Omaha-Offutt AMS

American Bistro, Bellevue, Nebraska

6 October 2008

Guest Speaker:  Ken Mylne, UK Met Office

Item 1:

Chapter president Evan Kuchera made several announcements about upcoming chapter meetings.  The guest speaker for the November 18^th meeting will be Michael Shonka from Solar Heat and Electric of Omaha at the Ralston Spaghetti works.

The December meeting guest will be Greg Carbin from the Storm Prediction Center.  This year, Mr. Carbin requested financial support for a rental car and lodging, as this year he will not be in the area for business related task.  President Kuchera proposed that the chapter allocate $150 to give to Mr. Carbin.  One chapter member noted that having Mr. Carbin come speak to the chapter is well worth the $150, and probably worth more than that.  The chapter voted unanimously to allocate the funds to Mr. Carbin.

Item 2:

Chapter vice president Steve Augustyn proposed that the chapter have a student presentation night for the February chapter meeting, primarily to encourage more student participation in chapter activities.  Steve requested for 3 volunteers from the chapter to serve on a selection committee to determine which 3 student abstracts will be selected for presentation, and additionally to judge the presentations at the February meeting, and determine which presentation would receive the monetary reward.  The monetary award would total $250 and would go towards the registration and lodging costs for a local conference (WAF, Iowa Severe Storms Conference, etc).  Dr. John Zapotocny, Dr. Jay Martinelli, and Mr. Al Ronn volunteered to be the judges. 

The chapter unanimously voted to pursue the student night proposal and allocate the $250 reward.

Item 3:

Chapter treasurer Becky Selin informed that the chapter account balance was $2110.03.  The chapter took in $300 towards the weather station that will be donated to the new AFWA building during the chapter picnic.

Item 4:

Chapter member Bruce Telfeyan gave an update on the WAF conference plans.

The 23^rd WAF conference is scheduled to be held from 1 June through 5 June 2009 at the Double Tree Hotel.  A call for papers will appear on the AMS website in about 2 weeks, and there will also be a call for papers in the November issue of BAMS.  This conference will be the first ever to be jointly sponsored by the AMS and the NWA.  One of the sessions will be a student session.  Bruce mentioned that planners were looking for contacts regarding nighttime activities.

Item 5:

The chapter received $300 towards the donation of a weather station to the new AFWA building.  It was noted that not very many people donated, but those that did donate did so quite generously.  Members who had not donated were encouraged to do so.  Those wishing to make donations should visit either Becky or Steve to make their contribution.

Item 6:

President Kuchera noted that the membership numbers at the picnic were a bit low at the picnic.  Chapter participation seems to be waning a bit, and all members were encourage to continue being active in chapter activities.  It was noted that other chapters are looking towards the Omaha-Offutt chapter on how to be successful, and members should be proud of our great chapter.

Evan also announced that our chapter made the AMS chapter honor roll this year.

Guest Speaker:

Guest Speaker Ken Mylne from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office.

My Mylne gave a presentation discussing how the UKMET office uses ensemble models to better understand forecast uncertainty.

Mr. Mylne’s presentation began with a brief history of the UKMet office, being founded in 1854 as part of the Ministry of Defense.  Mr. Mylne also noted that the UKMet office is the only weather service for the UK, thus gaining several efficiencies over a multi-office approach used in the US.

Mr. Mylne then briefly explained ensembles as a way to address forecast uncertainty/risk in an objective manner.  Mr. Mylne then proceeded to generally describe the multiple ensembles run by the UKMet office, and gave a few brief introductions on how the UKMet office creates the initial model perturbations that  create the ensembles.

The evening concluded with the presentation of an AMS umbrella to Mr. Mylne by president Kuchera.

Scott Rentschler, Recording Secretary