4/4/08 UPDATE

A Little History of the Fermilab Seminar [from the WGN Weather Blog]

Brian Smith provides us with a little background on our Fermilab Seminar that we thought you might enjoy reading:

I thought I would give you some facts on the Fermilab Seminar. This year marks the program's 28th year, 27 of those held at Ramsey Auditorium in Fermilab. Its origins date back to 1981, when I was a University of Chicago grad student and involved in Emergency Management. I wanted to have a public seminar on severe weather. Originally, Harry Volkman was going to be the media presenter, but he backed out at the last minute. I knew Tom, and asked him to be part of this seminar. He agreed. The rest is history.

The first year, 1981, was held at Geneva High School auditorium with a total of 40 in attendance. The program consisted of a tag team program of Tom and I presenting storm spotter and safety information. (You will see a picture of this program in my presentation this year).

In 1982, ESDA (Emergency Services and Disaster Agency) agencies in Geneva and Batavia wanted to sponsor the program again. This time, Rudi Dorner, then head of Emergency Services at Fermilab, asked if they could sponsor it. We agreed. The program was originally held on a Tuesday night because Tom's days off were on Monday and Tuesday. We probably had several hundred at that program. We also invited then-Chicago MIC (Meteorologist in Charge) Ray Waldman to be part of the program.

Ever since 1982, Fermilab sponsored the program. Rudi Dorner took care of the arrangements until later in the 1980s when Bill Flaherty from Fermilab took over Rudi's position.

Fermilab Visual Media Services offered their assistance around 1986. They saw us running around trying to coordinate movie films and slides and they asked if they could help. Boy, what help Fred Ullrich and his team have done over the years to assist with production in the program. They have been a great help!

The program continued to grow when we moved the program to Saturday night and Tom began advertising it on television. We also started adding more speakers, including Richard Koeneman from WSFO (Weather Service Forecast Office) Chicago and Bill Hirt from the National Severe Storms Forecast Center.

By the late 1980s we started getting overflow crowds in the auditorium (the auditorium holds 890). Overflow rooms were set up where the program was shown remotely. In the early 1990s It was then decided to have two sessions, an afternoon and evening session. Both of these sessions were well attended. Today, the afternoon session is the most popular of the two sessions. This program has sparked similar other programs to spring up across the country. We also added many different speakers that included Ted Fujita, Tom Grazulis, Ron Przybilinski, Lance Bosart, Chuck Doswell, Harold Brooks, just to name a few.

In closing, I just want to say it is great to be back again. I want to personally thank Tom, Fred Ullrich and his staff, Bill Flaherty, for all the work with this program for all of these years. I want to also thank all of the speakers in taking your time out to help spread the word on severe weather safety. I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

    Brian Smith
    NWS Omaha

3/9/08

NEW! Storm Chaser Chad Cowan to join our speakers roster at our April 5 Fermilab Tornado and Severe Storms Seminar.  Cowan’s been involved in the “Storms of 2007” DVD—the proceeds of which go to the rebuilding efforts in tornado-devastated Greensburg, Kansas

Chad Cowan, a life-long weather enthusiast who lives here in Chicago, has storm-chased for years all across this country's Heartland. He and storm-chasing colleagues were in the field the night the devastating Greensburg, Kansas twister hit last May, all but wiping the community off the face of the earth.

Chad joins us at our Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather Seminars with some of the video of that horrific storm---video which is included in a DVD fellow storm-chasers have put together in an effort to aid relief efforts by the Red Cross and the town of Greensburg. Chad’s been actively promoting the sale of a series of storm DVDs which have raised more than $36,000 for tornado rebuilding and relief efforts since 2004. We're looking forward to Chad's appearance!

He offers this link to a YouTube sample of the 'Storms of 2007" video, which he had helped put together and market: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wdymawKR0o

Here’s the web site at which “The Storms of 2007” can be purchased. All funds raised from this DVD’s sales are dispatched to the Red Cross and to the city of Greensburg and directed toward the rebuilding process: http://www.thestormsof2007.org

3/2/08 UPDATE from Tom Skilling:

"Our Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar takes place Saturday, April 5 at noon and 6pm and you're invited!

It's that time again! Our 26th annual Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather seminars will take place on Saturday, April 5 at Noon and 6 p.m. and you are invited to join us and an outstanding group of speakers at the west suburban Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory off Kirk Road in Batavia. The programs are free of charge and seating is on a first come, first served basis--so we suggest getting there early to get a good seat.

There is much to talk about on the severe weather front this year. The community of Greensburg, Kansas was all but leveled last year by a late evening May tornado. The deadly twister emerged from the darkness of night to produce a path of destruction up to two miles across and was responsible for nine deaths and scores of injuries. The residents of Greensburg have worked hard since to resurrect their devastated community since. But, it's a lesson to us all what can happen when these devastating storms sweep any town or city. We ask, how did this happen---what were the underlying conditions? A tornado watch and warning preceded the deadly storm. How were these issued--what signs did nature provide alert forecasters that such a tragedy was about to unfold? We welcome to our Fermilab seminars this year Larry Ruthi, meteorologist in charge of the Dodge City, Kansas National Weather Service Forecast Office, which issued the warnings on this devastating storm, who will explain.

