Spring 2021
CCM Newsletter
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From the Chair
Dear CCM Colleagues,
The experience of serving on the board has been enriching and I am appreciative of this opportunity to work this final year as Chair. To serve the American Meteorological Society is an honor, but to get to know and work with such an elite and diverse group of meteorologists is well beyond my original expectations. I look forward to working with Charlie Paxton, Chair Elect 2021, and the entire CCM board. It also must be shared with the entire CCM community of the great and challenging work 2020 Chair, Pam Knox, undertook as the board transitioned from in-person oral exams to virtual exams. The groundwork laid down by Pam and the CCM board will have a long-term influence on how the CCM board operates going forward. It was simply, a significant undertaking. Thank you Pam!
Please allow me to introduce myself. I was designated a CCM in 2016; however, my professional career began in 1996 as a broadcast meteorologist. I was designated the AMS Seal of Approval for Broadcast in 1998 and about ten years later earned the designation of CBM from the AMS. It was also about that time period, that I began to have misgivings with the broadcast industry. Because of the time conflict with my family, I began to explore other career options in meteorology. I began consulting in 2013 and left the broadcast industry as a full-time employee in 2016. I maintain a much healthier work/life balance now.
So far in 2021, the BCCM remains busy. The board is beginning to approach the end of the backlog of CCM candidates. Here is an update on the status of our activities:
1) 8 virtual oral exams have been administered since January 2021
2) 4 more virtual oral exams are scheduled by early May
By early May, the board should be caught up with the backlog - just in time for summer.
We have onboarded our three newest board members. TC Moore, Adam Pasch, and Morgan Yarker are paired up with excellent mentors and are on a rapid learning curve.
We are in spring with May 1st rapidly approaching. The BCCM encourages nominations for the Henry T. Harrison Award for achievement by a consulting meteorologist. Nominations are due to the AMS by Saturday, May 1. Please take time to consider nominating a fellow CCM. You can read more about the qualifications and enter a nomination on the AMS website.
If you have any questions or concerns, I can be reached by email. If you are interested in serving on the board, in the future, please email myself or Chair-elect Charlie Paxton. I look forward to working with the board and representing the CCM community in 2021.
Mark McGinnis (CCM #722)
Chair, Board of Certified Consulting Meteorologists
American Meteorological Society
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Careers in Radar Meteorology
Wednesday, 31 March 2021 - 2:00pm Eastern Time
Five scientists from various sectors of the atmospheric sciences will reflect on their careers thus far and how radar has been a foundational part of their journey. Participants will learn about a variety of career opportunities while having the opportunity ask questions of our esteemed panel. The panel discussion will be followed by breakout sessions with each panelist for smaller group discussions regarding pathways to a successful careers in radar meteorology.
Register Here
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2021 San Jose State University Fire Weather Research Workshop
Thursday, April 8, and Friday, April 9, 2021 - 9:00am Pacific Time
This workshop aims to provide the latest information and current state-of-knowledge on fire weather research to fire management agencies, scientists, students and other stakeholders. For the workshop's second year, the speaker list has been extended to colleagues and partners across the world to provide an international perspective on current fire weather research. The online workshop has been split into two days with three 1-hour sessions each.
The workshop sessions will cover fuels and fire danger, remote sensing of the fire environment, fire weather indices and case studies, coupled fire-atmosphere modeling advances, and smoke modeling and impacts. The workshop ends with a panel discussion on management and mitigation of wildland fire effects.
Register Here
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The Board of Continuing Professional Development Is Now on Twitter
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Thanks to support from the AMS and the Board of Continuing Professional Development (BCPD) team, the Twitter account was recently launched. The Board is focused on sharing webinar and professional growth opportunities with the AMS community. They hope to grow their following and hear from others.
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Teach an AMS Short Course
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Don't miss the opportunity to organize a Short Course at the 102nd AMS Annual Meeting! Short Courses will take place the weekend before the start of the conference. The deadline to submit proposals has been extended to April 15th. Learn More »
Prior course topics include machine learning, consulting meteorology, forensic meteorology, catastrophe modeling, and artificial intelligence applications, to name a few. AMS certification holders receive three professional development points for leading a short course!
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Contributed by Alicia Wasula, CCM (Cropseyville, NY)
The Association of Certified Meteorologists (ACM) Small Business Forum (SBF) held its first quarterly meeting on February 17th. The topic of the evening was "Business Entities and Financial Planning for Small Business Owners," and the guest speakers included an accountant and a financial planner. The event was well attended and there was plenty of discussion.
The second quarterly SBF meeting will be held in May 2021, and the event is open to all associate and consulting members of ACM. If you are a small business owner, or thinking of starting a small business, the SBF is an invaluable resource for peer networking and information. If you are not yet a member of ACM and are interested in joining to attend upcoming SBF meetings, please contact Tim Hall.
