Meeting Theme and Mission Statement

The 32nd Conference on Severe Local Storms will bring together scientists, students, forecasters, industry professionals, and decision-makers working across the spectrum of severe convective storm research and applications. Our mission is to promote the exchange of cutting-edge science, operational practices, and emerging technologies that advance understanding, prediction, and communication of severe local storms, including tornadoes, hail, damaging winds, and heavy precipitation.

This year, we aim to strengthen connections between research, operations, and industry, fostering collaboration across communities focused on storm dynamics, forecasting, impacts, and risk management. We encourage participation from those studying fundamental convective processes, numerical modeling, machine learning and AI applications, field campaigns, and societal impacts of severe weather. Join us as we reflect on recent advances and shape the future of severe local storm science and its applications.

Who Attends?

We expect about 350 people to attend the hybrid 32nd Conference on Severe Local Storms. Attendees include scientists and researchers, operational forecasters, educators and students, and professionals from industry sectors such as insurance, risk management, and emergency response. Participants represent a broad community engaged in all aspects of severe convective storms across the United States and internationally.

The Severe Local Storms Conference last met in 2024.

Why Attend?

• Engage in career development and networking
  • Connect with leaders across academia, government, and industry through dedicated networking sessions and collaborative opportunities that support career growth for students and professionals alike.
• Learn from leading experts and operational practitioners
  • Gain insight into the latest advancements in severe storm forecasting, modeling, and impacts from researchers and forecasters at the forefront of the field.
• Explore specialized sessions across the SLS spectrum
  • Dive into topics such as tornado dynamics, hail growth and damage, convective storm environments, warn-on-forecast, machine learning/AI applications, and forecast communication.
• Examine new observations and field campaign results
  • Review findings from recent field efforts (e.g., mobile radar, in-situ measurements, UAS platforms) and emerging datasets that are transforming our understanding of severe storms.

The 32nd Conference on Severe Local Storms (32SLS), sponsored by the AMS and organized by the AMS Committee on Severe Local Storms, will be held 3-7 August 2026 in Madison, WI & Online as a part of the 2026 AMS Madison Summit.

Severe Local Storms: Severe Local Storms: Advancing Prediction, Preparedness, and Resilience

Oral and poster presentations are solicited on a broad range of topics related to severe local storms and their associated hazards, including tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, damaging winds, and extreme precipitation. We invite presentations on studies ranging from physical understanding of severe convective storms and their processes and hazards, to forecasting and nowcasting severe storm events, to how we educate, train, and communicate information about severe local storms to the next generation of scientists and the public. We especially encourage submissions for presentations focusing on the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into severe storm research and forecasting, innovative uses of large and diverse datasets to uncover new insights into convective processes, and the continued evolution of observation, modeling, and communication strategies to advance understanding and resilience in severe local storms.

Presentations on the following scientific themes are solicited:

Exploring the Frontiers of AI/ML in Severe Local Storms

This session features groundbreaking and atypical applications of artificial intelligence in severe storms research. Emphasis is placed on novel architectures, interdisciplinary methods, and exploratory research that pushes the boundaries of how AI can be used to observe, model, and understand severe local storms.

Tornadogenesis: New Insights from Observations and Models

This session emphasizes fresh perspectives on long-standing questions about tornado formation. Contributions integrating data from recent field campaigns, numerical experiments, and theoretical frameworks to advance the understanding of tornadic processes are particularly welcome.

Derechoes and Significant Convective Wind Events

This session highlights research on the structure, evolution, and predictability of derechoes and other severe convective wind events. Presentations will explore observational analyses, numerical modeling, and forecasting challenges related to mesoscale convective systems and their associated hazards.

Convection-Allowing Models and Forecasting

This session highlights recent progress in convection-allowing numerical modeling and its application to forecasting severe convective storms. Presentations will explore model design, initialization strategies, ensemble methods, and verification approaches that improve prediction of storm-scale processes and hazards

Advances in Tornado Damage Assessment and Survey Methodology

This session highlights recent developments in tornado survey practices, including the use of emerging technologies such as drones, high-resolution aerial imagery, mobile mapping, and novel damage indicators. Presentations will explore how improved survey methods enhance our understanding of tornado intensity, structure, and societal impacts.

The Human Dimension of Severe Local Storm Risk

Focusing on the intersection of meteorology, psychology, and risk communication, this session investigates how people perceive, interpret, and act on severe weather threats, with an eye toward improving outcomes through more effective communication and education.

Toward Improved Understanding and Prediction of Heavy Rainfall and Flash Floods

This session highlights new research on the processes governing heavy rainfall and flash flooding, spanning observations, theory, and modeling. Presentations will address storm-scale dynamics, hydrologic response, and forecast innovations aimed at improving situational awareness and early warning.

