TESSA's National Storm Conference on March 8th

[William Reid]

Attention chasers, spotters, and any and all storm enthusiasts:

TESSA's 2008 conference is just over two weeks away. It is free of charge and open to all. See details at

www.tessa.org

and check out the agenda at

http://www.tessa.org/2008nscagenda.html


Thanks!



Bill Reid
[email protected]

 

[William Reid]

TESSA NEWS
For Immediate Release: February 28, 2008
National conference to pay tribute to weather pioneer

ARLINGTON, Texas – Weather pioneer Alan Moller will be recognized for his lifetime contribution to severe weather education at the TESSA National Storm Conference on Saturday, March 8 at Colleyville Center in Colleyville, Texas. Moller, a meteorologist and senior forecaster at the National Weather Service (NWS) in Ft. Worth, established a formal system to train storm spotters more than 30 years ago. His efforts launched a national campaign to train volunteers how to accurately identify and report severe weather threats.

“Al is one of the most influential people in regards to developing storm spotter training,†said Gary Woodall, NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist. “He was the first to bring science into storm spotter training.â€

Trained storm spotters represent the first line of defense for the National Weather Service when severe weather threatens a local area, and act as their “eyes and ears†during those critical moments. They are a critical link in the Integrated Warning System (IWS). “Some significant threats, such as tornadoes, must be confirmed via ground truth information,†said Martin Lisius, Texas Severe Storms Association (TESSA) chairman. “It’s something weather radar simply cannot confirm. Al’s contribution to the community is huge. The storm spotter system currently in place across the country is largely a result of his work, and that system is responsible for saving many lives over the years.â€

Moller’s appearance at the conference will mark the end of his spotter training career. Since 1976, he has presented approximately 1000 training sessions to groups across several states. “He’s going to leave a big void,†said Woodall. “We have talented people on our staff, but he’ll be missed, undoubtedly.â€

The National Storm Conference is expected to draw nearly 500 attendees, including storm spotters, storm chasers, emergency managers, forecasters, researchers, and educators from across the US. The conference will begin with the annual Super Storm Spotter Training Session in the morning, followed by additional presentations by severe weather experts in the afternoon. The conference is free and open to the public.

The Texas Severe Storms Association is a 501(c)3 national non-profit organization dedicated to severe weather education. The group was founded in 1993 and is based in Arlington, Texas. More conference details can be found at the association’s web site, www.tessa.org.

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[William Reid]

Pictures from the 2008 TESSA meeting

Martin Lisius provides some pictures of today's TESSA meeting:

Photo 1----big crowd

Photo 2----Dr. James talking about new giant tornado simulator at Texas tech

Photo 3----Gary Woodall and the 4th annual super storm spotter training session.

Photo 4----Greg Stumpf and his very insightful look into tornado warnings past and present

Photo 5----Greg Thompson before his "dirty little secrets of weather models" presentation...Greg is on the right

 

[James Langford]

Excellent conference! All of the presentations were very well done. The highlight for me was Mike's excellent discussion on the Greensburg storms, as well as Al Moller's presentation and open q&a at the end. I also had a chance to meet a few stormtrack members, and purchase a video of Tim Marshall's.

Thanks TESSA for putting on such a great and informative show!

James

 

[twarner]

Any chance of these presentation being made available online?

 

[Charley Kelly]

It was a good conference again this year. If I recall correctly, I believe parts of the advance training slides could be released in the coming weeks. That being said, it was also stated that anything that might break copyright would likely not make it online unless permission is given by the owner of the material. I dont think any of the presentations beyond the advanced skywarn training will make it due to copyright issues as well as the fact it may be for sale on video. I could be wrong about the conference video of presentations being for sale though.

 

[Melissa Moon]

Like all other events I am sad that I was not able to go...sounded like they were great presentations given by some great presenters. If I still lived in the great state of Tejas, I would have been there.

I do have one question I have to ask (and I sure hope this doesn't open a can of worms haha)....what was up with the decked-out chick escorting the speakers around that I keep hearing about? Was there a purpose for that? Can't say I've ever seen something like that at a weather convention.

 

[scott r currens]

I though she was one of the "weather models" that Greg was refering to in the title of his talk. LOL

 

[Melissa Moon]

I though she was one of the "weather models" that Greg was refering to in the title of his talk. LOL

Haha...nice!!! *budump ching!*

 

[Jonathan Whitehead]

might as well add my 2 cents
sorry for some of the fuzzy pics, my first time trying out my new canon digicam
Heres a few of the pics...yes thats me....being a nerd.

 

[John Cameron]

What happened to the Eric Nguyen tribute that was originally on the agenda?