Mississippi State University’s Chapter of the National Weather Association/American Meteorological Society (NWA/AMS) held its 16th Annual Severe Storms Symposium in Harned Hall on Saturday and Sunday.
The event started each day with a weather discussion provided by two MSU broadcast meteorology students. One of those students was Christana Landress, a senior geoscience major with an emphasis on broadcast meteorology from Buford, Georgia. Landress, who provided her forecast discussion Sunday, said it was an excellent experience.
“We’ve gotten to meet a lot of renowned meteorologists throughout the country,” Landress said. “We’ve talked to broadcasters all the way to the professional track, and being able to have that one-on-one connection with them is something that at a lot of conferences you can’t have.”
After the forecast discussions, a variety of seminars took place, ranging from communication of severe weather hazards to the thought process of a meteorologist when dealing with severe weather.
Each session concluded with a keynote speaker. One of those speakers was Bryan Norcross, a hurricane specialist at TV station WPLG-TV in Miami and The Weather Channel in Atlanta. Norcross said the 2017 hurricane season was an extremely active season.
“There were people that were thinking that maybe the hurricane possibilities have decreased,” Norcross said. “So, the 2017 season kind of stopped that talk, because it was a drastically expensive hurricane season, and it highlighted how vulnerable our coast is.”
Additionally, Norcross said although each of the major hurricanes which made a U.S. landfall, Harvey, Irma and Maria, had their own special characteristics, one of them really stuck out to him.
“The most tragic storm to me was Maria because Maria hit Puerto Rico, and the government was hurricane-fatigued by that time, and it demonstrated what can happen when you don’t have a good enough hurricane plan for the risk of a community,” Norcross said. “Understanding the risk of a community is critical in this case for an island.”
One of the over 120 participants in the symposium was Aubrey Urbanowicz, a TV meteorologist at WHSV-TV in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a graduate of MSU. Urbanowicz said she liked the lineup of speakers at the symposium.
“I really wanted to come out and come back to Mississippi State, and I was thoroughly impressed, not just with the keynotes, but with the additional speakers as well,” Urbanowicz said. “I can’t even pick a favorite, for there were so many captivating and interesting presentations.”
Norcross said he loved his first visit to Starkville and MSU.
“I know many Mississippi State graduates as the program has developed, as lots of really good weathercasters from all over the country have come from Mississippi State,” Norcross said. “So it’s wonderful to be here.”