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Exciting Weather Opportunities
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Contributed by H. Michael Mogil, CCM, CBM, NWA Digital Seal (Naples, FL)
Sky Awareness Week (SAW) is on the not too distant horizon (April 18-24). This year, the week-long celebration of the sky (clouds, optical phenomena, planets, and stars) affords all an opportunity to appreciate sky beauty, to understand sky and weather processes, and to work together to protect the sky as a natural resource. Consider using this as a way to integrate sky awareness into other Earth Day activities that take place around the same time. This includes offering talks to nature centers, schools and home schools, scout troops, museums, and other settings in either in-person or virtual settings. I'll be providing a weather merit badge program (including sky awareness, weather preparedness, and much more) virtually to a scout troop near Minneapolis, MN. I'm also working with a private school in Naples, FL to help teachers offer a program to their students (grades K-8).
Sky photographs are welcome year-round at www.facebook.com/sky.awareness.week
or via e-mail at ccm@weatherworks.com.
NOAA's Weather Ready Nation (WRN) is a program focused on readying communities across the U.S. for extreme weather, water, and climate events. The program enlists volunteers/activists from the weather and related communities to help in this herculean effort. This includes emergency managers, TV meteorologists, weather-related companies, and others.
Each year, the program recognizes dozens of people who have excelled in helping the program be successful. Last year (2020), CCM, H. Michael (Mike) Mogil was one of the recipients. You can see the spectrum of individuals and organizations involved by visiting
the site. Just click on any number or image here to see the recipient's contributions and efforts. To find Mike's citation, scroll right to recipient #16.
If either you and/or your company aren't already a participant in the WRN program, this may be a good time to take the plunge. You can visit the WRN website or contact Douglas Hilderbrand, the WRN Program Leader at 301-758-8330 or by email to learn more.
Weatherwise Magazine's "Weather & Climate of the States" series is looking for meteorologists to help co-author state-focused articles about the weather/climate in their state. CCMs, including Pam Knox, Paul Gross, and others, have already co-authored articles with series-director, H. Michael Mogil. Articles in the pipeline for 2021 include South Carolina, North Carolina, and Minnesota.
If you have an interest in writing a layperson-targeted article (roughly 2,500 words with a small sidebar) and helping to create/find graphics and weather images, please contact H. Michael Mogil at 240-426-2900 or by email for details. Note that your state may have already been covered in an earlier article. Timing for delivery of an article is always negotiable. There is a small stipend paid for being a co-author.
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Major Changes to National Weather Service Hazard Bulletins Coming in 2024
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Contributed by Randy Bass, CCM (Manassas, Virginia)
Based on results of extensive social science research with partners and the public, the NWS will be implementing changes to its hazard messaging headlines in 2024. All "Advisory" headlines within what is currently the NWS Watch, Warning and Advisory system will be discontinued, with most being replaced with plain language headlines that clearly articulate the nature of the hazard. Additionally, all "Special Weather Statements" will be discontinued, also in favor of plain language headlines. The exact language to be used in the plain language headlines for each affected hazard is still to be determined. NWS will host partner webinars and collect public feedback via on-line surveys during 2021 to inform development of plain language headlines.
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Below you will find links to the new MetEd lessons published by COMET over the past three months, including three new English lessons covering such topics as cloud seeding, probabilistic forecasting, and the use of satellite products in evaluating convective maintenance. The Operational Models Encyclopedia has also been updated.
The COMET integration team continues to remove Flash from its lessons, many of which have also received a facelift in the process. And you may have noticed a change in the presentation of our lesson catalog, part of our continuing effort to improve and update the MetEd site.
The entire group at COMET thanks you for using their training materials, and hope you are able to stay safe during this period of abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NOTE: You now need to login to view course details. Please use the button at the end of this article to view the catalog, and then search for the specific course you are interested in.
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New COMET Lessons in English
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NWP Vignettes: Foundations in Probabilistic Forecasting
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Operational Models Encyclopedia
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Satellite Products for Evaluating Convective Maintenance
- How Cloud Seeding Works
New COMET Lessons in Spanish
This quarter, COMET published five lessons in Spanish: four of them complete the intermediate S-290 fire weather course (also published in Spanish), and one covers the identification of vorticity minima and vorticity maxima in satellite images.
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Identificación e impactos de los máximos y mínimos de vorticidad en imágenes satelitales
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S-290: Introducción
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S-290 Unidad 9: Observación del tiempo
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S-290 Unidad 10: Humedad del combustible
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S-290 Unidad 8: Mantenerse al tanto de las condiciones atmosféricas
New COMET Lessons in French
COMET also published four lessons in French, three on NWP, and one on the use of social science to communicate risk.
