I set up some Twitter search strings in Hootsuite to help me watch what’s going on with this weekend’s winter storm. Here are links to the same searches on the Twitter website, which anyone can monitor, even those who don’t have Twitter account:
Updated: Seminars offer deeper dive for SKYWARN storm spotters
Jan. 5, I wrote about annual SKYWARN storm spotter training beginning in less than a month in some parts of Indiana. Today, I’d like to share other educational opportunities for spotters and others who’d like to take a deeper dive into severe weather meteorology.
Central Indiana Severe Weather Symposium, Indianapolis
This day-long event, hosted by the central Indiana chapter of the American Meteorology Society and the National Weather Service Indianapolis weather forecast office, always provides lots of fascinating information of value to storm spotters. If you want to attend, register early, because it often “sells out” well before the day of the event.
Saturday, March 5, 2016, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Reilly Room, Atherton Union, Butler University, 704 West Hampton Drive. Information and registration: http://www.weather.gov/ind/2016CISWS. Twitter tweets about this event carry the hash tag #CISWS.
DuPage County Advanced Severe Weather Seminar, Wheaton, Ill.
This all-day event in one of is one of the best advanced spotter training opportunities in the Midwest. I’ve attended at least twice. It’s in a western suburb of Chicago, so it’s a bit of a drive for many Hoosiers! DuPage College’s meteorology professors usually speak and they’re both great presenters.
Saturday, March 12, 2016, Wheaton College. Information and registration are now available at https://www.dupageco.org/weatherseminar/. See also: #DuPageWxSeminar and https://www.facebook.com/groups/dupagesevereweather/.
Ohio State Meteorology Club Severe Weather Symposium, Columbus, Ohio
I’ve attended at least three of these annual, all-day events. They usually contain interesting information and speakers but they are geared more toward meteorology students than to spotters.
Friday, March 4, 2016, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Information and registration are now available at http://u.osu.edu/metclub/symposium/2016-symposium/.
Severe Weather Awareness Day, Nashville, Tenn.
This annual event might be of interest to storm spotters who live in southern Indiana and points south. I’ve never attended, but a friend has been impressed with it. As you can see in the flyer image above, one of this year’s speakers is well-known broadcast meteorologist James Spann.
Saturday, Feb. 27, Trevecca Nazarene University, Nashville, Tenn. Information (with registration beginning Feb. 1) at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=swad2016. See also https://twitter.com/hashtag/swad2016?f=tweets&vertical=default.
Others?
If you know of other good, advanced training opportunities for storm spotters, leave a note in the comments section of this blog post.
IPFW music chair expresses confidence
“I am very confident that, if we can be successful in this current strange collaboration of IU and Purdue, we can be just as successful if we are managed by someone else.”
That’s the word this evening from Dr. Greg Jones, chair of the IPFW Music Department. It’s an excerpt from a message Jones emailed to his faculty.
Jones is referring to a state agency’s proposal to replace most Indiana University undergraduate programs in Fort Wayne with Purdue degree programs, including music, even though Purdue has never in its history offered a music degree.
He’s correct that if Purdue doesn’t change anything about the existing department, it can continue to produce the same quality of musicians and have the same impact on the Fort Wayne area’s culture that it has for the past several years.
One might wonder about the sustainability of music programs that grant Purdue degrees. Would fewer prospective music students enroll in a program that grants degrees from an institution that has no reputation in music, and if not, would falling enrollment eventually harm the local music programs?
It’s possible that music students enroll at IPFW for reasons other than the IU degree they’d receive. In addition to proximity to home, for example, they might prefer smaller classes, greater opportunities to perform with top ensembles, and the ability to learn from primary faculty (vs. teaching graduate students), all advantages over larger programs such as those in Bloomington.
In addition, there’s reason to believe that IU doesn’t fully support all of its undergraduate degree programs at IPFW. Notice, for example, this comment, posted publicly on Facebook Jan. 17 by IPFW English and Linguistics Professor Steve Amidon: “IU seems to want nothing to do with us. In fact, I’ve been told that, six months before the current governance document expires, IU has already stopped approving or considering course or program change requests.”
The fact that Purdue has no music degree program (and therefore no curricula to prescribe) might be very good for the Fort Wayne campus, if Purdue therefore allows Fort Wayne faculty to determine what the curricula should look like. The local faculty could then design curricula that best meet the needs of students who come to the Fort Wayne campus.
