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Central Illinois It was announced that the Dr. Harry Hawkins Service Award The chapter held its first meeting of the season on 8 November would be presented to Howard Friedman of the Atlantic at the Loomis Laboratory on the campus of the University of Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane Re- Illinois. Frederick Sanders, a professor at the Massachusetts search Division. The award is given to the member who has Institute of Technology (MIT), spoke on 18 years of daily fore- contributed the most to the chapter. Freidman was not present, casting at MIT. He discussed the history of this forecasting so the award will be presented at a later date by Hawkin's son experiment, and how it has been used to define and document Jeffery in honor of his father. the state of the art in forecasting skill. Four of the National Hurricane Center's hurricane special- The new officers for the year were announced. They are: ists entertained the group with stories of embarrassing bloop- John Gyakum, president; Dave Tucek, vice president; Sharon ers. Robert A. Case told of how he had briefed the head of the Gould-Stewart, treasurer; and Steve Savageau, secre- Weather Service into a thunderstorm while on station in Ju- tary.—Steve Savageau, Secretary neau, Alaska. Hal Gerrish told why his weather unit at a cer- tain Air Force Base was the most popular,- there were pinups under the weather maps. Miles Lawrence did some statistical digging and announced that the average error for 24-hour storm Central Virginia forecast positions was 180 km. The largest 24-hour error made The chapter held its first meeting of the 1984-85 operational was during Hurricane Bonnie in 1980; the error was 780 km. year on 20 September at the National Weather Service (NWS) Gilbert Clark, the senior hurricane specialist told about his Office in Richmond's Byrd Airport. Steve Collucci, assistant days of flying in a B-29 into Atlantic storms. He did not like professor of environmental sciences at the University of Vir- flying, and while flying in the eye of Hurricane Connie in 1955, ginia, presented an analysis of precipitation and thunderstorm his plane lost two engines. He has been safely working at the day frequency over Virginia during the summer of 1984, as Miami Forecast Office ever since. reported by the chapter's Weather Observation Network. The network has over 160 observers statewide who report daily The chapter met on 20 September at the Miami-Dade Com- maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation to munity College-South Campus. The speaker was Howard the chapter each month. The analyses of the past summer's Bluestein, an associate professor at the University of Okla- data show no pattern in thunderstorm day frequency, but a homa and head of the University's Storm Chasing Team. His preponderance of heavy rainfall totals were observed during presentation was "Is Cumulus Convection Better Off Now mid-summer along the Blue Ridge Mountains. than it was Four Years Ago? A Photographic History of the Roy Britt, vice president of the chapter, showed slides of Life and Times of Severe Convective Phenomena in the South- Hurricane Alicia, which affected the Texas Gulf coast in 1983, ern Plains (1976-1984)." while Jim Duncan, president of the chapter, narrated. Duncan Bluestein began with a slide show describing the structure showed a news reel on Hurricane Diana, which had just crossed of supercell storms, including photographs of wall clouds, rear the North Carolina coast the week before the meeting, and a flank downdrafts, mesocyclones and forced convection in se- radar film loop of the storm. Several members from extreme vere right moving supercells. He continued with a short movie southeastern Virginia told of high winds and heavy rains from that his team had taken of a multiple vortex tornado. Diana. Several University of Virginia students told how they The University of Oklahoma Storm Chasing Team uses tried to watch the storm come ashore at Cape Hatteras, N.C., guidance from National Weather Service Doppler radars to but it stalled and changed course, crossing the path of the intercept storms as they develop. They carry with them port- amateur storm chasers a day after they returned home. able radiosondes and a large buoy-like instrument package Duncan introduced the host for the evening, Hurtis Smith, which the team tries to place in the path of a tornado to record the Meteorologist-in-Charge of the Richmond NWS Office. meteorological information. Bluestein showed slides of gust Smith described the activities and responsibilities of the Weather fronts, downbursts, dust devils, hail, and lightning. Service Office, and conducted tours of the facilities, including A week before the meeting, Hurricane Diana made landfall demonstrations of the Automation of the Field Operations and near Wilmington, N.C. Being on sabbatical at the National Services system.—Steve Colucci, Acting Secretary-Treasurer Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Re- search Division, Bluestein was able to fly into the storm at its most intense point (949 mb), and at landfall. He surprised the Greater Miami group by showing slides of his trip and of the beautiful eye The annual dinner banquet of the chapter was held in South wall structure of the storm. Miami at the Bodega Restaurant on 13 July. Frank Marks, outgoing chairman, introduced the new officers. They are: Bur- The chapter met on 31 October at WSVN-TV, Channel 7. Wayne ton L. Sylvern, chairman; Wayne Chandler, vice chairman; and Chandler, vice chairman and local weathercaster, and Bob So- Andrew D. Stern, secretary-treasurer. per, WSVN weathercaster, took the group on a tour of the facility. They explained Chromakeys, graphic generators, and satellite receiving equipment. The group toured the news- room, weather office, and the master control room. 'Meeting reports received at headquarters before 14 Decem- Everyone met back on the news set and was given an op- ber 1984 are included. Copy from chapter representatives should portunity to tape a three-minute mock weather segment using be typed double-spaced and submitted to the News Editor in studio props and graphics. Only five of the 30 in attendance duplicate.—News Ed. wanted to make tapes. The group went to a conference room

