 What's in this newsletter:
President's Message: Annual Meeting - Get Excited! Hotel Block Closing We are just a few weeks away from welcoming you all to beautiful (and currently HOT!) Kansas City. Can you believe the Annual Meeting is almost here? The NWA Staff, co-chairs of the Annual Meeting, the Student Session, and the Broadcaster Workshop, and SO many more of your peers are furiously working to make your experience at the meeting fantastic. We hope you’re excited and planning your agenda or prepping for presentations! To help you plan for your time in KC, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some particular events you won’t want to miss. Make a note to add them to your agenda when the meeting Whova App launches a few days before the meeting right after Labor Day! Broadcast Workshop: Sunday is NOT just for Broadcasters! In addition to a lot of great plenary sessions, the morning will feature some breakout sessions for great discussions and the afternoon will have a Dual-Pol radar refresher training opportunity. Monday Workshops: Don’t miss Monday afternoon from 1:30-5:00 p.m. CT where you will have the chance to rotate through hands-on learning experiences at our Workshops.
Special Events:
Themed Attire Days - If you like wearing suits and professional attire, PLEASE feel free to keep rocking what you are comfortable with. But if you’d like to mix it up — still be tidy, put together — but also a little more casual? Consider joining in on one of our themed attire days:
And for those who read my January message about this year’s theme of ‘Continual Growth & Development’ — have you been working on the goals you set for yourself? I shared mine on Community and thought I’d update you on my progress on Goal 1. Come join the thread on Community and let me know what you’ve been working on & let me know if you have ideas for sessions at the meeting in September I should check out help me towards Goals 2 & 3! Goal 1: By the end of this summer, read or watch at least two resources to learn more about climate impacts facing underserved communities or about their cultural connections to nature.
The hotel block closes August 18 or when the block is full. Please stay at the Marriott Kansas City Downtown to help us keep overall meeting costs lower.
We invite you to attend the 2023 Hybrid Annual Meeting, in person or virtually, September 9-13 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Student Session: Saturday, September 9 This information is also posted on our Annual Meeting Page.
Thank you to these generous sponsors!
Connect with those working in all aspects of operational meteorology through a 2023 NWA Annual Meeting Sponsorship. The Sponsorship Prospectus contains information about our reach at the Annual Meeting and beyond, and all the opportunities to sponsor at the 2023 Hybrid Meeting. Contact us at [email protected] or fill out the Sponsorship form if you are interested. Visit our Annual Meeting page for more information. Showcase Workshop Recording (Video) The 2023 Showcase Workshop took place on August 3rd, highlighting Showcases – creative reinterpretations of NWA posters. Showcases will be hosted virtually on the Whova platform, but there's an option for in-person sharing in Kansas City. If you're presenting a Showcase at #NWAS23 and missed the workshop, you can watch the recording below. Brandon Black and Pat Hyland lead the workshop, focusing on interactive discussions, presentation tips, and more. To learn more, check out our Showcase webpage.
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Student and Early Career Session Join us at this year's Annual Meeting in Kansas City, where the action begins with the Student and Early-Career Session. This dynamic session, part of the larger Annual Meeting, offers a resume discussion, interview tips, a work-life balance panel, speed mentoring, a reel swap, and more. Attendees must be registered for the Annual Meeting. The Early-Career Session will take place on Saturday, September 9, 2023, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. CDT.
