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Last Update 10/18/07 |
October 16, 2007 -- Melissa Griffin, Assistant State Climatologist, Florida Climate Center On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, the North Florida AMS held its October meeting. President Charlie Woodrum opened the meeting with a welcome and announcements. Charlie started off with a “Today in Weather” introduction, speaking about The Great Storm of the British Isles that occurred on October 16th, 1987. He then announced the 4th photo contest winners where 1st place went to Charlene Forgue for “Funnel cloud - Freeport (Port Lucaya), Bahamas” taken 17 August 2007, 2nd place went to Marc Austin, and 3rd place went to Danielle Niles. Charlie then announced the national conference deadline of Friday, October 19th for applications for scholarships and grants. Committee reports followed with Andy Latto, Programs Committee Chair, discussing the upcoming Golf Tournament on Sunday, November 4th and briefly reviewing the rules for the tournament and prices are to be $45 for members, $50 for non-members, and $25 for members of the golf course. He also announced the AMS tailgate which will be November 17th for a home game against Maryland outside the Love building. Kevin McKee followed with an account balance of $1,764.31 and that the chapter made $101.17 from the car wash (6 members attended) and $30 from the Cici’s event. He then talked about the membership/fundraising committee report and coordinating the AMS basketball tailgate with the Nole Zone. Liane Claytor followed with an update on the first bake sale, having made over $70 and announced the next will be Wednesday, Oct. 24th and the one thereafter on Wednesday Nov. 14th. Alec Bogdanoff followed with his Science and Education Committee report. Alec gave an update about an outreach opportunity with Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Safety Fair for tabling about Tornado Safety on Wednesday, October 17th, a Science Fair at Chaires Elementary on Tuesday, October 23rd from 7:45 am – 11am, and an opportunity at St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge. He is continuing to talk to Dr. Ellingson about a community weather day, and then went on to propose the amendments. The first one discussed the Member of the Year award and went over how the point system would work, and the winner will receive a plaque in the Love building along with a free ticket to the end of the year banquet. The next amendment proposed to have the Science Education Committee written into the constitution with the same responsibilities. Charlie took a vote and both amendments passed. Charlie then talked about an outreach opportunity with the Red Cross at the Downtown Getdown for a Fire/Weather House where members can go to a short training session at 5:45pm for 15 minutes until the event starts, which runs from 6-9pm. Volunteers simulate fire or tornado conditions for kids to teach them what to do in the event of an emergency situation. The first session is Friday, Oct 19th and the two following are on Friday Oct. 26th and Friday, November 16th. Andy then introduced our featured speaker, Melissa Griffin, the Florida State CoCoRaHS Co-Coordinator, is serving as the Assistant State Climatologist at the Florida Climate Center. Melissa has a degree in Meteorology from FSU and has been part of the State Climate Office since 2000. She works at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies and is a member of the Southeast Climate Consortium, along with the American Association of State Climatologists. Melissa Griffin talked about CoCoRAHS and how the program began as a response to a flash flood in Ft. Collins, CO in 1997 which resulted in $120 million in damage and 5 fatalities. Ft. Collins received 14.5 inches of precipitation while the NWS office 5 miles away only received 2 inches, resulting in the public not receiving enough time for the warning. Currently, CoCoRAHS has 23 states involved in the program with over 12,000 observers. The program averages about 100 rainfall reports a day in Florida and usually verifies with Storm Total Precipitation from the NWS. For more information or anyone who would like to join, their website is http://www.cocorahs.org. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 6th. For more information: Charlie Woodrum, northflams@gmail.com. Report submitted by Liane Claytor, Secretary. |
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