NEWSLETTER National Weather No. 08 – 2 February 2008 Association Bill Read, 2003 NWA President, Selected to be New National Hurricane Center Director ong time NWA member where his duties included Land 2003 President, an assignment as an on- Bill Read has been named board meteorologist with Inside This Edition by National Oceanic and the Hurricane Hunters. He Atmospheric Administration began his career in 1977 with Bill Read Named New National as the next Director of the the National Weather Service Hurricane Director .......................1 National Hurricane Center Test and Evaluation Division in Miami. He served as in Sterling, Va., developed President’s Message ..................... 2 the center’s acting deputy his forecasting skills in Fort director from August 2007 to Photo Courtesy of NOAA Worth and San Antonio, January of this year. Texas; and, served as severe Dr. Roderick Scofield Tropical storms and hurricanes have thunderstorm and flash flood program Scholarship in Meteorology......... 3 frequently played a major role in his leader at the National Weather Service professional life. Bill and his team were headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. NWA Members News .................. 3 at the forefront in July 2003 as Hurricane “Bill brings a wealth of experience Claudette made landfall on the Texas in meteorology and management to this NWA Committee Chairs .............. 4 coast. He also was part of the Hurricane position. He has a clear understanding Liaison Team at the National Hurricane of the needs of staff, the emergency AccuWeather Undergraduate Center in Miami when Hurricane Isabel management community and the public Scholarship ...................................5 came ashore on the Outer Banks of North in fulfilling our mission of saving lives Carolina and raced northeast in September and property,” said Jack Hayes, director 2003. of the NWS. “Bill has a proven track NWA Annual Meeting Details ..... 6 Read was appointed to direct the record of pulling people together – from Houston/Galveston Weather Forecast the forecaster to the Professional Development Office of NOAA’s National Weather emergency manager Opportunities ...............................7 Service in 1992 and led it through the – as severe weather challenges of the NWS modernization and threatens.” News from the Nation’s NWA restructuring program in the mid 1990s. Chapters ....................................... 8 Prior to joining the National Weather Service, Read served in the U.S. Navy, Dates 2 Remember ..................... 8 33rd NWA Annual Meeting Heads to Louisville, Kentucky “Utilizing Our Past to Improve Our Future” Oct. 11 - 16: Annual Meeting June 1: Deadline for abstract submis- sion Aug. 15: Presenters will be notified of abstract disposition Sept. 10: Deadline for NWA discount rate at the Gale House Hotel Louisville, Kentucky Please see page 6 for more details on the annual meeting! President’s Message It was early in the afternoon of May Meteorologists, in particular, seem Fifty-nine people lost their lives on 3, 1999. I was monitoring conditions to take this Pavlovian response to the February 5 despite the heroic actions of across the southern Plains in my extreme through their ability to associate the NWS, broadcasters, first responders capacity as the meteorology training past weather with any function, fortune and medical personnel. How could coordinator at The Weather Channel. or mishap. Yet, it is this handful of truly this happen with the technological Forecasters recognized the potential historic events like March 18, 1925, June advances and training available to us for severe weather in this region of 8, 1953, April 11, 1965, April 3, 1974, in 2008? Several illuminating studies the country but and August 29, 2005 which provoke the conducted on morbidity and mortality remained wary greatest reaction. Will February 5, 2008, in the wake of the May 3, 1999, outbreak of the short- be the newest member of a list we wish indicated that once a tornado warning term guidance would remain empty? was issued, individual response played which was weakly The initial statistics compiled by the a key role in survival. Some pursued supportive Storm Prediction Center indicate the the correct action by taking refuge in of tornadic February 5 severe weather outbreak now the lowest interior room of a home supercells. In ranks in the top 15 deadliest tornadic or building while placing the greatest retrospect, the events of all time (possibly as high as number of walls between themselves strength of the 11th) with at least 59 fatalities. More than and the exterior. Others chose to drive mid-tropospheric 130 reports of tornadoes were received away from the tornado or seek shelter winds and from nine states, some of these exhibiting beneath an overpass. Damage surveys of magnitude of the surface-based extremely long tracks. A damage survey the Moore, OK F5 indicate this tornado instability were poorly represented team from the NOAA/NWS Nashville was in general non-survivable above in the operational model forecasts Forecast Office identified one extreme ground. essentially