boundaries (demarcations between large bodies of air that are roughly homogeneous in their horizontal extent) on deep convection morphology, propagation, rotation, longevity, and strength. His current projects include the development of unmanned aircraft systems for sampling the environment near supercells (rotating, sometimes tornadic thunderstorms) as part of the Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 2 (VORTEX-2). He’s also testing a new theory for understanding and forecasting thunderstorm initiation, investigating the role played by airmass boundaries on storm organization, propagation, and rotation, and reassessing the environmental parameters used to forecast supercells. Dr. Houston’s Severe Storms Research Group (SSRG) consists of 3 M.S. students, 1 PhD student, and an undergraduate student all pursuing research related to the common themes of thunderstorm-boundary interactions and thunderstorm climatologies. Dr. Houston’s teaching interests include dynamic meteorology (the physics of atmospheric motion), radar meteorology, the dynamics of severe thunderstorms, and computational fluid dynamics.Date: Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Location: Nebraska Brewing Company, Shadow Lake Towne Center
7474 Towne Center Pkwy Suite 101 Papillion, NE 402 934-7100. Time: 5:30 – 9:30 p.m.
5:30 - 6:30 p.m.: Social Time
6:30 - 9:30 p.m.: Business meeting/Dinner/Speakers
Dinner Cost:
We will order off the menu which can be found at: http://www.nebraskabrewingco.com/menu.pdf.
The Nebraska Brewing Company has a number of sandwiches, burgers, pizza, pastas, and entrees to choose from that mostly range from $8.49 to $15.99 + tax , tip, drinks and brews. RSVP with the number of people to
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by Noon Monday, March 8th, 2010. The RSVP is to mainly have a head count for the restaurant for seating purposes.
Dues for 2009-2010: $10 for regular members and $5 for student members.
2009-2010 AMS Officers
President - Barb Mayes
Vice President - Rachel Hughes
Corresponding Secretary - Cathy Zapotocny
Recording Secretary - Patricia Vollmer
Treasurer - Becky Adams-Selin |
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Contest Ballot and Student Abstracts |
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Here is a sample ballot for the AMS Student Presentation Contest and the student abstacts are below. Copies of the student's abstracts and a copy of this ballot will be e-mailed with the meeting reminder notice the week of February 15th. Annual Student Presentation ContestOmaha/Offutt Chapter of the AMS24 February 2010 Student Presenter:___________________________________ Judging limited to dues-paying chapter members Research Topic (Originality, strength of hypothesis, suitability of hypothesis to be tested against a control or theory) Score (0-10): ______________ Experimental Design, Data Collection, and Analysis (Data gathering and analysis methods are thorough and mathematically correct, accuracy of results is proven with limitations addressed as necessary, unexpected results explained even if contrary to hypothesis) Score (0-10): ______________ Presentation (Uses correct scientific terminology, acronyms defined, speaker seems genuinely interested in their work, uses appropriate citations/references) Score (0-10): ______________ Total Score (max 30): _______________ Comments: _________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ The presenter with the highest average total score wins. In case of a tie a vote of the judges will be used to determine winner. ABSTRACTS Paul Fajman's Abstract: Improved Verification and Analysis of National Weather Service Point Forecast Matrices Paul Fajman Meteorology/Climatology Graduate Student Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Verification is the procedure of determining the quality of forecast information and an integral part to the forecasting process. Forecasts can be verified through both accuracy and consistency. Accuracy and consistency are equally important as the public won’t trust a forecast that is inaccurate or a forecast that has large swings and does not converge towards a final accurate result. This study does not present a new method for scoring forecasts but a new verification system using current skill scores and other measures to verify forecast performance. The goal of this study is to serve as a template that other National Weather Service Weather Forecasting Offices can use to verify their forecasts. To illustrate the usefulness of the new verification system and the methodology used, preliminary analysis has been performed on Point Forecast Matrices from the Omaha/Valley National Weather Service Weather Forecasting Office at all 21 Point Forecast Matrix locations. The preliminary analysis encompasses forecasts during high impact events such as periods of snow cover and temperature record or near record breaking days. Furthermore, forecast performance as a function of distance from the forecasting office and forecasts which produced large temperature errors were analyzed. In addition to the analysis of Point Forecast Matrices, Global Forecast System (GFS) Model Output Statistic (MOS) forecasts have also been analyzed for the same events to study a possible bias that the GFS MOS may exhibit during these events. Alexander Gibbs' Abstract: Alexander Gibbs: Climate Change and Water Law Policy: The Platte River Studies about climate change combined with societal impacts caused by that change are becoming increasingly more important, especially now as climatic change begins to manifest itself in the observed record. Water is arguably the most vital natural resource and changes in water quantity and availability are forecasted to change in a warming climate. Future changes in snowmelt timing and quantity, and river runoff could adversely affect Nebraska’s livelihood. Current water laws and interstate agreements based on equitable apportionment face an uncertain future in the face of these changes. Now is the time to re-examine laws and agreements dictating water use with a changing climate in mind. This research synthesizes research already performed along with the Modified Decree of 2001 to provide policymakers and scientists with insight into climate change relating to water resources and potential downfalls of the current Decree. The Modified Decree of 2001 provides for an equitable apportionment of the North Platte River, a major tributary of the Platte River, between Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado. The purpose of the Decree is to ensure that Nebraska and Wyoming have sufficient water for irrigation season. Of specific interest is the date specific appropriation based on 20th century climate records. Research showing earlier peak stream flows due to climate change along with changing wintertime precipitation all threatens to undermine the Decree and damage Nebraska. Stephanie Ludwig's Abstract: Hodographs associated with significant outbreak days
Stephanie Ludwig*, Dan Miller**, Jay Martinelli*, Jon Schrage*
*Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Creighton University
**National Weather Service Forecast Office, Duluth, Minnesota
Abstract
Over the last 20 years, research has contributed to a better understanding of the environments supportive of tornadic supercell thunderstorms. In particular, many studies have focused on identifying potential “outbreak” days. Low-level wind shear has been one meteorological quantity that has been identified as critically important in environments supportive of tornadic supercells. On several significant “outbreak” days, a distinct combination of near surface (< 1 km AGL) speed and directional shear has been noted in pre-tornadic vertical wind profiles. Plotted graphically on a hodograph, this appears as a “sickle” shape.
Hypothesis: Given the necessary thermodynamic profile, the “sickle” shape is indicative of environments that produce significant tornado outbreaks.
Methodology: Data were obtained for approximately 20 significant “outbreak” days. The corresponding wind profiles were composited using a robust feature-preserving technique (Brown, 1992). The historical database of soundings was then analyzed against our composite profile in order to determine the prevalence of this feature and its validity as an indicator of potential outbreak days. |
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Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership of more than 11,000 professionals, professors, students, and weather enthusiasts.The Omaha-Offutt AMS local chapter is one of many local chapters around the nation. 