We've had our own severe weather troubles in the rapidly expanding Chicago metropolitan area in recent months and years. One twister, which set down on the north side Loyola University-Chicago campus in September, 2006 then moved out onto Lake Michigan, had origins in a severe thunderstorm which first formed above the Fermilab grounds in Batavia. Using Doppler Radar data, Ed Fenelon, meteorologist in charge of the Chicago National Weather Service Forecast office fills us in on a frightening in-office study of this storm which indicated how close this area came to a real disaster. The storm's circulation traveled across many commuter packed major thoroughfares, including the Tri-State Expressway and moved directly across O'Hare's terminal in the evening rush hour, kicking out multiple TVS (tornado vortex) signatures along the way--indicating it could have gone tornadic at almost any time. That it waited until reaching the Lake Michigan shoreline on Chicago's north side and spared the area major damage was just luck. A much more horrifying scenario might have ensued--a development which underscores this area's tornado vulnerability.

The rare mid-winter tornadoes which devastated some of Chicago's northern suburbs as well as sections of southeast Wisconsin this past January are the subject of Jim Allsopp's presentation this year. What caused such furious storms to sweep this region at such an odd time of the year? Jim will tell us.

And Ginno Izzi, forecaster at the National Weather Service here in Chicago, returns to the Fermilab stage to explore the devastating squall line which swept out of the afternoon and evening sky this past August 23, producing damage and power outages in almost every corner of the greater Chicago metropolitan area. How did this so-called "derecho" happen? Gino addresses that in his talk.

Lightning kills hundreds each year in this country. This year, perennial Fermilab seminar favorite and world recognized lightning-strike injury expert Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, MD of the University of Illinois-Chicago is joined by John Jensenius of the National Weather Service Forecast Office at Gray, Maine to talk about lightning---what it does to the human body when it strikes and what an underrated killer it is in this country.

What would our annual Fermilab programs be without Dr. Joe Schaefer, Director of this country's NOAA Storm Prediction Center? Joe returns, as he has for over a decade now, to talk about one of the most damaging aspects of severe storms---HAIL! This promises to be an fascinating talk about one of this country's most fascinating yet devastating natural phenomena.

And, Brian Smith, with whom I started our Fermilab Tornado seminars 26 years ago, returns again this year to fill us in on the new Enhanced Fujita Tornado Damage Scale. There have been significant changes in the benchmark index of tornado damage and severity based on years of research and careful examination which are important for us to know. No one is better equipped to cover this important subject than Brian, who worked for years at famed tornado researcher Dr. Ted Fujita's side and has conducted field surveys of these storms' aftermath . He serves as Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Omaha Forecast Office and we 're excited he's back with us this year.

So, we've got quite a program lined up and we really hope to see you at noon or at 6pm (we repeat the program twice and you are free to attend which ever best fits your schedule) at the beautiful Fermilab facility in west suburban Batavia. It's completely free of charge and there are no tickets required. Fermilab is easy to get to from anywhere in the Chicago area and Midwest--just travel west from Chicago on I-88 (the Ronald Reagan Tollway) to the Farnsworth Avenue/Kirk Road exit and head north past Butterfield Road to Fermilab's west exit off Kirk Road then head to the main high rise building which houses the Ramsey Auditorium where this year's programs will take place. Look forward to seeing you there and MANY THANKS!

The 26th Annual Fermilab/WGN-TV Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar Line-up for Saturday, April 6 and Noon and 6 p.m.:

• Dr. Joe Schaefer, Director, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center: "Hail: Size really does matter!"

• Ed Fenelon, Meteorologist in Charge-National Weather Service-Chicago" "The September 22, 2006 tornado touchdown on the Loyola University northside Chicago campus: How close much of the Chicago area came to a disaster"

• Gino Izzi, Lead Forecaster, National Weather Service-Chicago: "The Chicago area's devastating derecho of August, 23, 2007: A look at one of the region's most damaging squall lines in decades with tree and powerline downing 80+mph wind gusts"

• Jim Allsopp, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service-Chicago: "Rare January 7 Mid-Winter tornadoes slam north suburban Poplar Grove and Harvard in Boone and McHenry Counties and devastate Kenosha County communities-How did they happen?"

• Dr. Mary Ann Cooper, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Illinois-Chicago: "Lightning strikes and their life altering effects on a human body and how to protect yourself"

• John Jensenius, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service, Gray Maine: "Lightning: Understanding One of Nature's most underrated Killers"

• Larry Ruthi, Meteorologist in Charge, National Weather Service, Dodge City, Kansas: "The monster Greensburg, Kansas twister of May, 2007: The killer storm which nearly wiped a town off the face of the earth---how it happened and how warnings for it were issued"

• Brian Smith, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, National Weather Service-Fall City (Omaha), Nebraska: "The new Enhanced-Fujita Tornado Damage Scale: What it is and how it's different from the original Fujita Tornado Damage scale"

• Chad Cowan; life-long weather enthusiast and longtime storm chaser based in Chicago: "The Greensburg Storm: Storm Chasers capture the devastating tornado on tape; and description of a fundraising effort to help rebuild that community"

• Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune: "Don't be complacent: Nature provides evidence that a tornado disaster can happen here"

Tom Skilling"

Tom and Brian Smith began coordinating this annual seminar some years ago with support and assistance from Fermilab, from the National Weather Service, the Severe Storms Forecast Center, and many others--with the sole intent of informing and educating the public, and emergency volunteers and professionals.

This Severe Weather Seminar is free and open to the public and includes multimedia presentations from many forecasters, researchers, and noted personalities from the meteorological world.

Everyone with an interest in understanding severe weather should come to this year's seminar and take part in this wonderful learning experience, but arrive early as seating is limited!

See Tom's complete bio here.