BLOG: National Weather Association Meets

I just returned this week from a meeting of the National Weather Association in Birmingham, Alabama. I consider the NWA, along with the AMS (American Meteorological Society) to be the premier weather organization in the world.

That’s just one of the reasons I am a longtime member. However, I also realize that in order to be successful in the modern media world – you better have a commitment to additional learning on the job, and mastering the latest communication technologies.

In one respect, the way we can do this in meteorology is to take a step back, and really look at the stand out weather events of the past year, and how well (or poorly) they were forecast to the public.

Stand out events from this past year of course include everything from the “Commutapocolypse” blizzard that gridlocked the DC and Baltimore beltways last winter, to the horrifying tornado “Super Outbreak” this past April which claimed an unbelievable number of lives across the southern states.

While there were certainly areas of success, both in terms of forecasting and saving lives, there were also areas that could you some big improvement (such as getting the rate of “false warnings” down).
 

Curious to find out more?  The complete official "BLOG," which covers and highlights an incredible amount of content from this year's meeting, can be found a the link below.  By the way, this year's meeting was  the largest in the history of the NWA, and I was very glad to be part of that.  Social media was of course a huge topic as well, but I think I'll save that aspect for another blog!

http://www.nwa2011.com/