Here's a summary of our Saturday, April 25 Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar presentations.  No tickets are required!  Just come to Fermilab in Batavia--but we suggest arriving early!  Seating is on a first come, first-served basis.  The seminar is presented at noon--then repeated in its entirely at 6pm.  Enter the Fermlab grounds via the west entrance off Kirk Road!  Hope to see you there!

Dr. Louis Uccellini, Director of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), National Weather Service

    "Advancing the Prediction of Extreme Weather Events"

    Few people in this country's meteorological community have played as key a role in overseeing the spectacular advances which have made possible today's remarkably accurate tracking and prediction of severe weather across the entire U.S. than Dr. Louis Uccellini.  He was named director of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction--or simply NCEP as it is called in the weather profession--when the agency was formed in 1999 and has occupied its top spot since.  NCEP's role in making possible the weather forecasts you routinely see and hear each day across this country can't be overstated.  The data and forecasts NCEP disseminates, including the entire range of computer weather forecast models it is charged with developing and running on computers capable of trillions of mathematical computations each second, are at the heart of EVERY weather forecast and warning for severe weather issued in the United States by government and private agencies--including those we hear on radio and television or read online and in our newspapers.  That's why Dr. Uccellini's presentation on plans underway at NCEP to increase the "lead time" over which serious severe weather events can be anticipated by employing SETS of computer model predictions known as "ensembles"--rather than a single computer projection--promises to be such a fascinating presentation.  He will explain what these ensemble forecasts are and how they are prepared at NCEP and why such ensemble forecasts are the wave of the future in weather forecasting.  Ensemble forecasts are already in use within the meteorological profession, but few outside the field of meteorology may be aware of what they are and how valuable they are to those who forecast the weather each day.  Louis' presentation will pay special attention to the use of these ensembles in predicting severe storms and, as one who has dedicated his remarkable career to spreading the word on the advances in the meteorological profession which have led to steady advances in the quality and accuracy of weather forecasts and warnings, he will take your questions.  From tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hurricanes and floods to the cold and heat waves which regularly challenge the lives of millions across the country, it is the work of the scientists under Dr. Uccellini's direction at NCEP which have made possible advances in the accuracy in today's weather forecasts and the increased lead times of warnings of life-threatening storms.  Among the agencies under Dr. Uccellini's direction are the Storm Prediction Center, the National Hurricane Center, the Climate Prediction Center, the Aviation Prediction Center, the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, the Environmental Modeling Center and NCEP Operations, which runs the mind-bogglingly complex computer models you hear those of us in the weather profession refer to so often.

Dr. Joe Schaefer, Director of the Storm Prediction Center, responsible for all of the country's tornado and severe thunderstorm watches and for issuing wildfire forecasts

    "What is New at the Storm Prediction Center"

    The task before the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is an immense one--to issue the watches everywhere in the U.S. which warn of impending severe thunderstorm and tornado outbreaks and pinpoint the period of time in which they threaten.  For more than a decade, we've been honored to have Dr. Joe Schaefer as a speaker at our seminars.  To put it mildly, Joe has been an audience favorite.  The staffs of few agencies in our government have played a more important role than the scientists under Joe's direction at SPC in preparing the population of this country for the onslaught of one of its most horrifying meteorological events--the tornado and severe thunderstorm.  Much has changed at the Storm Prediction Center and its mission has been expanded to include the prediction of the devastating wildfires which have filled our news programs and newspapers in recent years.  A tireless messenger about the threat severe weather poses across the U.S., Dr. Schaefer gives us a first hand look at the fascinating advances which have led to the most accurate advance storm guidance ever produced in this country.

Ed Fenelon, Meteorologist in Charge of the National Weather Service-Forecast Office-Chicago

    "The National Weather Service's StormReady Supporter Program: How can your business, school, hospital, place of worship, sports venue, or any place people gather be prepared for a severe storm?"

    This country is the most severe-weather prone on Earth.  Each year, a mind-boggling 10,000 thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,200 tornadoes and an average of two landfalling deadly hurricanes affect the U.S. Winter storms, intense summer heat, high winds and other deadly meteorological events impact the country.  By becoming a StormReady community, your hometown will be better prepared to respond to these acts of nature.  Ed Fenelon, who heads the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chicago, will be on hand to tell you how your community can become involved in the agency's StormReady program and be better able to weather future storms.

