THE FIRST ANNUAL
Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium
was held at the Peter Kiewit Conference Center
in Omaha, Nebraska
on Saturday, August 28, 1999.

Here is a digital photo album of this historic event

The Morning Presentations

Patty Dyhrberg, Chair of the symposium planning committee, opens the symposium

The symposium was held at the University of Omaha
Kiewit Conference Center in downtown Omaha.

We were fortunate to have Alan Moller, National Weather Service forecaster at Ft. Worth, TX  and world renown storm chaser, as our keynote speaker.
He also led a storm spotter workshop in the afternoon.
Some pictures of Al at another person's web site (note, use your back button on your browser to return here)
http://www.k5kj.net/moller.htm

Steve Byrd, Science Operations Officer, NWS, Omaha, spoke about how forecasters "anticipate" the development of severe weather.

Ken Dewey, Meteorology Professor at UNL and research climatologist at the High Plains Climate Center presented a climatology of plains tornadoes and examined tornado myths and legends using a multimedia presentation.

Brian Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at NWS Omaha presented a multimedia review of the graphic effects of tornadoes in the morning and conducted a spotters training workshop in the afternoon.

 

The Afternoon Presentations

Mayor Hal Daub of Omaha opened the afternoon session by thanking the participants at the symposium for their interest in being storm spotters and volunteering to assist in times of natural disasters.

KMTV Channel 3 Meteorologists Craig Koplien and  Mark Lee spoke about the times when the weather becomes the news.

Paul Mc Crone, Air Force Weather Agency, Offutt AFB spoke about strange atmospheric electrical discharges known as"Sprites, Blue Jets, & Elves". 

Herb Stein, a technician last summer with the Doppler on Wheels project and currently with DTN in Omaha spoke about the DOW activities of this past severe weather season.


Two spotters training workshops were then held
for the remaining portion of the afternoon
for both beginning spotters (conducted by Brian Smith)
and advanced spotters (conducted by Al Moller).

Indoor Displays
Tom Bobula of "Windy City Weather" from Chicago was busy selling many weather related items to the symposium participants.
The hallway was crowded with symposium participants looking over the exhibits. 
Dr. Ken Hubbard director of the High Plains Climate Center looked after his display area in the hallway.
Many of the exhibitors had computer displays which allowed hands-on activities.
Dr. Mark Anderson, Chief undergraduate advisor for the meteorology degree at UNL manned his display area.
With as many displays as we had, there was something of interest for everyone.
There was a working tornado machine that was on 
display as well.
Here Keynote speaker Al Moller visits with several members of the Douglas County REACT group.

Outdoor Displays

Heartland REACT had their van on display throughout the symposium.

Doppler on Wheels (note the tall mast with anemometer and the radar dish on the back) was available for inspection throughout the symposium.

Note the sign explaining about DOW and further note the large hail dents on the door panel to the left!

Local storm chasers, Walker Ashley UNL VORTEX Intercept team and Steve Peterson of the Nebraska Storm Chaser web page and Steve's wife and chase partner, Laura were in attendance at the symposium.

 

Mark Lee, meteorologist at KMTV Channel 3 brought along their Storm Chasing Van.  He is standing with Dr. Dewey, one of the presenters.  KMTV is the ONLY Omaha TV station to have a full time storm chase vehicle.

 

Gathering outside during a break were, from the left, Al Moller, Paul McCrone, Mark Lee, Ken Dewey, Steve Byrd, Herb Stein (all presenters at the symposium) and Steve McDonald, DOW technician who gave guided tours of DOW at the symposium.

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