I’m going to start my first newsletter article with a confession: I’m a nerd. 

I know we have a lot of weather geeks in the NWA but my nerdiness is more about a general love of learning. When looking at colleges, I was deciding between majoring in meteorology or music education. As a forecaster, I always loved helping develop local training for our office and helping grow our newest team members, and for the last five years training has been my full time job. One of my top CliftonStrengths traits is ‘Learner’ and is defined by Gallup as having “a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites [Learners].”  As a leader it also encourages me to admit I’m still learning and invite others to learn with me.

So, when it came to my duty as President of the NWA to determine the theme for 2023 and our Annual Meeting, it will probably come as no surprise that I’m leaning into that theme of learning. Since some of us in the NWA are in the early stages of our careers, some are enjoying the new freedoms of retirement, and many are somewhere in between, the following phrase kept coming to mind:

“You’re either green and growing or ripe and rotting.”

(Both Ray Kroc, founder of the McDonald’s restaurant chain, and Frosty Westering, a college football coach, are credited with the quote. Simply because of his name, I’ll go with crediting Frosty!) No matter who said it, I love this visual reminder of the fact that when you decide to stop growing, you’ve resigned yourself to getting stale and rotting. 

In my mind, this “Continual Growth & Development” theme isn’t JUST about continuing to learn and grow in our understanding of our atmospheric science. It’s about improving our ‘soft skills’ — our ability to communicate with each other, lead teams, and manage conflict. It’s about improving our understanding of the communities and partners we serve - learning more about challenges they face and how we can best support them. The same goes for learning more about the diverse perspectives WITHIN our NWA community and how we can be more welcoming and inclusive to more future members.

Over the course of the next year, I challenge YOU to join me in setting goals for yourself — lean into the “Continual Growth & Development” theme throughout the year, not just at the annual meeting. What I’ve outlined below might seem a little like a New Year’s Resolution, but hopefully using the SMART Goals framework will help us each be more successful than the average resolutions!

• Pick three (3) things you’d like to learn more about or get better at this year. 

• Use a SMART Goals framework to write out what you’d like to work on and find another member who could be your accountability buddy. 

• Join me on the NWA Community Platform to share what goals you’re setting for yourself. You can find the thread by joining the 2023 Annual Meeting Group. (More information about Member Groups below.) I’ll post my three goals there, too! We can use those ideas for webinars during the year or events at the annual meeting. 

• While you’re there, help other members find resources to achieve their goals.

One of the biggest ways I want to incorporate this theme into the Annual Meeting is to include an afternoon of workshops where you can learn something to take back to your school or office. These workshops will be longer than a traditional 15-minute presentation session and allow us time to really dig into some topics in more depth. Stay tuned for future newsletter videos and articles where we will discuss more about the workshops and other ways this theme will play out in the Annual Meeting in September!

The NWA Community is a space that will continue to grow and expand, and plans for the future are exciting!  Here are some conversations happening on Community: 

We will be looking for you in the NWA Community! Come on over!

What sparked your interest in meteorology?
Spending part of my childhood on a horse farm in Indiana, the weather was alway important. I found myself trying to identify cloud types as a kid and my interest grew from there.

What is the most memorable weather event you have covered on air?
December 15th in 2021 here in Omaha was one of the craziest weather days I have ever covered. Thirty-two tornadoes touched down in our area! Some were moving 80 MPH. Our high temperature hit 74°, which broke the all-time high record for the entire month in December!

What do you love to do in your free time?
I love to get outside. Hiking, photography, and spending time in nature are just some things. I seem to find a new hobby every month.

Do you have any unusual/hidden talents?
I am a birder, so I can ID most birds in my area by call or by sight.

What do you love most about being a member of the NWA?
I love networking and meeting people that have the same passion as me.

Connect with Chris:
Twitter: @Chris_R_Swaim 
Facebook: Meteorologist Chris Swaim

What sparked your interest in meteorology? 
As a child, I remember looking forward to spending my summer breaks in Charlotte, North Carolina, with my grandparents. Sometimes we would watch The Weather Channel for hours, and if the meteorologist said it was going to storm, I would wait to see if it would verify.