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/04/21 05:59 AM UTC 206 Vol. 66, No. 2, February 1985 to review and critique the tapes, and watched a videotape of the tropical East Atlantic in 1974, a project that Mower was news bloopers.—Andrew D. Stern, Secretary associated with. At first, Mower confined his remarks to the GATE project and the effects of smaller-scale tropical circulations. He em- Houston phasized squall lines and cloud lines which form ahead of The chapter met on 29 November at the Tides II Restaurant. easterly waves, and described the convection, organization, Chairman David Kuntz introduced the guest speakers, Jerry and transport of cloud clusters. Some clusters were shown on D. Hill and Richard G. Stuff, both of Climate Assesssment satellite image to have multiple components: long narrow lines Technology, Inc. of clouds, distinctive vortex clouds, and broad band cloud com- Hill and Stuff evaluated monthly and seasonal weather out- ponents. Aside from satellite images, cloud cluster structure looks, including a review of the methodology used by the Cli- was illustrated by radar image and a schematic diagram through mate Analysis Center of the National Weather Service to pre- a cloud line. pare the 30-90 day outlooks, a description of the interpretation Mower concluded with research relating to the Asian winter of the probabilistic outlooks with specific applications, a re- monsoon associated with the Siberian High. The High pro- view of the verification statistics of the outlooks for selected duces surges of cold air which propagate into the South China locations, and discussions of current climate trends and the Sea and farther south. He illustrated a current conceptual model official winter 1984-85 temperature and precipitation out- of these cold surges and showed where low-level convergence looks.—Carl C. Arredondo III, Acting Secretary intensified north of Borneo, resulting in cloud clusters which migrated westward, getting smaller as convective activity be- came less. Mower disagrees with this model, and suggests that cloud clusters were generated by a northeast flow from the Milwaukee Philippine Island area, not by increased convective activity The chapter met on 20 November at the University of Wis- associated with cold air surges from the Siberian High.—Edwin consin-Milwaukee Student Union. The featured speaker was J. Dommisse, Secretary Richard Mower, who has done extensive research in tropical meteorology, and who is currently doing research on modeling the Indian winter monsoon at the University of Wisconsin- Sacramento Milwaukee. The first meeting of the 1984-85 year was held on 2 October. Mower showed slides of various geographical and meteor- Kyaw Tha Paw of the University of California at Davis gave ological aspects of the Dakar, Senegal area in Africa. Dakar an overview of the relationships between life and meteorology, was the headquarters for the Global Atmospheric Research including air pollution, agriculture, environmental physiol- Program Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) conducted in ogy, and aerobiology. Applications were cited, as in plant and animal survival and production, animal and human comfort, and integrated pest management. Lyle R. Chinkin, who was elected secretary-treasurer for 1984-85, has taken a position out of the area. Freeman R. XOnDAR III Smith was elected to replace him. provides 3 axis wind data The second meeting of the year was held on 6 November. Bryan C. Weare of the University of California at Davis brought the with ONLY 1 antenna chapter up to date on the latest thinking on the causes and effects of the El Nino situation in the tropical Pacific. A weak warming of the surface waters along the Peruvian coast occurs almost annually, but now the name El Nino is mainly applied to the large warmings of the tropical Pacific that may reach thousands of miles into the central Pacific. Associated with the El Nino is a change or reversal in the sea level pressure gradient between the western and eastern Pacific known as the southern oscillation. A detailed understanding of these interrelationships will be useful in long range forecast- ing.—Freeman R. Smith, Secretary-Treasurer

San Jose State University Student XonTech's Doppler acoustic radar offers a breakthrough in size, The chapter hosted the 15 November meeting of the Northern weight and portability • This unattended system provides exten- California chapter. The joint meeting was preceded by a dinner sive real-time remote wind data • 9 dB more acoustic power for at the University Club. The meeting consisted of a short brief- greater range • Enhanced FFT signal processing and PC advan- tages • Look to XonTech for the latest in technology, ing and announcements. James Goodridge, retired California state climatologist, spoke on urban-rural temperature differ- FOR AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE, CALL: AMBIENT ANALYSIS, INC. ences in California. The presentation on this rainy night was (303) 442-5305 enlivened by Goodridge's dry sense of humor.—K. Renee Duran, Secretary-Treasurer • XonTech, Inc. 6862 Hayvenhurst Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91406 TWX 910-495-1725

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