That might mean using the existing, IU curricula, or the existing curricula with improvements that IU might not have permitted. Of course, a worst-case scenario would be a non-musical administrator in West Lafayette mandating what he or she believes is best for a music degree program. I hope that scenario is unlikely.
It appears Jones has no intention of giving up. It is important, he wrote, that the department “continue what we are doing to increase recruitment, raise the level of performance academically and musically and continue to be a vital cultural resource for northern Indiana.”
The official line from IPFW is that nothing about today’s recommendation is final.
Purdue indicates willingness to offer music degrees in Fort Wayne
Purdue University has indicated that it “welcomes all Indiana University programs currently offered on the Fort Wayne campus. Importantly, this welcome includes Indiana University mission programs on the Fort Wayne campus that are not currently offered elsewhere within the Purdue University system” (emphasis added).
That information comes from a memo to IPFW faculty from Deba Dutta, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity at Purdue. Recommendations released today that IPFW cease to exist and that it instead become solely a Purdue campus, led Dutta to send the memo.
The statement would lead readers to believe that an undergraduate music program would continue to exist in Fort Wayne if and when IPFW becomes “Purdue Northeast” or similar.
Any students in such a program would receive Purdue music degrees. Purdue has never in its history conferred a music degree. One might wonder, therefore, about the sustainability of music programs that grant Purdue degrees. It’s reasonable to wonder, “would fewer prospective music students enroll in a program that grants degrees from an institution that has no reputation in music, and if not, would falling enrollment eventually harm the local music programs?”
The chair of IPFW’s school of music, however, seems optimistic.
There might be good reason for that optimism. It’s possible that music students enroll at IPFW for reasons other than the IU degree they’d receive. In addition to proximity to home, for example, they might prefer smaller classes, greater opportunities to perform with top ensembles, and the ability to learn from primary faculty (vs. teaching graduate students), all advantages over larger programs such as those in Bloomington.
There’s reason to believe that IU doesn’t fully support all of its undergraduate degree programs at IPFW. Notice, for example, this comment, posted publicly on Facebook Jan. 17 by IPFW English and Linguistics Professor Steve Amidon: “IU seems to want nothing to do with us. In fact, I’ve been told that, six months before the current governance document expires, IU has already stopped approving or considering course or program change requests.”
The fact that Purdue has no music degree program (and therefore no curricula to prescribe) might be very good for the Fort Wayne campus, if Purdue therefore allows Fort Wayne faculty to determine what the curricula should look like. The local faculty could then design curricula that best meet the needs of students who come to the Fort Wayne campus.
That might mean using the existing, IU curricula, or the existing curricula with improvements that IU might not have permitted. Of course, a worst-case scenario would be a non-musical administrator in West Lafayette mandating what he or she believes is best for a music degree program. I hope that scenario is unlikely.
IU undergrad music degrees would become unavailable in Ft. Wayne under state agency’s proposal
But Purdue University promises to welcome all existing IPFW programs, including music … and that could be good for IPFW’s music students
Editor’s note: Despite the fact that I’m a musician trained in the Ball State University School of Music, I don’t usually write about the arts in this blog. But recent news prompts me to do so. Also, edits to the original version of this article reflect subsequently received information that the music programs themselves are apparently in no jeopardy, while a state agency’s recommendations would eventually jeopardize the availability of IU music degrees in Fort Wayne. A Jan. 18 edit to this post represents some new thoughts.
Jan. 18, 2016 — Today, the Indiana Legislative Services Agency (LSA) issued a report and recommendations regarding the future of the Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). If all its recommendations are implemented, it appears that students would no longer be able to receive undergraduate Indiana University (IU) music degrees in Fort Wayne.
There are scenarios in which a transition from IU to Purdue could be good for the Fort Wayne music department and its students.
A few hours after the LSA issued its recommendations, however, Purdue distributed a memo that contained the following statement:
“The Purdue University system welcomes all Indiana University programs currently offered on the Fort Wayne campus. Importantly, this welcome includes Indiana University mission programs on the Fort Wayne campus that are not currently offered elsewhere within the Purdue University system.”
That information comes from a memo to IPFW faculty from Deba Dutta, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity at Purdue.
Purdue University has never in its history conferred a music degree. One might wonder, therefore, about the sustainability of music programs that grant Purdue degrees, as I wrote in a subsequent blog post. It’s reasonable to wonder, “would fewer prospective music students enroll in a program that grants degrees from an institution that has no reputation in music, and if not, would falling enrollment eventually harm the local music programs?”
