[AMS-SMC] AMS Smoky Mountain meeting announcement

[Logan, Joanne]

When - Monday, Sep 22 (yes, the 4th Monday instead of the third!)

 

Dinner at Calhoun's at 5:45 - please RSVP if you plan to attend

 

Meeting starting at 7:30 on Ag Campus, Plant Biotech Building (across
street from our former meeting place) Rm 160 (Rm Number may  change - I
will let you know)

 

I will pass out parking passes at dinner and at the entrance of the Lot
60 parking lot (the one on the right at the top of the hill).

 

Speaker is David Hotz, The Science and Operations Office at the NWS
Office in Morristown

 

Bio:

He received a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Meteorology from Purdue
University in 1986.  He started as a COOP student in 1985-86 working for
the Climate Analysis Center at Washington, DC.  From 1986-87, he was a
meteorologist intern at the Weather Service Office at Blountville,
Tennessee.  From 1987-1990, he transferred to the Agricultural Weather
Service Office at the Stoneville, Mississippi experiment station.  He
was an agricultural weather forecaster producing forecast for Tennessee,
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. By late 1990, he transferred to
the Weather Forecast Office at Amarillo, Texas as a general forecaster.
His main responsibilities were issuing warning and forecast for the
Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles.  He was also the Agricultural Weather
Program Manager for the office.   By late 1994,he moved to the Weather
Forecast Office at Morristown, Tennessee as a general forecaster issuing
warning and forecasts for east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and
southwest North Carolina.  He became a senior forecaster in 1998, then
the science and operations officer in 2005.  As the science and
operations officer, he is responsible for keeping the staff trained on
the latest science of meteorology, software, etc.  He also leads the
office staff in improving our forecast operations through research and
software development.

 

Summary of talk:

Microbursts are small downbursts, less than 4km in outflow size, with
peak winds lasting only 2 to 5 minutes. They can be classified as micro
or macro-bursts, and also either wet or dry microbursts (Fuita, 1985).
All microbursts are characterized by a vertical downrush of air with a
divergent outflow at its base.   Strong, concentrated downdrafts from
convective showers and thunderstorms (downbursts; Fujita 1985) have
caused a number of commercial passenger jets to crash on attempted
takeoffs and landings (see also Fujita and Byers 1977; Fujita and
Caracena 1977).  Microbursts also pose hazards to small sailboats that
are capsized by sudden-shifting, strong winds, and to those fighting
forest fires, who may be suddenly engulfed in a fire storm fanned up in
an unexpected direction by a microburst.

 

Most origin theories credit thermodynamic factors with microburst
creation. Wolfson (1983) contends that microbursts result from
dynamically induced vertical pressure gradients that are intrinsic
characteristics of strong mesocyclone circulation.   There are several
forecasting tools and techniques to determ ine the potential of
microbursts, such as WINDEX and looking for mid-level dry air.  Doppler
radar is the primary tool for detecting and observing microbursts.

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