Road Weather News from Paul Pisano

Paul Pisano, Chair of the AMS Committee on Intelligent Transportation Systems / Surface Transportation , and Team Leader of the Road Weather Management Program at the Federal Highway Administration provides this update (20 December 2007):

Clarus Initiative Coordinating Committee,

Here are a few Road Weather news items that I would like to share with you:

The Clarus Regional Demonstration continues to move forward. The 3 multi-state teams are diligently working on their Concepts of Operation (ConOps), which will describe road weather management strategies that use the quality-checked observations coming from the Clarus system. Eight State DOTs are currently providing data into the Clarus system, along with 3 Canadian Provinces. We are working to add more States to the system through the Clarus Connection Incentive Program. This program provides grants to State DOTs to help get them connected to the system. In addition, we continue to work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to ensure a smooth transition of Clarus to the operational observing system that they are building.

And speaking of applications that build off of the Clarus system, Release 5.0 of the Maintenance Decision Support System is available via the NCAR Web site.

Looking farther ahead in 2008, there are three conferences worth highlighting. The first two, which will be held back-to-back, are the 4th National Conference on Surface Transportation Weather and the 7th International Symposium on Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology. These conferences will be June 16-19 in Indianapolis , Indiana. The third conference is entitled, “Safety in Mobility 2008: Intelligent Weather Information Systems and Services for Traffic and Transport.” It will be held July 9-11, 2008, in Klagenfurt , Austria .

And of course there are two very big conferences on the immediate horizon: the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meetings. Here are a few highlights for each:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting

TRB will take place in Washington DC from January 13-17, 2008.

-- There will be a spotlight session (#295) on weather and multi-model transportation on Monday, 14 Jan from 1:30-3:15pm. The panelists will be speaking about a variety of weather-related programs and the transition from research to operations

-- Immediately following and in the same room is another spotlight session, #350, entitled “Partnering to Respond to the Perfect Snowstorm: Colorado , New York and Pennsylvania Experiences”

-- The TRB Surface Transportation Weather Task Force will hold their meeting on Monday, 14 Jan from 7:30-9:30pm. Everyone is welcome.

-- Session #465 from 10:15-noon on Tuesday, 15 Jan will focus on “Impacts on Weather on Transportation Operations”

-- Session #494 from 1:30-3:15pm on Tuesday, 15 Jan will focus on Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII). Dr. Kevin Petty of NCAR will be making a presentation on “VII-Enabled Road Weather Products and Applications”

-- The TRB Winter Maintenance Committee will hold their meeting on Tuesday, 15 Jan from 7:30-9:30pm. Everyone is welcome.

-- Session #691 from 2:30-4pm on Wednesday, 16 Jan is titled “Weather and Road Surface Conditions”. The focus of this session will be on modeling road weather conditions

-- Session #720 from 4:30-6pm on Wednesday, 16 Jan is titled “Weather Data Applications in Transportation”. The session includes a discussion of a Benefit/Cost Analysis on the Pooled-Fund MDSS

American Meteorological Society Annual meeting

The AMS Annual Meeting will be held in New Orleans from January 20-24, 2008.

-- A joint meeting of the AMS Intelligent Transportation Systems/Surface Transportation Committee (ITS/STC) and the ITS America Weather Information Applications Special Interest Group (WIASIG) will be held from 2-4pm on Wednesday, 23 Jan in the Starboard Room of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel. All are welcome.

-- The ITS/STC is sponsoring a one-day course on Surface Transportation Meteorology on Sunday, 20 Jan. While the focus will be on meteorology, all of the instructors will be from this stakeholder group, including State DOT participants.

-- Session 8 of the IIPS Conference is titled “Advances and Applications in Surface Transportation Weather”. This session will run from 8:30am-12:15pm on Thursday, 24 Jan. There will be several interesting presentations on weather applications including Clarus and VII.

We are still in the planning stages for our next MDSS & Clarus stakeholder meetings which will probably take place in the August/September 2008 timeframe. If you are interested in hosting these meetings and have a facility that can hold ~125 people, please let me know.

On behalf of myself and the entire FHWA Road Weather Team, I would like to wish everyone a safe holiday and a healthy new year.

