The Severe Storms Symposium at Mississippi State University this past weekend drew professionals, students and locals.
The conference, held Jan. 17 through Jan. 19 in Bost Extension Center, offered both professionals and the public an opportunity to learn more about severe weather conditions, specifically in the Southeast. This offer came at an opportune time, only two months after the tornado that hit the Golden Triangle area.
“The purpose of the conference was for operational meteorologists to be able to come together to discuss forecasting issues related to weather phenomenon in the Southeast,” said Michael Brown, an assistant professor of geosciences at MSU.
“We have forecasters coming from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., and we’ve got national weather service broadcasters, as well as a number of universities represented besides State,” said Brown. Students came from as far as Arizona State University and the University of Georgia for the event.
The conference began Saturday morning with speakers from various meteorology backgrounds,” said David Nussbaum, an MSU graduate student in broadcast meteorology and coordinator for the event.
Speakers from various weather stations, including the Weather Channel spoke on the tornado as a national event, while others covered it from a more local perspective.
“The main focus we had was the tornado outbreak of Nov. 10, 2002, and that outbreak was the F-3 tornado that hit the W’s [Mississippi University for Women] campus. With that focus we had those three weather services [those of Memphis, Jackson and Birmingham] talk about how they forecasted prior to the event and during the event when they issued warnings,” Nussbaum said.
But the conference not only allowed individuals within the meteorology profession to stay up-to-date with each other, it also provided students with the opportunity to participate. Brown explained that it is important for students because “it will expose them to professions that we cannot always cover in the classroom.”
“It [the conference] is 100 percent student run. So unlike most conferences, it is planned and executed by the students,” said Nussbaum.
The conference included a session open to the general public about tornadoes and offered insight into the weather predictions and warnings.
“We think the open session is important because it will give the national public a better understanding of what takes place behind the scenes,” Brown said.
How many of the general public actually know what goes into the deciding process of what level a storm may be? Brown explained how the public session served to teach the public what actually goes into flashing the warnings across the screens of televisions.
The conference served to teach students, unite meteorologists and inform residents of the decisions behind the scenes in meteorology.