Went to the 2006 spring conference in Lawrence

[fplowman]

Greetings all, B)

Went to the conference.. It went well. Got to visit with John Davies and Shawna Helt again. Nice folks.. Also had the opportunity to meet Mike Peregrine. Enjoyed that. Didnt get the opportunity to say hello to Mike Umscheid which I appologize for... All in all it was informative and fun.. Mike P. did a good job speaking.

I think its more chaser oriented than your usual storm spotter class.. Its longer of course.. Mike Umscheid had slide after slide after slide of great storm structure pics which he went over in great detail. I found that useful.. Chris Novy had a polished presentation.



In the future I think it would be nice to put together a class that gives us detailed explanation of the RUC models etc.. A laymens course "if thats possible" which i think it is, so that we may learn more about forecasting on our own.

I have seen John Davies give a "Cold Core" presentation. I feel this is a step in the right direction for the kind of course(s) I think would interest and benefit a large number of us "amateurs". It would be nice to see a discussion on putting something like that together if it could ever be organized. I know we all have busy lives..

When I seen Johns presentaion on Cold Core setups I feel it was not a presentation that was speaking above my head. When I went to the 2006 Chaser Convention in Denver I am not afraid to admit that many of the speakers, not all.. But many of them were speaking way above my head. They assumed I had a 4 - 6 year degree in meteorology. Lol

What do others think? Especially those we would ask for their valuable time to teach us "amatuers" the important aspects of forecasting. Many of these folks have been chasing and forecasting for 10 - 20 years or more and there is alot to learn from them.

This will be my 5th season chasing and I still for the most part rely on others forecasts to put me in the vicinity of where I want to be.
Fred

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Just noticed this post ... thanks Fred. It was great to meet you too.

It would be great to get some more detailed forecast analysis from the mets ... and some years the training session in Lawrence will go into some pretty detailed meteorological analysis from either Mike U. or Jon Davies or one of the NWS folks. This year seemed to be focused more on safety and actual spotting method, including photography (which I thought was cool) ... sometimes the detailed meteorology goes over the heads of the average spotter in attendance (I know it usually flies straight over the top of mine). So a basic discussion of model analysis versus actual obs on 'day one' would be awesome, I agree. I'll email your suggestion to the Douglas Co. folks and that might be something to reserve for future sessions.

Most spotters just want to know why they are being activated (or figure out how to anticipate days they might be activated using the SPC convective outlooks) ... and then figure out the best ways to go about doing their jobs once their net is active. For chasers, more details concerning the meteorology are valuable. I'd suggest attending one of Tim V.'s sessions at a chaser convention near you. And also picking up his chaser handbook on the subject in the meantime.

 

[fplowman]

Just noticed this post ... thanks Fred. It was great to meet you too.

It would be great to get some more detailed forecast analysis from the mets ... and some years the training session in Lawrence will go into some pretty detailed meteorological analysis from either Mike U. or Jon Davies or one of the NWS folks. This year seemed to be focused more on safety and actual spotting method, including photography (which I thought was cool) ... sometimes the detailed meteorology goes over the heads of the average spotter in attendance (I know it usually flies straight over the top of mine). So a basic discussion of model analysis versus actual obs on 'day one' would be awesome, I agree. I'll email your suggestion to the Douglas Co. folks and that might be something to reserve for future sessions.

Most spotters just want to know why they are being activated (or figure out how to anticipate days they might be activated using the SPC convective outlooks) ... and then figure out the best ways to go about doing their jobs once their net is active. For chasers, more details concerning the meteorology are valuable. I'd suggest attending one of Tim V.'s sessions at a chaser convention near you. And also picking up his chaser handbook on the subject in the meantime.
[/b]

Yes sir,

And thank you, pleasure meeting you as well.

I do have Tims book and have an eye on one of his classes. I realize that class in Lawrence is more geared towards spotters which I really am not.

I was suggesting though a laymens class for us chasers.. I think we could at least pull in half as many as Denver maybe more... And tailor it moreso towards intermediate - experienced chasers.

Not to be arrogant but the regular spotter training classes kind of puts me to sleep anymore.. The advanced class like this year and in 2005 is worth the trip though. I would like to see something similiar covering the information outlined..

Thanks for the reply,

Fred