Best Regards,

Paul Pisano
Team Leader, Road Weather Management
Federal Highway Administration

NWS Partners & Family of Services Meeting

The National Weather Service invites all interested members of the weather and climate community to register (no charge) to attend their next NWS Partners and Family of Services meeting in New Orleans in January 2008:

All,

The National Weather Service Partners Meeting will be held in conjunction with the Family of Services meeting at the AMS annual meeting in New Orleans on Thursday, January 24th 2008 from 10:45 am till noon CST. Some featured topics for this meeting are Storm Based Warnings, Convective Watch Lead Time, Marine and Hurricane Product Updates, and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). An update on the Action Items from the summer 2007 NWS Partners meeting will also be provided. The meeting will conclude with an interactive session to identify the top 10 partner needs/requirements. Jack Hayes, Assistant Administrator for Weather Services will be in attendance so we hope to see you there!!

If you plan on attending or would like to review a draft agenda, please visit the NWS partners web page at:

https://apps.weather.gov/partners/index.php.

You may also register online at:

https://apps.weather.gov/registration/registration.php?id=64

Questions or comments by e-mail or telephone can be directed to either me John Simensky, john.simensky@noaa.gov (301) 713-0090 ext 150, or Ron Gird, ron.gird@noaa.gov, 301-713-0090 x154.

CWSA Reception

The Commercial Weather Services Association invites all interested members of the weather and climate community to attend their reception at the AMS Annual Meeting in New Orleans in January:

Dear Members of America's Weather Enterprise:

Our 88th AMS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana is quickly approaching, and we wanted to take this opportunity to personally invite you to our annual CWSA Reception. Take a minute to include it on your schedule -- we know you'll be glad you did!

Annual CWSA Reception:

• When: Sunday Evening, Jan. 20th, 7-9 PM
• Where: Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, Rosedown Room

The reception will include some great local cuisine and a cash bar will be available. This gathering will be a great opportunity to visit with old friends.

Please join us -- all members of CWSA would be delighted to see you in New Orleans.

Warmest Regards this Holiday Season ,

Steve
________________________________________
President,

Commercial Weather Services Association
Steven A. Root, CCM
President & CEO
WeatherBank, Inc.
1015 Waterwood Parkway, Suite J
Edmond, OK 73034
405-359-0773

Chief Government Relations Officer,

Commercial Weather Services Association
Barry L ee Myers
Chief Executive Officer

AccuWeather, Inc.
385 Science Park Dr.
State College, PA 16803

The Next Enterprise Commissioner will be ...

Joe Friday!

At the end of the AMS Meeting in New Orleans in January 2008, George Frederick will rotate to the position of Past Commissioner and Joe Friday will take over as Commissioner of the AMS Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise.

Also, Bill Mahoney will rotate to the position of Past Chair and Pam Emch will take over as Chair of the CWCE Board for Enterprise Economic Development.

Stay tuned for announcements of other commission position rotations.

Community Priorities Update

Following is a slightly edited update to an earlier post in this blog:

The AMS Council recently approved our initiative to develop an AMS Statement on community priorities. We have confined the drafting effort to a few people so as to efficiently develop the first couple of drafts. Much material developed over the past two years is available to this group. Most important will be the review process that will expand the horizon to ensure we have covered the bases properly. We are on a very fast track if we are to influence future budgets and the next administration. AMS has initiated a parallel effort to develop a Transition Document to be used during the upcoming Presidential campaign season (which is already well under way). We have cross-pollinated the Statement and Transition Document groups and intend to synchronize these efforts. Our ambitious goal is to have a draft of the Statement and Transition Document ready for AMS Council review in January. The Statement will then go through a vetting process with a public comment period and refinement prior to final approval by the Council. Both of these documents need to be concise and written for the general public. The Statement will also need supplemental material that expands on the items in the Statement. The writing team is already underway and I expect to see some results soon.

George Frederick
Commissioner
AMS Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise

WAS*IS Call For Papers

Call For Papers Reminder for the WAS*IS Session at the Boston AAG Meeting in April:

Carlie Lawson passed along this (slightly edited) call for papers reminder. The deadline is in one week. See the call below the message from Carlie:

Dear stupendous folks!

It's time for that WAS*IS session Call for Papers reminder I promised you a few weeks back (and I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath for)! Yes, it's long-ish. Please, forgive me for that and read on!

