This Black History Month you may have heard stories about some of the early pioneers in our field who were Black. We remember June Bacon-Bercey, who was the first African American woman with a degree in meteorology to deliver the forecast on-air. Bacon-Bercey was also the first African American and the first woman to receive the seal of approval from the American Meteorological Society. The Tuskegee Airmen, Black pilots who valiantly fought combat missions in World War II, were supported by The Tuskegee Weather Detachment, a group of 15 Black men trained in meteorology, many of whom were scientists. Dr. Warren Washington, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, was one of the first individuals to work on developing computer models to study climate change. There are many examples of Black meteorologists now working in private, government and academic careers, but as a field we could be more reflective of the population. Despite representing 13.9% of the US population between the ages of 18 and 64, Black individuals represent a much lower percentage of people in the geosciences. The percentage working as environmental scientists and geoscientists ranged from 1% to 7.8% between 2005 and 2019, values that fluctuated from year to year without an increasing trend according to the American Geosciences Institute. While the percentage of geoscience degrees awarded to Hispanic students doubled from 2010 to 2019 (from 5.7% to 11.7%), the percentage of degrees awarded to Black students remained fairly stable, between 2% and 3%. Why is this? Some of the factors associated with fewer minority students in general being attracted to the geosciences include a lack of exposure to the field in high school, a lack of role models in geoscience with whom potential majors can identify, and the perception that geoscience is not a career path for those who wish to help others in their community. Dr. Marshall Shepherd wrote about some of these factors in a recent column in Ebony. You can also see my paper on the results from a study on the Mississippi State campus. This paper is behind a paywall, so I am happy to share a copy for those who can’t access it. The NWA has not historically kept track of the race or ethnicity of its members. However, a 2014 AMS survey found that of its 13,000-14,000 members only 2.1% were Black or African American. That is not much higher than the 1.58% of Black meteorologists reported by Bacon-Bercey in a 1978 study. To better assess the diversity of our own membership, the NWA plans to add Race/Ethnicity demographic collection to member profiles in our Member Connect portal. Besides assessing where we are as far as the diversity of our members, what can you or I do? The National Weather Association Foundation offers the David Sankey Minority Scholarship in Meteorology, which will start accepting nominations in the spring. You can help spread the word about the scholarship to prospective recipients. You can also donate to the fund. In addition to increasing diversity, it is also important that people feel a sense of belonging once they join an organization or program. There are many ways, great and small, that we can work on fostering an inclusive environment. I recently attended a workshop on multi-cultural mentoring and learned a few things that I thought I would share with you. One is to mind the difference between intent and impact. Sometimes we may say or do something that we don’t mean anything negative by. However, our words or actions can still have a negative impact on another person. In a situation like this, it’s more important what the impact of the action was rather than the intent. This especially true when we are members of a group that has historically belonged to the dominant identity. Reflecting on your own perspective can help address this. You may ask yourself, what lens am I looking through? How might someone else see it? What am I missing? Some other suggestions include not interrupting others and making sure different voices are being represented and heard during meetings, appreciating differences rather than just similarities, practicing allyship, and helping to connect people with resources and other professionals. If you’d like to know more, the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College has many resources about helping to build inclusive geoscience environments.You can also read more about the individuals mentioned at the beginning of the message at in an article written by NWA member Dakari Anderson. Finally, I encourage you to watch or rewatch the keynote speech given by Anzio Williams, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations at the 2021 annual meeting. Anzio is introduced at 8:30. His speech begins at 11:40.
NOAA’s GOES-T is scheduled to launch on March 1, 2022, at 4:38 PM EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. GOES-T is the third satellite in the GOES-R Series, the Western Hemisphere’s most advanced weather-observing and environmental-monitoring system. Following a successful launch and on-orbit checkout of its instruments and systems, NOAA plans to put GOES-18 immediately into operational service. It will replace GOES-17 as GOES-West due to an issue with the GOES-17 advanced baseline imager (ABI). More information on the launch and GOES-T can be found on the NESDIS website.
