Contact: Bob Ratliff
As if they aren't already, tornados, hurricanes, lightning storms, and other deadly weather conditions will be on the minds of more than 200 weather professionals gathering next week at Mississippi State.
The university is serving as host Feb. 15-17 for the first-ever Southeast Severe Storms Symposium, which brings together regional television meteorologists and other professional weather watchers desiring to learn even more about the destructive side of nature.
MSU's geosciences department and the American Meteorological Society/National Weather Association's East Mississippi Chapter have joined together to plan the program.
The department currently enrolls some 420 students in the nation's only college-based professional training program for television- and radio-based weather forecasters. Of that number, approximately 120 attend bachelor's- and master's-level classes in Starkville, while the others complete degrees throughout the United States via distance learning programs.
Michael E. Brown, MSU associate professor of geosciences, said symposium speakers will include, among others, Greg Forbes, the Weather Channel's severe weather specialist; meteorological researchers at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.; and members of the "Hurricane Hunters," the popular name for United States Air Force's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron based at Biloxi's Keesler Air Force Base.
"Professionals in the Northeast, Great Plains and other areas of the country have held annual conferences for a number of years to discuss ways to better forecast and track severe weather events," Brown said. "This inaugural conference will give weather professionals in our region a similar opportunity to further sharpen their skills."
Also featured on the program will be speakers from National Weather Service offices across the Southeast and several veteran television meteorologists, including James Spann with Birmingham's ABC affiliate.
Brown said he anticipates that members of the Hurricane Hunters team will be especially popular. From June 1-Nov. 30, the squadron flies into the heart of tropical disturbances and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, up the Eastern seaboard and as far west as Hawaii. After November, they shift their attention to winter storms off the East and West coasts.
"These daredevils of the meteorological community risk their lives so communities can be prepared well before landfall of a tropical system," he said. "They are the front line of information about tropical and other storm systems."
While in Starkville, the Air Force aviators and technicians also will share the challenges and rewards of their work with more than 300 students at Ward-Stewart Elementary School, Brown added.
MSU's geosciences department offers bachelor's and master's degrees in climatology, professional geology, geography, and environmental geoscience. Participating with the National Weather Association in certifying broadcast meteorologists, it also offers a curriculum in broadcast meteorology for persons seeking careers as television or research meteorologists.