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Les essentiels de la PNT : Assimilation des données
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Les essentiels de la PNT : La physique des modèles
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Les essentiels de la PNT : Précipitations et nuages
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Améliorer la communication des risques en tirant parti des sciences sociales
Currently, these materials are freely available to everyone, courtesy of COMET's primary sponsors, including NOAA's NWS, NESDIS and NOS programs, EUMETSAT, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Meteorological Service of Canada, Bureau of Meteorology, the USACE, DOI/Reclamation, and the World Meteorological Organization.
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Contributed by Randy Bass, CCM (Manassas, Virginia)
During the Association of Certified Meteorologists (ACM) Annual Meeting in January, the permanent status of Honorary Retired Emeritus was bestowed upon Steve Harned in recognition of his stellar career and years of dedicated service to the ACM. During the virtual ceremony, ACM President Tim Hall highlighted just a few of Steve’s achievements during a career that has spanned over 50 years and bridges across the public, private, and academic professional sectors.
Even before he graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in meteorology, Steve was hired by the U.S. Weather Bureau and worked summers with the Weather Bureau Airport Station in Bristol, TN. After graduation in 1970, he served 4 years on active duty in the Navy as a meteorology and oceanography officer and then remained in the Naval Reserves, retiring as a Navy Captain (O-6) in 1995. After his active duty days, Steve rejoined what by then was the National Weather Service (NWS) and embarked on a three-decade career as a public servant. He held a number of managerial, staff, and forecasting positions in Raleigh, Houston, Anchorage, Silver Spring, and Lubbock during his NWS career, even appearing on TV while in Anchorage as an assistant meteorologist on the PBS-sponsored broadcast of “Aviation Weather.”
After retiring from the NWS in 2004, he formed the consulting firm Atlantic States Weather, Inc., spending the next 15 years providing forensic meteorological services for a wide variety of clients throughout the US and even Europe. During this period, he also found time to hold the position of Lecturer on Atmospheric Sciences staff at NC State University, where he served as lead instructor for an introductory course on weather and climate.
Steve didn’t just work in weather, he lived it. Stemming from a strong desire to advance the career field in all three sectors, and also to mentor and support future generations of meteorologists, he has given his time to multiple committees and boards within the AMS, the National Weather Association (NWA), and the ACM. Specifically, he has served on the AMS Board of Best Practices, the Board of CCMs, and the AMS Board for Private Sector Meteorologists. He also served as the technical editor and publisher for the NWA’s National Weather Digest and recently served as both a member and the chair of the ACM Marketing Committee.
Steve sold his company in 2019 and now enjoys life with his wife Jeanne in Leland, NC. If he isn’t golfing or on the beach, you may still find him volunteering on the World War II battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington.
The ACM is privileged to have Steve Harned as a member and we are honored to recognize his stellar contributions to our nation, the career field, and to the ACM with honorary membership status as Retired Emeritus.
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Congratulations to the following individuals who completed all requirements for certification and were added to the roll of AMS's active CCMs:
Douglas Stolz #761
Andrew Desrosiers #762
Caroline Suffern #763
Jim Fox #764
Robert Eicher #765
Patricia Lawston Parker #766
Louise Fode #767
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Upcoming Meetings
Please see information on AMS meetings and COVID-19.
2021 AMS Washington Forum
26–29 April 2021, Virtual Meeting
34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
10–14 May 2021, Virtual Meeting
13th Fire and Forest Meteorology Symposium
11–13 May 2021, Virtual Meeting
16th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography
1–4 June 2021, Virtual Meeting
34th Conference on Agricultural and Forest Meteorology/Fifth Conference on Atmospheric Biogeosciences
21–23 June 2021, Virtual Meeting
30th Conference on Severe Local Storms
18–22 October 2021, Santa Fe, NM
102nd AMS Annual Meeting
23–27 January 2022
35th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
9–13 May 2022, New Orleans, LA
49th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology/Sixth Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication
14-17 June 2022, Milwaukee, WI
24th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence
11–15 July 2022, Šibenik, Croatia
40th Conference on Radar Meteorology
30 August–3 September 2021, Minneapolis, MN
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LinkedIn
Please join the CCM LinkedIn group if you haven’t already! The group is accessible and open only to CCMs. Follow the link anove and click "Request to join." LinkedIn is an easy way for CCMs to communicate with each other and to keep abreast of news, developments, and items of interest.
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Twitter
For all CCMs, colleagues, and the general public, we also have a Twitter
account. If you are on Twitter, please follow the handle @AMS_BCCM and use it to promote your activities and events.
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Thank you to all of our contributors for this issue
We encourage you to share your experiences, views, findings, or studies for the next newsletter. E-mail your articles to Kelly Savoie and Rex Horner. This newsletter as well as past issues are available online.
The Summer 2021 newsletter submission deadline is June 15, 2021.
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