Winter/Spring 2019 • Volume 1, Issue 2 The University of Oklahoma Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies Newsletter A Letter From the Director Training provides forecasters tools for better decision making NOAA National Weather Service forecasters now have updated I am happy to be training available on demand to help them provide critical informa- writing the Director’s tion when floods threaten the areas they serve. letter for the second The NWS Warning Decision Training Division, also known as newsletter of the WDTD, recently updated the Warning Operations Course Flash Cooperative Institute Flood Track. Warning Operations Courses, or WOCs, are extensions of Mesoscale to WDTD’s Radar & Applications Course — a rigorous curriculum Meteorological Studies. with more than 65 hours of online lessons culminating in a week- It is hard to believe long workshop in Norman, Oklahoma. that I have been CIMMS Director The WOCs provide more advanced training in several focus director of CIMMS for Greg McFarquhar areas: severe weather, winter weather, flash flooding and forecaster well over one year now and am still decision-making. incredibly energized by all the exciting * Forecaster training story continued on page 6. activities going on and planned within CIMMS. In this newsletter, we are celebrating the CIMMS researcher receives AMS awards of some staff members, recounting Editor’s Award our amazing celebration of the 40th anniversary of CIMMS and the first work- The American Meteorological Society shop on predictability and uncertainty, honored 2019 award and honor recipients updating you about our presence at the during its 99th Annual Meeting in January. recent annual meeting of the American Among those named was CIMMS Meteorological Society, where we had more Researcher Kimberly Klockow-McClain. than 60 employees attend, talking about our Klockow-McClain received an Editor’s new online video describing the work of Award for Weather Climate and Society for CIMMS, and highlighting the establishment her “insightful, constructive, and extremely of a Diversity and Inclusion Committee knowledgeable reviews.” within CIMMS. Working with NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, her research involves Further, we have our usual features Kim Klockow-McClain giving profiles of CIMMS staff members, behavioral science focused on weather and including highlighting one CIMMS climate risk, especially issues in the communication of forecast employee who works in another state and uncertainty and hazardous weather warnings. introducing our first winner of the Peter She received her bachelor of science degrees in meteorology and Lamb PostDoctoral Fellowship Award. As economics with concentrations in communication and psychology. always, I hope you enjoy hearing about our She received her master of science degree in professional meteo- activities and please feel free to forward rology with an economics concentration and a doctorate in human contributions for future newsletters. geography. * Read more about AMS on page 5 cimms.ou.edu • [email protected] • (405) 325-3041 Winter/Spring 2019 • Volume 1, Issue 2 Our 40th Anniversary Celebration in November Other activities completed in the second half of 2018 was well attended by both those inside and out- 2018 include the reorganization of CIMMS into side of CIMMS. CIMMS has promoted collaborative different teams, the establishment of a mentoring research between NOAA and University of Oklahoma program for interested employees and the completion scientists for the last 40 years on issues designed to of a Workplace Culture Survey. help produce better forecasts and warnings to I’ve also had the opportunity to travel to Beijing ultimately protect lives and property, and enhance in November 2018 in efforts to start discussions for economic viability. Presentations made by current and enhanced collaborations with the Institute of previous CIMMS employees included such topics as Atmospheric Physics and other organizations there. the history of CIMMS, radar Look for more details about these activities in meteorology and engineering, subsequent newsletters. We will be storm-scale modeling, forecast and continuing similar activities in the spring, warning, CIMMS role in field along with trying to quantify the benefits campaigns and societal impacts. of CIMMS to the NOAA mission using Discussion about future CIMMS ac- various metrics that have been established tivities also took place, and a poster by the directors of the Cooperative session and reception allowed lots Institutes. And, of course, the spring of time for informal interactions. always brings the excitement of weather, Another activity we sponsored in which is reflected in the spring the fall of 2018 was to conduct the experiments at NOAA’s Hazardous first CIMMS workshop on Weather Testbed. “Uncertainty in Radar Retrievals, In the meantime, please enjoy the Model Parameterizations, and description of our activities in this news- Assimilated Data and In-situ Rex Inman providing a tour of sev- letter. Here we profile staff