reducing the derived supercell as being responsible for a One outcome of the national tornado threat. A complicated 140-mile long damage path, and causing assessment report will be an evaluation arrangement of multiple dry lines and the greatest number of fatalities by a of the warning dissemination. It is a differential heating resulting from single storm in their County Warning reasonable to assume that devastating persistent cloudiness further enhanced Area in 75 years. A B737 aircraft sitting tornadoes will occur in the future that the complexity of the pre-storm on the tarmac at Memphis International are non-survivable above ground. It is environment. Convective initiation Airport was moved one foot by a tornadic also reasonable to assume that these will occurred earlier than anticipated and supercell that traversed the city. The be well forecast with warnings relayed. supported several long-lived tornadic severe storms were accompanied by large Survivability then becomes an issue supercells with tragic consequences in hail, including four reports of hail the size of communicating that warning, and central Oklahoma and southern Kansas. of softballs – 4.25 inches in diameter! educating the public to respond in a Nearly 10,000 buildings were damaged We will learn much more about this timely and correct manner, regardless of or destroyed in Oklahoma’s Oklahoma incredible event when the national whether the setting is rural or urban. and Cleveland counties, accompanied by assessment team Our society is characterized by a 46 fatalities and injuries to more than publishes their growing population increasingly at 600. report. The risk for severe, if not catastrophic The May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak National Weather weather. The challenge to left behind staggering statistics and Association can be protect life and property a date that is etched forever in the exceptionally proud will only increase, thus it consciousness of its victims. It remains of its NWS members behooves us to understand an equally poignant moment for those of who exhibited the greatest better the societal response us who were involved in forecasting the level of professionalism in to threatening weather. Our event, the dissemination of watches and issuing timely watches, public chosen theme for the 2008 warnings, the post-event assessments as information statements and life-saving NWA Annual Meeting of “Utilizing well as the first responders, emergency warnings as this tragic event unfolded. Our Past to Improve Our Future” is managers and the medical staff who Many members, including John Gordon well positioned to address several of worked to save lives and comfort the (MIC-Louisville) and Past-President the topics I alluded to here. I hope you injured. The NOAA/NWS Forecast Alan Gerard (MIC-Jackson, Miss.) will will consider joining us in Louisville Office in Norman, Okla., was awarded continue to be involved in post-event in October for what promises to be a the Gold Medal by the U.S. Department surveys and assessments. Kudos to our stimulating gathering. of Commerce for its heroic efforts, broadcast meteorologists who delivered I encourage you to contact me with issuing 116 county warnings in 10 hours critical information to their local viewing your suggestions, ideas, ramblings, and accompanied by an average tornado audience with calming assurance. I of course, concerns at President@nwas. warning lead time of 18 minutes. congratulate each one of you for a job org. I look forward to hearing from you! Dates like May 3, 1999, endure well done. No doubt the death toll would through time because of the nearly have been even greater without your John Scala visceral acknowledgement they elicit. outstanding efforts. President 2 National Weather Association ~ www.nwas.org ANNOUNCING: The Dr. Roderick A. Scofield Scholarship in Meteorology Thanks to a generous donation from Mrs. Joyce Scofield and other family members of the late Dr. Roderick A. Scofield (1942-2006), this NWA scholarship opportunity is being offered to aspiring meteorologists for the second year. Applications for this year’s Scofield scholarship must Offering: One scholarship per year of $1000. The NWA may ask the winner of the be submitted to the NWA Scofield Scholarship to present research work at a local or annual NWA meeting; the Office, postmarked by NWA may provide additional funding for required travel and accommodations for such a presentation. May 15, 2008. Administration: The scholarship selection is administered by the NWA Education About Dr. Roderick Committee. The NWA office announces the call for applications in February each year. Arthur Scofield Applications for 2008 must be postmarked by May 15, 2008 and sent to the Dr. Roderick Scofield was born NWA Office. The scholarship designee will be notified in late-June. in Louisville, Ky., in 1942. A charter member of the NWA, Rod rose to be Eligibility: Undergraduate and/or graduate students. Undergraduates must be elected its president for the year 2000. classified at least as a junior for the semester beginning in September 2008.