Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium: Recent Episodes
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
This Storm Spotter Training Workshop is the official training session for our Lancaster County Storm Spotters. However, even if you are not one of the county storm spotters, we highly encourage you, your family and your friends to attend and to become better prepared for the severe weather that visits our area. There will be many interesting videos and photos shown by the speaker.
Mike Olbinski is a photographer and filmmaker specializing in the raw power of nature. He chases storms across the United States, capturing incredible supercells, tornadoes, dust storms and lightning. His work has won an Emmy and has been featured in work by Marvel (Thor: The Dark World), Discovery, ESPN, Nat Geo, and dozens of others in the industry.
His work has been viewed by millions of people around the world (over 5 million alone on Vimeo) and he has received several honors/ rewards at internationally-acclaimed film festivals. He has perfected the art of storm timelapse in a way no other storm chaser or photographer has done, and is leading the way in high-speed weather animation and film-making. See link: https://vimeo.com/174312494
Zach Sharpe, one of the rising stars in weather social media, has been storm chasing for over 10 years and works year-round as a Storm Chaser for KCCI Television Des Moines. He has covered several tornadoes, historic blizzards with thundersnow and a hurricane live on KCCI. He also serves as the President of the Iowa Storm Chasing Network. He has appeared on The Discovery Channel, Fox News, and featured in the Red Bull Television Series "Heart and Hands: Beyond the Job." Zach is passionate about the dissemination of real time and accurate weather information without allowing shares, likes, or hype to influence a forecast. Please join Zach and special guests as he takes you into the world of social media/ online marketing, and explains how positive and accurate commutation of weather hazards can truly make a difference in your community.
Even if you are not a trained storm spotter, come to this event and learn important storm information, watch storm video clips, and be better prepared to survive the storms.
This is required training necessary for someone to be a Lancaster County, Nebraska, certified Storm Spotter.
Tornadic Winds: In-situ and Radar measurements at Low levels (TWIRL). His talk will present some chase cases where our group deployed instrumented pods in the paths of tornadoes. These data can be correlated with wind speeds that the Doppler On Wheels was measuring. That way, we can get an idea of what the wind profile of a tornado looks like.
Jack Williams, USA Today and The American Meteorological Society, “The Ultimate Guide to America's Weather”
Climate Focal Point, NWS, Omaha. "Nebraska Severe Weather, 2009 and Looking Ahead to 2010"
Greg Carbin: Warning Coordination Meteorologist, Storm Prediction Center. "Top Ten Weather Events of the Past Ten Years"
Scott Blair, National Weather Service, Topeka, Tornadoes Impacting Interstates: Service and Societal Considerations... stay in your car or head to the ditch?
Vince Miller: Prairiescapes Photo Tours. "Photographing the Weather and Scenery of the Great Plains
Brian is the warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service Forecast Office, Omaha/Valley. Brian manages the warning preparedness, public outreach, spotter training program, severe weather, public forecast, and damage survey programs in the Omaha/Valley NWS office.
Barbara Mayes is the “Climate Focal Point” at the Omaha/Valley National Weather Service Office. Barbara will review the severe weather events of Year 2010 and put them into climatological context.
Adam Houston is an assistant Professor in the UNL Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who specializes in severe weather research. Adam is the principal investigator for a UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) project within the larger VORTEX2 2010 and 2011 field experiment.
Tim Marshall is an engineer and meteorologist with Haag Engineering Company in Dallas, Texas where he surveys building damage in the wake of severe storms.