IPFW’s current music department chair, however, seems optimistic, as I also reported in a different blog post:
“I am very confident that, if we can be successful in this current strange collaboration of IU and Purdue, we can be just as successful if we are managed by someone else.” — Dr. Greg Jones, chair of the IPFW Music Department
That optimism could be founded in the belief that music students enroll at IPFW for reasons other than the IU degree they’d receive. In addition to proximity to home, for example, they might prefer smaller classes, greater opportunities to perform with top ensembles, and the ability to learn from primary faculty (vs. teaching graduate students), all advantages over larger programs such as those in Bloomington.
There’s reason to believe that IU doesn’t fully support all of its undergraduate degree programs at IPFW. Notice, for example, this comment, posted publicly on Facebook Jan. 17 by IPFW English and Linguistics Professor Steve Amidon: “IU seems to want nothing to do with us. In fact, I’ve been told that, six months before the current governance document expires, IU has already stopped approving or considering course or program change requests.”
The fact that Purdue has no music degree program (and therefore no curricula to prescribe) might be very good for the Fort Wayne campus, if Purdue therefore allows Fort Wayne faculty to determine what the various curricula should look like. The local faculty could then design curricula that best meet the needs of students who come to the Fort Wayne campus.
That might mean using the existing, IU curricula, or the existing curricula with improvements that IU might not have permitted. Of course, a worst-case scenario would be a non-musical administrator in West Lafayette mandating what he or she believes is best for a music degree program. I hope that scenario is unlikely.
I originally used this blog post to encourage readers who value the the ability to earn an IU music degree in Fort Wayne, or who doubt the sustainability of a Purdue music degree program, to consider contacting IU’s president.
I no longer recommend this, because IPFW’s music department might well be better off as a Purdue program.
In case you missed it above, here’s a link to the verbatim LSA report:
https://iga.in.gov/static-documents/0/e/5/7/0e57802c/evaluation_report_1.15.2016.pdf
I welcome you to share this blog with others.
What’s the #1 source for national weather?
Should a Facebook page run by amateur storm chasers promote itself as the best source for weather information? I can’t help but wonder how many (if any) naïve Facebook users foolishly rely on such pages for time-critical safety information, in lieu of the National Weather Service (NWS).
Recently, a Facebook page distributed the graphic above. I’ve blurred out identifying information, because who it was doesn’t matter to the point of this article. But the headline, “The #1 Source for National Weather” certainly caught my eye.
I’ve tried multiple times to contact the owners of the Facebook page that published that graphic. I sent a Facebook message and sent an email message to the email address on their website. I’ve received no response. So, all I know about them is what I see online.
From what I see, both the Facebook page and associated website are published by a group of amateur storm chasers, none of whom appear to have a meteorology degree.
In the U.S., only one source of weather information has the authority to issue the official watches and warnings that trigger weather radios, etc.
Don’t read what I’m not writing! There’s nothing wrong with an amateur-run Facebook page or website distributing interesting or important weather information. I do it all the time on Facebook, this blog, Twitter, etc. What I don’t do, however, is claim that my information is any better than others’.
Why? Because I don’t want anyone to assume that my blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed (or anyone’s for that matter) is a safe and reliable way to get timely, live-saving weather alerts, especially NWS warnings. Not even the NWS’ own Facebook and Twitter feeds are timely enough for that (yet).
That’s also why I consistently encourage readers – for their safety – to maintain timely access to NWS products (e.g. via NOAA Weather Radio, smartphone apps triggered by NWS products, Wireless Emergency Alerts, etc.).
All of us who publish weather information on social media and other Internet channels have a responsibility to inform and remind readers that in the U.S., only one source of weather information has the authority to issue the official watches and warnings that trigger weather radios, etc.: The National Weather Service. Likewise, we must not publish anything that could potentially mislead readers into believing that our social media feeds can keep them as safe as do directly received NWS warnings.
Our readers’ lives could depend on it!
What do you think? Use this blog’s comment function to let us know.
NWS SKYWARN storm spotter training begins in less than a month!
In most of Indiana, it seems as if winter just arrived. So it might surprise you to know that your chance to become a trained, volunteer storm spotter for the National Weather Service (NWS) (or refresh your knowledge) might be less than a month away.