members Observations: Implications for the eral radars on NSSL’s former North Temple Lee, the Peter Lamb Predictability of Weather.” This Campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Post-Doctoral Fellow Cassandra workshop brought together graduate (Photo from Sooner Magazine) Williams-Shivers and several award students, postdoctoral fellows and winners. senior researchers working in the atmospheric sciences We also feature work being conducted by CIMMS at United States and international universities, as well research associates in the National Weather Service as government laboratories, to discuss how Warning Decision Training Division. They provide uncertainties affect the predictability of weather. training for NWS forecasters. The extensive Future strategies for reducing the uncertainties and curriculum in their courses is ever-evolving. Learn better understanding their impacts were discussed in what is new in their course and the impact for NWS in the second day of the workshop in a series of our newsletter. breakout sessions. In summary, I am once again happy to renew An article is currently being prepared for the connections with our staff members, alumni, collab- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society highlighting orators and friends and to share the excitement of all the findings, and future workshops on the impacts of the activities we have ongoing at CIMMS. We welcome the Arctic on lower latitudes and on landfalling updates from you all and hope to have an Alumni hurricanes are under preparation. Corner soon so you can communicate what you are I’d also like to note that we have welcomed 11 up to: if you are a former member of CIMMS, please new graduate research assistants and 26 new full-time take a few minutes to email us and update us on your employees since July 2018 and currently CIMMS has activities. another 12 open positions. - Greg McFarquhar, CIMMS Director 2 cimms.ou.edu • [email protected] • (405) 325-3041 Winter/Spring 2019 • Volume 1, Issue 2 Working to improve forecast models: Q&A with Temple Lee The Cooperative Institute for I also like that I am able to work on a variety of tasks Mesoscale Meteorological and no day is the same — some days I’ll be writing Studies at the University of computer code or reviewing a paper, whereas on other Oklahoma is highlighting those days I’m out in the field launching weather balloons. CIMMS researchers outside the National Weather Center in Q: Tell us something that might surprise us about Norman, Oklahoma. you. Temple Lee is a CIMMS A: I did wilderness search and rescue for eight years and research scientist based in Oak was a volunteer emergency medical technician for three Ridge, Tennessee, where his work years. This work made me briefly consider becoming a Temple Lee supports NOAA’s Air Resources physician, but my interest in the weather won out. Laboratory’s Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division. Lee completed his Q: What one day sticks out to you during your ca- doctorate from the University of Virginia in 2015. reer? Do you remember one day in particular detail? For his research, Lee uses observations from surface A: Having done lots of field work, both during graduate towers, small unmanned aircraft systems - also known school and now as a research scientist, I can think of as drones - and weather balloons, as well as sophisti- several days that stick out, both for good reasons and cated high-resolution models of the atmosphere. The bad reasons! However, the day I received my doctorate goal is to improve scientific understanding of processes degree still sticks out the most -- seeing years of hard occurring within Earth’s atmospheric boundary layer work finally pay off was very gratifying. -- roughly the first mile of Earth’s atmosphere. Knowl- edge gained from his work can improve weather forecast Q: Where is your favorite place to be? models, ultimately resulting in better weather forecasts. A: The Outer Banks of North Carolina — my family had a cottage there while I was growing up, so I have Q: How did you get into your field? many fond memories of playing in the ocean and A: I have had a passion for weather since the age of catching blue crabs off our dock. three when I would watch the local news out of Washington, D.C., for hours just so I could see the weather guy come on television. I also fondly recall Temple Lee during getting excited about big northeast snowstorms (the the Verification of the 1993 Superstorm and Blizzard of 1996 particularly stick Origins of Rotation out, when we received nearly three feet of snow at my in Tornadoes EXper- parents’ house in northwestern Virginia), and awaiting iment-Southeast, or VORTEX-SE, project advisories from the National Hurricane Center so that in Alabama in 2017. I could plot the latest hurricane coordinates onto my Here he was preparing hurricane tracking chart. Those things, coupled with the Graw radiosonde receiving a Davis Weather Monitor II weather station package for a compar- when I was 10 (best Christmas gift ever!), cemented my ison flight.