We're closing in on the Association of American Geographers official deadline for abstracts which is Halloween, October 31. Although our session organizers have (by necessity) set earlier dates than this for submitting abstracts to us, if you absolutely can't make the earlier deadlines, give my shirt sleeve a virtual tug and I'll see about adding you. The October 31, 2007 date however, is set by AAG, and I can't do anything about that. Sorry.

Let me clarify a few points/questions:

1. You don't have to be a participant of a WAS*IS workshop in order to present in these sessions.

2. You don't have to be a geographer to present at AAG.

3. Jenn and I are serious about the "but not limited to" clause in our session abstract. Even if your research isn't described in the specific points we suggest, please e-mail one of us. We just couldn't think of everything and we really are interested in showing just how diverse the idea/practice of integrated studies is/can be.

4. If you know of someone who's not already received this call for papers (i.e. isn't in that massive list of folks on this e-mail), yes , please forward it to them. This includes your students, other professors, other researchers, your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), your family members, etc. LOL No need to ask.

5. Students: if you're low on funds, volunteer to work a shift for the AAG. You'll get half off your registration, and you'll be paid $8 an hour. For details, visit http://aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/volunteer.htm.

6. A big, huge thank you to the Climate Specialty Group and the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group for co-sponsoring Jenn and I's WAS*IS session. We appreciate your involvement and cooperation!

Here, again, for your reading enjoyment are the calls for papers for both sessions being organized by WAS*IS.Call for Papers 2008 AAG Meeting, Boston, MA, April 15-19, 2008

Weather and Society*Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) Session

Co-sponsored by the Climate Specialty Group and the Environmental Perception and Behavioral Geography Specialty Group

Organizers: Jennifer Cox (City University of New York Graduate Center) and Carlie Lawson (Natural Hazards Consulting)

WAS*IS engages in identifying and pursuing research opportunities in addition to improving or facilitating the ongoing relationships among practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders in meteorology and the social sciences. This panel session seeks theoretical, empirical, or practical applications that demonstrate the integration of weather research and societal impacts.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Quantitative or qualitative methodologies for improving understanding, communication, and use of weather and climate information,
• Communicating uncertainty and forecasts,
• Intersections of warnings, response and emergency management,
• Research in mitigation, preparedness, and sustainability,
• Role of technology for modeling or mapping hazards and vulnerability.

We invite papers exploring new approaches to study weather, climate, and society.

Please submit your abstract (250 words or less) and PIN to one of the organizers, Jennifer Cox ( jennrcox@gmail.com) or Carlie Lawson (naturalhazard@gmail.com) by October 22, 2007.

If you have any questions about the sessions, please contact the organizers.

Climatology and Hazards of Severe Weather Session
Co-sponsored by the Climate Specialty Group and Hazards Specialty Group

Organizer: Walker Ashley (Meteorology Program, Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University)

Severe weather poses a significant threat to societies around the world. Improving the forecasts and warnings of these events is a result of advancements in analysis and forecasting techniques, technologies, dissemination methods, and the new scientific understanding that develops from basic and applied research such as descriptive or synoptic climatologies. This paper session will explore the climatology and hazards of tornadoes, hail, high winds, lightning, floods, and/or severe winter-weather phenomenon. Contributors are encouraged to provide descriptive or synoptic climatologies of severe weather phenomena, assess past hazards or illustrate the future risks and potential vulnerabilities of societies to severe weather events, and/or present novel techniques in overcoming issues related to severe weather reporting procedures.

Please submit your abstract (250 words or less) and PIN to the organizer, Walker Ashley (washley@niu.edu) by October 29, 2007.

Abstract instructions are available from the AAG website at:
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/2008/papers.htm#abstracts

--
All things are possible.
Ask, Believe, Receive!
-------------------------------
Carlie Lawson
President/Senior Planner
Natural Hazards Consulting
912 Garver Street
Norman, OK 73069
cell: 405.308.7233
http://www.natural-hazards.com

Member News - Terry Tarbell

AMS Fellow Terry C. Tarbell has accepted a position as Executive Vice President for Business Development with DB Consulting Group, Inc., in their Silver Spring, Maryland office. Previously Dr. Tarbell was a Senior Vice President with R. S. Information Systems.