March 24, 2016 Meeting

The fourth meeting of the 2015-2016 year took place at WLBT/Fox 40 studios in Jackson. During the meeting, we toured the TV station.

Meeting Minutes

Call to Order
The fourth meeting of the 2015-2016 year took place on Thursday March 24th at WLBT Channel 3 Studios in Jackson, MS. The meeting was called to order at 7:07 pm by AMS President Dave Roberts.

Rolls
Recording Secretary Joanne Culin made a list of those in attendance. Nine people attended.

Minutes Approval
Minutes from the February meeting were summarized by Recording Secretary Joanne Culin.

New Business
Given Treasurer David Cox was not in attendance, the treasury report was given as part of the minutes review. The amount in treasury is $118.56.

Dr. Loren White and Eric Carpenter gave some updates on VortexSE and the lack of severe weather in the Huntsville, AL region(which is home base for the project). Daniel Lamb also gave some updates on the ULM radar. The radar has finished construction but is waiting for FAA licenses. Joanne Culin proposed to the group of the local chapter becoming a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador. It is an easy application process and we would just need to promote preparedness and encourage others to be weather ready. Joanne also hinted that TV stations would be good candidates to be ambassadors.

Dave Roberts then spoke about things he learned at the recent AMS meeting in January. He thought some of the more interesting talks were about global warming and how they affect diseases. He also spoke about the costs to the aviation industry when they encounter weather delays. He spoke about how airlines even on clear days will not make money thanks to compression. This is a tailwind that causes many planes to get into the same airspace. Thus, takeoffs would have to be delayed and airplanes pile up. A big theme of the conference was social media and weather. He spoke about the challenges we face when everyone on social media is a meteorologist and can see sometime bogus weather information. He used the term “folk science” and said that is a challenge.

Following some discussion on these topics, Dave gave us a tour of the station. We had had a meeting there just last year but some of the set had changed. He showed us the big monitors and how they are used. He also showed us the many graphics he uses for various topics in his weathercast. He showed us briefly the control room and the area where all the computers are kept.

Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:30 pm given Dave had to get ready for the FOX40 9pm news.

Minutes were submitted by Joanne Culin, Recording Secretary.