2023 Exhibitors and Booth Prices
Student Weather Briefings and the ALL NEW Probabilistic Forecasting Challenge The Weather and Forecasting (WAF) Member Group will once again be hosting Student Weather Briefings given by Undergrad and Graduate students attending the NWA Annual Meeting. Over the past few years, the Student Briefings were held virtually. The last time they were done in person was in Huntsville in 2019 (see picture below). This year, we are returning to in-person Students Weather Briefings! This is a wonderful opportunity for students to get first-hand experience discussing the weather in front of fellow professionals. They also get to learn from NWS and NWA mentors on good forecasting practices – thank you to forecasters from the Topeka and Pleasant Hill WFOs for volunteering to be mentors! The briefings will likely take place before lunch (exact time to be announced- TBA) from Monday, Sept. 11 through Wednesday, Sept. 13. Please join us for the briefings and support the new meteorologists coming into the field. Another incentive for attending: the ALL NEW Probabilistic Forecasting Challenge. Since this is our first time trying something like this, we are keeping it relatively simple by forecasting temperature – specifically, the maximum temperature at Kansas City International Airport (KMCI) from 12 am to 11:59 p.m. local time. (Note, this is not a "daytime high temperature" but rather the 24-hour maximum temperature.) The competition opens on Sunday, Sept. 10 (forecasting for Monday, Sept 11) and goes until Wednesday, Sept. 13 (forecasting for Thursday, Sept 14.) The competition will run through a Google Survey that must be submitted by 5 p.m. local time on the day prior to the valid time of the forecast. For example, if you are forecasting for the 11th, you must submit your forecast by 5 p.m. on the 10th. Since this is a probabilistic forecasting challenge, the survey will include temperature ranges for indicating the probability of the maximum temperature. More detailed instructions and the link to the survey will be sent out the week of Sept. 4th. Information will also be put on the Conference App and the NWA Community Site. Please listen in on the Student Briefings and test your forecasting skills during this year’s Annual Meeting in Kansas City. We look forward to seeing everyone and finding out who will get bragging rights for the best temperature forecaster for KC!
NWA Annual Meeting Master Class: Warn-on-Forecast System! Have you heard of the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS)? Are you interested in how rapidly updating, high-resolution model data can be used to inform warning decisions and decision support briefings? Sign up for the Master Class when you register for the NWA Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri! The Master Class is an opportunity for meteorologists from multiple sectors to come together and learn about a specific meteorological topic from experts in an interactive and fun setting. The course this year will be around two hours long and focus on the exciting and innovative Warn-on-Forecast system! Course participants will:
Stay tuned for an announcement on the date and time of the Master Class! If you have any questions about the Master Class, please email Brett Borchardt at [email protected]. We hope to see you there! NWA 2023 Research Operations Nexus (RON) Meetup
Have you ever faced a problem in your research or work and said “I wish someone would test this!” or “How can I get people to better understand our forecast?” Collaboration is the key to addressing the increasingly complex challenges we face in the weather, water, and climate enterprise. That’s easier said than done in most cases, but the Weather Analysis and Forecasting Member Group is here to help! Students, broadcasters, emergency managers, operational meteorologists, and researchers are all encouraged to attend the Research Operations Nexus (RON) Meetup at the NWA Annual Meeting on Monday, September 11th during the evening (exact time to be announced – TBA). The RON is held each year at the NWA Annual Meeting, and recently at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, to foster collaboration, networking, and development of unique solutions to address challenges in our communities. The evening will be broken up into three sessions. Participants will have the opportunity to join a table that will focus on a specific topic, such as AI/Machine Learning, Communicating Risk, or Forecasting/Nowcasting Severe Weather. After a short break, participants will switch to another table, and we begin again! You’ll be joined by other attendees interested in the topic, as well as a facilitator and note-taker that will help guide the conversation. Many collaborative projects, research endeavors, and other fruitful opportunities stem from previous RONs, not to mention the new connections and unique perspectives gained! This gathering is held in memory of Ron Przybylinski, the former Science and Operations Officer at the National Weather Service in St. Louis, MO. Ron pioneered the latest research on severe weather into the operational realm and expanded the understanding of Quasi-Linear Convective Systems with the aim of improving warning decisions. He was adamant about incorporating observations and empirical evidence back into research. This mindset, linking operations, research, broadcasters, end-users, and the public, is embodied in this annual event. We hope to see you then for a fun, productive evening! To see the notes from the last RON at the AMS Annual Meeting, NWA members can check them out on the WAF NWA Community page! Please be advised that the topics discussed at one RON may not appear in future RONs. NWA and NWS Weather-Ready Nation FLYERS Workshop Topic: Winter Weather Aviation Hazards As winter approaches and colder air from the Arctic begins to encroach on the Midwest, aviation weather hazards begin to have a chilling effect on the general aviation community. Hazards such as icing, wintry precipitation, widespread low clouds and visibility, and strong low-level winds become more common and impact every stage of flight. In an effort to help mitigate winter weather-related accidents, the National Weather Association (NWA) and the Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) FLYERS (FLYing, Education, Resources, and Safety) Team will be hosting an in-person workshop on winter weather aviation hazards at the Charles B. Wheeler downtown Kansas City Airport (MKC). This free in-person workshop will cover local Kansas City area hazards, including low clouds and visibility, icing, and other localized hazards. Sources of information, including the new Aviation Weather Center (AWC) website, and ways pilots can get involved in the forecast process will also be presented. The in-person workshop will last approximately 2 hours. The keynote speaker will be Southwest Airlines Chief Meteorologist David Dillahunt. David has worked with Southwest’s Meteorology Team for six years supporting the airline’s operations. He is the leader of the NWA Aviation Group and is also involved with A4A, FPAW, and NWS efforts centered around aviation weather. David has previous experience as a flight dispatcher and with the NWS. David graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a BS in Meteorology and an MS in Aeronautics. The workshop will be a live event and held in the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) building. It is also known as Kansas City Fire Department Station 63. The address is 400 Richards Rd, North Kansas City, MO 64116. Parking is available in front of the ARFF building. The event is also a fly-in. Aircraft can taxi directly to the ARFF building and park. Registration is required to attend the event as seating is limited to 75 attendees. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the WRN FLYERS team at [email protected] or the National Weather Association at https://nwas.org/contact/.