I was curious about the sky and how anyone could forecast the weather.

What is the most memorable weather event you have covered?
I remember covering a tornado outbreak on June 12, 2017, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Given the setup and a "PDS Tornado Watch" issued that afternoon, I was anticipating a long day. We had a total of 24 tornado warnings and 22 reports of tornadoes.

What do you love to do in your free time?
I love building model cars, reading, writing, painting, tasting new red wines, and listening to music. My wife and I love taking walks, trying new restaurants, and nothing beats Saturday morning golf!

Do you have any unusual/hidden talents?
I can still bust a couple of skateboard tricks to this day. I can ollie, 50/50 grind, kickflip, double kickflip, heelflip, and pop-shove it.

What do you love most about being a member of the NWA?
I can't wait to attend my first annual meeting and chat with new people.

Connect with Guy:
Twitter: @GuyBrownWeather
Instagram: @GuyBrownWeather
Facebook: @GuyBrownWeather

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Vice Chair of the Weather, Analysis, & Forecasting Member Group

Do you want to learn how to forecast wildfires or “brush up” on your fire weather forecasting skills? Sign up for the NWA’s entirely-virtual Master Class this spring! The Master Class is an opportunity for meteorologists from multiple sectors to come together and learn about a specific meteorological topic from expert proctors in an interactive and fun setting. The course will last around two hours long and structured in the format of a case study. After learning about how to forecast fire weather, participants will walk through the forecasting process using data from a recent high-impact fire weather event. In addition, participants will consider how to message the evolving wildfire threat through multiple interactive mediums.

The virtual Master Class will take place on Tuesday, March 7 from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET and is free and open to the public. Registration information is available at this link. If you have any questions about the Master Class, please email Brett Borchardt at [email protected]. We hope to see you there!

Greetings from Boulder, Colorado!

Back after the holiday break, we share with you the result of a busy three months since the fall update. This announcement includes seven new MetEd lessons that cover a variety of topic areas, from communicating flash flood threats and stream height forecasts via NASA/SPoRT machine learning, to satellite/NWP integration (weather system and nighttime fog analysis), the use of satellite imagery in winter scenarios, and interpreting HEFS’s short-term probabilistic guidance. We also published a video describing updates to the National Tidal Datum Epoch (NTDE) and the International Great Lakes Datum (IGLD).  A total of five new lessons were also published in Spanish.

The International Capacity Development Program in COMET has also been busy this fall. The team has updated the 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station (3D-PAWS) documentation that includes the updated low-power designs.  The team is also preparing a series of short videos to demonstrate how to build a 3D-PAWS System.

All of us at COMET wish you a safe, peaceful, and enjoyable New Year!

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New COMET Lessons in English

Satellite-NWP Integration: Nighttime Fog Analysis Challenge

Stream Height Forecasts via NASA/SPoRT Machine Learning

Communicating Potential Flash Flood & Debris Flow Threats

The National Tidal Datum Epoch

Satellite Applications for Winter Weather: Mesoscale Banded Snowfall

Satellite-NWP Integration: Weather System Analysis Challenge

How to Interpret the Hydrologic Ensemble Forecast Service (HEFS) Short-Term Probabilistic Guidance

New COMET Lessons in Spanish

Uso de los productos del GLM del GOES-R y las observaciones en superficie para una mayor conciencia de la actividad de rayos

Ejercicio y caso de estudio para GOES-R/JPSS: usos en situaciones de lluvias fuertes y crecidas repentinas

Productos de guía del WPC para la lluvia de los ciclones tropicales

Minilecciones en PNT: fundamentos de predicción probabilística

Cómo funciona la siembra de nubes

International Capacity Development Updates

3D-PAWS open-source documentation: (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, Bureau of Meteorology, the USACE, DOI/Reclamation, and the World Meteorological Organization.

Sincerely,

David Russi
Translation Coordinator
UCAR/COMET

We're looking for someone proficient in AP-style writing to proofread our newsletters. Interested? Please email [email protected].

September 2023
September 9-13 NWA Annual Meeting

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