The In-Situ Collaborative Experiment for the Collection of Hail in the Plains (ICECHIP)

This session invites abstracts that report on or directly support ICECHIP activities. Relevant topics include hail collection methods, instrumentation performance, field campaign design and operations, data quality and analysis, radar or satellite integration with in-situ observations, microphysical insights, modeling tied to ICECHIP datasets, and societal applications of ICECHIP results. Submissions should emphasize findings, lessons learned, or novel approaches emerging from the experiment and its collaborations.

Advancing Understanding of Supercell Dynamics and Hazards

This session focuses on the physical processes governing supercell thunderstorms and their associated hazards, including tornadoes, hail, wind, and flooding. Presentations will highlight new observational, modeling, and theoretical insights into supercell structure, evolution, and predictability across spatial and temporal scales.

Novel Field Observations of Severe Convective Storms

This session highlights advances in the design and deployment of in-situ instrumentation for observing severe convective storms. Presentations will showcase novel data collection strategies that improve understanding of storm structure, microphysics, and/or near-surface environments.

Societal, Economic, and Industrial Impacts of Severe Convective Storms

This session explores how severe convective storms affect industry, infrastructure, and the broader economy. Presentations will highlight approaches to quantifying losses, assessing vulnerability, and integrating meteorological insights into risk management, resilience planning, and decision-making across sectors such as insurance, energy, agriculture, and transportation.

Insights into Severe Storms through Remote Sensing

This session highlights advances in understanding severe convective storms through a wide range of remote sensing technologies, including satellite, radar, lidar, lightning mapping, and in situ sensing. Presentations will showcase how multi-sensor observations enhance knowledge of storm structure, evolution, and associated hazards across scales.

Climate Drivers of Severe Convective Storms: Past, Present, and Future

Focusing on the role of climate variability and change in shaping severe storm behavior, this session welcomes contributions examining historical trends, subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability, and projections of future convective risk in a warming climate.

From Lines to Complexes: Advances in Organized Convective System Research

This session explores the continuum of organized convective modes, from quasi-linear systems to long-lived mesoscale convective complexes, and their associated hazards. Contributions that integrate observational analysis, modeling, and operational forecasting perspectives are encouraged.

High-Temporal-Resolution Radar Perspectives on Severe Convection

Emphasizing the capabilities of phased array radar and/or other rapid temporally updating radar platforms, this session invites research demonstrating how rapid-update radar observations improve detection, analysis, and forecasting of supercells, tornadoes, and other severe convective hazards.

Advances in Cloud Microphysics Towards the Improvement of Severe and High Impact Weather Modeling

This joint session seeks to bring together the severe local storms and cloud microphysics communities to highlight recent advances in our understanding of cloud microphysics, and bring attention to the knowledge gaps which future studies and field campaigns might target to rapidly fill in those gaps.

Educational Innovations in Teaching and Learning Severe Weather

Severe and high impact weather are powerful motivators of student learning. This session will accelerate the exchange of educational innovations related to teaching and learning severe weather concepts. Contributions from a variety of educational settings and specialization levels will be encouraged.

Possible areas for solicitation include: 

• Case studies of educational innovations (e.g., new field courses, gamification)
• Integrating educational initiatives into severe weather field campaigns
• Active learning demonstrations
• Strategies for teaching severe weather to atmospheric science majors vs nonmajors
• Course materials, curricula, and software (particularly open-source)
• Severe weather literacy and strategies for combating misinformation
• Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) studies 
• Informal learning (e.g., museums, public outreach)

General Contributions in Severe Local Storms

 

The next generation of scientists are a critical part of the severe local storms community, and we strongly encourage submissions for oral and poster presentations from both early career and student presenters. Students will be eligible for monetary awards for both oral and poster presentations. Travel awards will be available for student attendees and more information on funding opportunities for student travel will be made available soon in a separate announcement. Special sessions and events are being planned to provide professional development opportunities for early career scientists and students. Given the collaborative setting of the Madison Summit, we are also planning joint sessions and panel discussions with other conferences.

            Please submit your abstract electronically online at http://ams.confex.com/ams/ by the deadline date of 2 April 2026. An abstract fee of $120 (payable by credit card or purchase order) is required at the time of submission. Please note that some abstracts may not be accepted, depending on program constraints, relevance, and merit of subject matter. In such cases the abstract fee will be refunded. Authors should indicate their preference for an oral or poster presentation during abstract submission; those authors presenting more than one paper should clearly indicate which they prefer for a possible oral presentation. Oral presentation slots are limited; thus, authors may only request one oral submission, but are welcome to present multiple posters. Early career and student authors of posters may be asked if they are interested in giving a short 2-3 minute talk (i.e., lightning talk) to highlight their poster.

For additional information please contact either of the program chairs: Victor Gensini, [email protected] or Jenni Pittman, [email protected].