Tim Halbach, Forecaster, National Weather Service Forecast Office-Chicago

    "Last summer's devastating and lightning intensive August 4 Northern Illinois and Indiana Derecho"

    It's the squall line which sent fans at Wrigley Field scrambling to the popular facility's lower level for the first time in memory and which hit the area with devastating winds while unleashing an estimated 11,000 cloud to ground lightning strikes.  It's lightning display alone was among the most awesome ever witnessed here--and we've had some spectacular ones over the years.  No one who experienced last August 4's squall line is likely to forget it.  It produced wind damage from one corner of the Chicago area to the other, generating twisters in the process.  This memorable severe weather outbreak is the subject of a terrific presentation by meteorologist Tim Halbach, forecaster in the Chicago National Weather Service Forecast Office.  How did it happen and what were the atmospheric conditions which produced it?  Tim has the answers.

Jim Allsopp, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Forecast Office, Chicago

    "Getting the warning out:  A behind the scenes look at how tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings are issued at the Chicago NWS Office"

    You see the warning crawls we run across the bottom of your television screen when tornadoes and severe thunderstorms approach and you hear the warnings on radio.  But have you ever wondered just what goes on behind the scenes at the National Weather Service to produce those warnings?  Longtime Fermilab Tornado and Severe Storm Seminar participant and tireless storm spotter trainer and coordinator Jim Allsopp joins us for a fascinating look at the tornado warning process.  Jim will tell us how reports of storms reach the National Weather Service and give us a look at the spotters, ham radio operators and others who along with meteorologists who track these storms on the incredibly sensitive Doppler radar work hard to get you the first word that a potentially devastating storm is on the way.

Brian Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist and seminar co-founder, National Weather Service Forecast Office-Omaha, Nebraska

    "Any wind can kill!"

    The rotating winds of tornadoes aren't the only killers in severe thunderstorms.  The straightline winds which gush so powerfully from these storms can be--and often are--just as deadly as their swirling counterparts.  Brian Smith, who first approached me with the suggestion of starting an annual seminar to educate the public about severe weather nearly three decades ago and current Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Omaha, Nebraska, tells us that deadly winds with thunderstorms take more than one form.  Brian worked for years with tornado researcher Dr.Ted Fujita at the University of Chicago and has surveyed the aftermath of severe storms for the past three decades.

Dr. Walker Ashley, Meteorology Professor, Northern Illinois University-DeKalb

    "Tornadoes: Fatalities Associated with Nature's Most Intense Windstorms"

    Deadly tornado events are compiled and examined since 1880 in order to assess region-specific vulnerabilities in the United States. Most tornado fatalities occur in the lower-Arkansas, Tennessee, and lower-Mississippi River valleys of the southeastern United States--a region outside of traditional "tornado alley."  Analyses of tornado frequency, land cover, mobile home density, population density, and nocturnal tornado probabilities demonstrates that the relative maximum of fatalities in the Deep South and minimum in the Great Plains may be due to the unique combination of both physical and social vulnerabilities.  The spatial distribution of these killer tornadoes suggests that the above the national average mobile home density and nocturnal tornado probabilities in the Southeast may be a key reasons for the fatality maximum found in this area.

Dr.Mary Ann Cooper. MD, longtime Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago

    "Lightning strikes can kill--but also forever change the lives of their surviving victims"

    We know lightning is deadly. But even for those who survive a lightning strike, life is never the same.  Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, whose groundbreaking research and treatment of those struck by lightning, explains what happens to the human body when lightning strikes and advises how not to become one of its victims.  Dr. Cooper likes to say that a lightning strike does to the human body what a severe electrical surge does to a computer, forever altering its function in all too devastating ways.  A longtime Fermilab seminar participant and frequent participant in programs on the wonders and horrors of lightning, Dr. Cooper is a favorite among our Fermilab audiences.  You'll see why on Saturday, April 25.

Tom Skilling, Chief meteorologist, WGN-TV-Moderator and presenter

    "We came so close to a disaster in September, 2006: The Loyola University tornado touchdown on Chicago's North Side"

    Tom Skilling will share with our Fermilab audience a series on Chicago tornadoes which aired on WGN and look at a dramatic tornado touchdown on the Loyola University campus in September 2008.  The supercell thunderstorm responsible for that twister first formed over the Fermilab grounds then proceeded east/northeast across scores of heavily populated communities, the Tri State Expressway in rush hour, right over O'Hare's main terminal then across Chicago's North Side before producing a tornado touchdown captured on video on the Loyola University's Lake Michigan campus before roaring out over the lake.  Doppler radar scans indicated an ominous circulation along much of its 40 mile track, indicating it could have generated a tornado much earlier.  The incident underscores this area's vulnerability to a tornado disaster.

This Severe Weather Seminar is free and open to the public and includes multimedia presentations from many forecasters, researchers, and noted personalities from the meteorological world.

Everyone with an interest in understanding severe weather should come to this year's seminar and take part in this wonderful learning experience, but arrive early as seating is limited!

See Tom's complete bio here.