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Workshop From Betsy Kling: Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY! Don’t - for one minute - think that Sunday is ‘just’ for Broadcasters. Sunday is for everyone! As critical stakeholders in the weather enterprise, Sunday’s attendees from all sectors are welcome to join the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) in an interactive workshop. This half-day session is your opportunity to offer input on select communication products and services of the Storm Prediction Center (SPC), National Hurricane Center (NHC), and Weather Prediction Center (WPC). Communication is central to what all of us do. Let’s work together to communicate better. Sunday afternoon we’ll be focusing on radar, severe weather, and connecting with the communities we serve.
You can find the preliminary agenda for the Annual Meeting on our Annual Meeting Page. Please note that this is the initial version of the agenda and is subject to change. The final agenda will be released by early September. Keep in mind that the timing of sessions may vary by 15-30 minutes until the agenda is fully confirmed. Additionally, further details regarding workshops and presentations will be included as they become available. We encourage you to check back frequently for updates and to stay informed about the event's schedule.
To participate, please register for the Golfer event and explore Golf Scramble Sponsorship opportunities.
Order now to guarantee a shirt and to get the low introductory price of $22. We may have a limited number of t-shirts available for purchase at the meeting, but the price goes up to $25. Not attending the meeting in person? We will mail the shirt to you after the meeting. Shipping is only to addresses in the United States and U.S. Territories. ***Payment is required at the time of purchase and no refunds will be permitted.***
Haven't joined yet? Here's how:
You're in! Be sure to take the Community Tour (always located at the top left of your Community Dashboard) to orient yourself and get started. We will be looking for you in the NWA Community! Come on over! COMET Quarterly Announcement, Summer 2023 Greetings from Boulder, Colorado! After a prolonged stormy and humid period, summer is well underway, turning hot and dry along the Colorado Front Range. As I put together the list of lessons for this announcement, I was amazed at what the COMET team has been up to. Fourteen new lessons published on MetEd in the past three months! The lessons cover a variety of topics: satellite (2 lessons, on marine fog and tropical rainfall), aviation (4 lessons, three on aviation hazards and one on TAF encoding), hydrology (5 lessons on various aspects of working with streamgages), forecasting (2 lessons, one on heavy rainfall alerts and one on flash flood situations), and an updated version of tsunami warning systems. We also published 2 new lessons in Spanish. New COMET Lessons in English Currently, these materials are freely available to everyone, courtesy of our primary sponsors. Our sponsors include NOAA's NWS, NESDIS, and NOS programs, EUMETSAT, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Meteorological Service of Canada, the Bureau of Meteorology, the USACE, DOI/Reclamation, and the World Meteorological Organization. Sincerely,
Operational Achievement Group Award Operational Achievement Group Award Aviation Meteorology Award Larry R. Johnson Special Award Walter J. Bennett Public Service Award Local Chapter of the Year Award Broadcaster of the Year Award Special Lifetime Achievement Award Special Lifetime Achievement Award Public Education Award
Weather Awareness For a Rural Nation (WARN) Task Force
The NWA accepts nominations 365 days a year. Nominate a deserving person today! September 2023
September 9-13 NWA Annual Meeting November 2023
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