NWS offices provide training in multiple, identical sessions throughout their county warning areas. To finish all the presentations before the spring severe storm season gets underway, many offices schedule their first sessions near the beginning of February.
For example, the northern Indiana NWS office plans to conduct its first session of the year Feb. 3 in Napoleon, Ohio. It scheduled its first session in Indiana for Feb. 4, in Elkhart.
Because each session is identical, you need not attend the session nearest you, if another session is more convenient.
To be an NWS SKYWARN storm spotter volunteer, all you need is:
- An interest in helping to protect your community from severe weather
- Training to distinguish harmless, scary-looking clouds from truly threatening conditions and to report with correct terminology.
- A way to communicate with the NWS (e.g. a phone, Internet access and/or a ham radio license and appropriate radio gear).
You don’t need any knowledge of weather or science. The NWS will teach you everything you need to know. You don’t even need a car! Some spotters never leave their homes, yet provide valuable information to the NWS.
To learn about training opportunities, visit the Web page of the NWS office that serves your county. At the time I wrote this, it appeared that some of the offices below (all of which serve parts of Indiana) had not yet posted their 2016 training schedules. If that’s the case for the office that covers your county, keep checking back, because those offices will very likely publish their schedules soon.
Irresponsible social media weather hype has real consequences
(Jan. 4, I edited the post below — which originally appeared Jan. 2 — to include a citation of an excellent blog post by well-known, Alabama broadcast meteorologist James Spann)
As a follow-up to a Facebook post I shared earlier today on the “Radio W9LW Weather” Facebook page, I want to make a few things clear to the readers of this blog, the Facebook page and the RadioW9LW Twitter feed.
I consider it irresponsible to publish long-range forecasts of storms on social media. It doesn’t matter what some computer-driven, numeric model of the atmosphere says might happen two or more weeks from now. It doesn’t even matter if more than one model agree. All that matters to me are the forecasts of highly trained meteorologists, who combine information gleaned from models with other knowledge to responsibly forecast the weather over a reasonable period (I consider anything specific more than seven days from now to be unreasonable). Yes, it might turn out that some weather enthusiast’s favorite model was “right” to forecast a heavy snow event four weeks from now. So what? That doesn’t make that enthusiast’s distribution of that model’s data responsible.
As well-known, Alabama broadcast meteorologist James Spann writes in his blog, “Most of the 2-3 week ‘forecasts’ are done by people not qualified to forecast the weather 2-3 days in advance. Most are young weather enthusiasts that, in their love for ice, snow, or severe weather, just ‘wishcast’ by throwing out model maps they have pulled down on various sites promoting the weather they love and desire without understanding the limitations of using those products, or the science behind them” (italicized emphasis added by me).
What’s the harm? As Spann puts it, “a banner headline about a snow storm in three weeks in the southern U.S. can create a societal impact.” For example, people unnecessarily reschedule needed medical treatments or important travel. These things really happen, because members of the general public don’t know how to distinguish reliable, science-based forecasts from the “wishcasts” Span describes above.
Plus, people deluge professional meteorologists (like Spann and National Weather Service staff members) with messages asking whether the irresponsible social media forecast is valid, wasting valuable time.
Beware of internet trolls:
There is currently NO WINTER STORM…NO SNOW or ICE in the forecast for our area. We will get cold (but dry).
— Brad Nitz (@BradNitzWSB) January 3, 2016
We are blessed in the United States, however, with the rights of free speech and freedom of the press. Therefore, I do not support any form of regulation that would restrict people from irresponsibly publishing long-range, model-based forecasts on social media. Nor would I support any attempt to restrict access to model data, to make it more difficult for people to share it irresponsibly. The best ways to reduce such irresponsible use of social media are to a.) refuse to share it and b.) attempt to help members of the general public understand the limits of the science.
Now, a little about me, my social media posts and why I do what I do:
I am not a meteorologist. If you’ve paid close attention to the weather information I’ve shared, you’ll see that anything related to forecasts is attributed to very reliable sources, most often the National Weather Service (NWS). I do not create my own forecasts and I refrain from commenting on the likelihood of some weather phenomena occurring, except to relay confidence levels of NWS meteorologists and probabilities published by, for example, NWS Storm Prediction Center (SPC) meteorologists. For example, you won’t see me publish anything like, “The SPC has this area under a moderate risk, but I’m not impressed by (enter some atmospheric measure here).”
