OR-AMS Meeting Summary

“2^nd Annual Weather Sampler”

On September 20, 2007, fifteen members gathered for good drink and food…and to share their weather projects. We held our event at the Raccoon Lodge and Pub on SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Road, in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood.

Thyra Bishop said that the Oregon Air National Guard is looking for good recruits—young people are encouraged to apply. There are training tracks for weather jobs.

Bobby Corser talked about efforts to install a new WSR-88 (aka, Doppler radar) in central Oregon to bridge radar coverage gaps and help with forest fire operations. He is beginning to gather citizen and state legislative support to work with NOAA on this effort. Lobby efforts are being organized too.

Kyle Dittmer shared a creative idea—a weather contest to boost office moral. For the last nine years, he’s offered a “Summer Weather Contest” at work where people guess the start day of summer. The criteria: a string of six days of sunshine. The prize is a free lunch at a local restaurant. The contest started with few people, and now has increased to 30-35 staff each year, and interest in weather has increased.

Mark Nelsen offered his “magic charts.” He has plotted maximum air temperatures vs. 850 mb as a regression, for each month. Technique is good for long-range forecasts and is better than NOAA’s MOS model guidance.

Phil Welke showed two Infrared satellite photos of the Pacific Northwest and asked, “What time of year was this taken?” Most said it looked like a winter pattern (i.e., westerly flow). The answers: July 21 (rain on the Hillsboro air-show) and August 20 (gray skies, rain). Our weather patterns are sure changing.

Note-taker: Kyle Dittmer, OR-AMS President