NWA Webinar March 2
Evan Bentley will present his newly published paper titled "An Analysis of 2016-18 Tornadoes and National Weather Service Tornado Warnings Across the Contiguous United States." Click here to register for the webinar. The High Plains AMS/NWA Chapter Minutes The AMS/NWA High Plains Chapter held a virtual meeting over Google Meet on Tuesday, February 9, beginning at 300 p.m. with 17 members attending. The meeting started with discussion about whether the next High Plains Conference should be held virtually, in person, or postponed until next year. After much discussion the chapter decided to wait until next year to see if the conference can be held in person. Instead of having a conference this year, most attendees were in favor of trying to do an in person meeting later in the year. 2021 Lightning Fatality Statistics at Record Low National Lightning Safety Council National Lightning Safety Awareness Week is June 19-25, 2022. Please help us promote lightning safety!
NWS Launches Local Standard Radar Dear NWS Partners,
The National Weather Association Weathercaster Seal of Approval program began in 1982 to promote quality weather broadcasting. As of 16 February 2022, 1044 NWA Weathercaster Seals of Approval have been awarded. For more information: click here
To apply for the Seal: click here
To join the NWA: click here
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Here is the link to the Call for Abstracts Webpage. Theme: “Convergence” The theme for the 2022 annual meeting is simply “Convergence.” Convergence at a general level is an act of coming together—a movement toward the same point. As is often the case, the term has slightly different meanings depending on the field. One characteristic across definitions of convergence is that it reflects a quality that is more than additive. It is more than the sum of two or more parts. Something new is created whether you’re talking about a line of thunderstorms resulting from converging winds or a new framework or method for looking at a problem through interdisciplinary research. My hope for the annual meeting is to provide a forum where people, ideas and perspectives can converge and produce something that couldn’t have taken place without it. The categories below reflect some of my goals for our annual meeting, given the theme of convergence. These include bringing together different disciplines, different sectors, and different perspectives, and using the convergence of ideas and perspectives to confront some of the challenging issues we face in the weather enterprise. Categories:
Integration
Science
Important issues and challenges
Abstract Fees: Student and Active Military Personnel: No Cost Return to Top2021 Fall Scholarship Recipients Announced Congratulations to both winners.
Cianna Cilenti is a freshman from Tampa, Florida. She is currently a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University working on a bachelor's in meteorology and a minor in geographic information systems. Cianna grew up with a love for weather and meteorology. She hopes to become a hurricane hunter with NOAA, and an Antarctic Atmospheric Scientist. She is enrolled in the Air Force ROTC program and is working towards becoming an Air Force Weather Officer. She is also the Service Committee Chair of the Honors Student Association. One of her favorite volunteer positions and hobbies is with Southeastern Guide Dogs, where she raises service dogs for veterans with PTSD and the blind.
Haley (Stormy) Meier is a junior from Austin, Texas. Most people know Haley by her nickname, Stormy, which was derived from the word hailstorm when she was young. Meier indicates she was hooked on weather at age three while making up names for clouds and tracing them with whipped crème in pie tins. This eventually led to her studies in Geoscience and Broadcast Meteorology at Mississippi State University, where she is also enrolled in their MBA Venture Pathway program. This program offers non-business students a robust business and entrepreneur curriculum with a path to an MBA degree. Meier played women’s soccer for MSU for two years and was an SEC Academic All-American. With a 3.96 GPA, she has been on the MSU President’s List since her freshman year. In addition to being a part-time weekend morning meteorologist for WTVA in Tupelo, Mississippi, she is the treasurer for MSU’s East Mississippi Chapter of the NWA/AMS. After graduation, Meier hopes to earn her MBA while working as an on-air meteorologist. She will use her business savvy and ageism platform to incubate non-traditional avenues for a “generational forecasting” concept – dedicated to reaching all ages using media to which they can relate. Meier loves history, musical theatre, historic preservation, Star Wars, and travel. She describes herself as adventurous and on-the-go, never having met a tornado or music festival she did not want to chase. Click here to see previous scholarship winners. March April May
New NWA Staff: Debi and Valerie
Help us in welcoming Debi Austin as the new Member Services Specialist at the NWA. Debi started at the NWA in February.
Debi Austin joined the NWA Office team Feb. 10, as the Member Services Specialist. Debi is a Marketing and Fundraising Professional and brings to the role her expertise in Creative Project Management and in executing marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. Formerly employed by Feed the Children as the Director of Creative Services, for 16 years she led a team in creative strategic planning, idea development, and production processes for radio, television, print, social media platforms, fulfillment, and distribution. Debi and her husband, Will live in the country with their two dogs, Cludd and Tuff, and two cats, Spry and Charlie. On the weekends, you will most likely find them either fishing on a lake or enjoying the woods and the wildlife outdoors.
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Welcome Valerie to the NWA!
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