I consider myself a journalist. I have worked in the past as a professional journalist and continue to use the skills I gained in that career in my current career as a public relations consultant. That’s why you’ll see attributions in my posts, so you’ll know who created the information I share. It’s also why you might recognize the use of Associate Press style in my posts.
I am a trained, volunteer SKYWARN storm spotter for the National Weather Service. In addition to the basic training that the NWS provides annually, I attend a wide variety of other seminars, at my personal expense, to learn more about meteorology. The knowledge I’ve gained helps me be a more effective storm spotter and it helps me better interpret meteorological information. It does not, however, qualify me to forecast the weather. Forecasting requires much more than knowing where to find map graphics based on computer-run numeric models of the atmosphere.
I am all about weather safety. It’s why I invest so much of my life in storm spotting, weather education and writing about weather. I want to do what I can to help protect my neighbors and others from severe weather and to help the NWS issue effective warnings.
Are you with me? Post a comment, and/or use the sharing buttons to share this “manifesto” with others.
A must read for any journalist who ever covers weather aftermath
Weather blogger Dennis Mersereau is absolutely correct when, in a recent blog post, he admonishes journalists to choose their words carefully, especially when writing about weather disasters.
The impetus of his post was a People Magazine headline and tweet Dec. 24 that described the Dec. 23 tornadoes in the South and Midwest as “unexpected.”
I first learned about the above tweet (based on a headline which People later changed, after being blasted on social media) when my friend and National Weather Service meteorologist Nick Greenawalt tweeted about it:
@buckeyewx @people Anyone who didn't expect the tornadoes must have been living off the grid. @NWSSPC provided ample forecasts.
— Jay Farlow (@JayFarlowWx) December 24, 2015
You can see my comment at the time, above.
My lovely wife later helped me realize that there was a chance the writer of that headline did not intend to imply that the tornadoes were not forecast or that people in their path were not warned. Instead, she asserted, it’s possible that “unexpected” was simply an extremely poor word choice to communicate how unusual tornadoes are at this time of year.
In his recent blog post, Mersereau lays out the entire series of outlooks, watches and warnings that should have made every citizen in the affected area that tornadoes were likely that day.
He also makes compelling arguments for the idea that words matter in stories about weather aftermath.
Even if my lovely wife is right, at best, a member of People’s staff chose poorly when he or she wrote the Dec. 24 headline. But Mersereau is also right. Words matter. Especially when they appear in publications that have audiences the size of People’s.
We should all hold journalists to high standards in their choices of words.
I strongly recommend you read Mersereau’s post and share it:
http://www.dennismersereau.com/2015/12/when-storms-threaten-lives-words-matter.html
Missed test causing weather radios to beep
Weather alert radios all over northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio and southern Lower Michigan started mysteriously beeping over the weekend. Some radios also began displaying a “check reception” message on their displays. The radios were attempting to warn their owners that they might have lost the radio signal from the National Weather Service (NWS) NOAA Weather Radio transmitters.
The radio signal is, in fact, fine. But for some reason, last week, the radios did not receive the test alarm that the NWS northern Indiana office sends every week, usually on Wednesday mornings. Midland brand weather alert radios (and perhaps others) keep track of how long it’s been since they received an alert signal, including the weekly test. Midland designed the radios so that if more than 10 days elapse without an alert, the radios begin beeping, to alert owners of a possible problem. The warning goes away as soon as the radio receives any kind of alert, including the next weekly test.
The problem should resolve itself Wednesday morning when the next weekly test occurs. Owners of Midland weather radios who don’t want to wait that long can follow the procedure below, taken from an FAQ page on Midland’s website. Users should take note, however, that following the procedure below will erase all programming in the radio. That means the radio will need to be reprogrammed to alert only for specific counties. Any users who lack confidence in their abilities to program their radios might be better off just ignoring the beeping until Wednesday’s test.
Why does my weather radio have a “Check Reception” message scrolling across the screen and it beeps every 10 minutes?
The message and beep tone indicate that the radio has not received any weather alerts or test alerts in 10 days. If NOAA is forced to skip the weekly test and no alerts have been issued, the message can appear on the display.
To clear the message and beep you will need to reset the radio. To reset the radio, unplug the power cord and remove the batteries. Wait 15 seconds and reinsert the power cord and batteries. Once the radio has been reset the time will need to be programmed.