Winter 2022
CCM Newsletter
|
|
| |
 |
|
From the Chair
Dear CCM Colleagues,
We are closing in on the 102nd AMS Annual Meeting. Traditionally, this is a busy conference for the BCCM. Over two to four days of the Annual Meeting, the BCCM would conduct oral exams for an entire year of applicants. However, with the advent of virtual oral exams, we have no oral exams scheduled for the Annual Meeting. Another result of the virtual oral exams is removal of the requirement for members of the BCCM to attend the AMS Annual Meeting and meet face to face. I have mixed feelings towards that outcome. The greatest pleasure of serving on this board was developing relationships/ networking with individuals on the BCCM and AMS. I have made friendships and connections with many board members over four years, and I am very appreciative of them. I also understand that attending the annual meeting four consecutive years is a considerable expense. I hope that the virtual experience of oral exams and BCCM meetings does not reduce the opportunity for board members to establish new professional relationships. All CCMs benefit from attending the AMS Annual Meeting to reconnect with CCMs and friends or establish new friendships and connections with CCMs.
The BCCM performed two virtual oral exams in the fourth quarter of 2021. We ended 2021 with 18 oral exams given virtually. It has been a busy year. The BCCM received a surge of applications in October and November. We are now at 17 CCM applicants in 2021 as of this writing.
The BCCM met December 14th for the fourth quarter meeting. Discussion of the AMS Annual Meeting was a significant part of the meeting. It includes our next meeting - the annual BCCM meeting scheduled for 1pm Central Tuesday January 25, 2022. During the meeting, Tom Bellinger transitions to the Chair position of the BCCM, and Dr. Sam Miller serves the Chair-elect position of the BCCM for 2022.
The board continued to discuss improving exam procedures. There are several issues being discussed. One is reducing the amount of time for re-application of candidates that pass the written exam and consulting essay but fail the oral exam. Before that can be voted on, the BCCM needs to discuss new procedures and build a new slide show. Elliot Abrams volunteered to build a new slide show for the board to consider. Julie Gaddy, Tom Bellinger, and Morgan Yarker continue to gather, review, refine and develop new consulting essay questions as a sub-committee. Looking ahead, the BCCM is in the initial stages of developing a short course for the 2023 AMS Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado. If you would like to participate in developing that course, please email myself or Tom Bellinger.
Finally, I want to express my gratitude to everyone that I have served with on the BCCM over the previous four years. It is an experience that I treasure. Four years ago, I began my first term on the BCCM. I can say after four years of significant work and service, I truly understand and appreciate the privilege of serving the CCM community.
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 Tom Bellinger. Enjoy the New Year!
Mark McGinnis (CCM #722)
Chair, Board of Certified Consulting Meteorologists
American Meteorological Society
| | |
The Value of a CCM
By Paul H. Gross, AMS Fellow, CCM, and CBM
This past month, I had the privilege of testifying in a trial in Bloomington, Indiana. The case involved a fatal vehicular crash on an interstate. There was ice on the road that caused many slide-offs. The Indiana Department of Transportation knew about the ice hours beforehand, and didn’t salt.
I’ve worked many cases like this, and have been hired by plaintiff attorneys as well as a state’s attorney general’s office defending its department of transportation in similar matters. In this particular case I was hired by the plaintiff attorney.
The defense hired a non-CCM meteorologist to help with their side of things. And I cannot articulate strongly enough the difference between me the CCM and the non-CCM. The non-CCM testified that there was sleet, when there was no indication whatsoever on the surface observations of any sleet. He also showed a completed lack of understanding of what BR means on a surface observation. He also didn’t know the difference between ice fog and freezing fog. He actually said that ice fog caused the ice on the road surface.
I made it emphatically clear to my client what the difference is between a CCM and a non-CCM, and our respective testimonies bore that out. I also gave him specific cross examination questions to flesh out the non-CCM’s lack of AMS certification. The opposing attorney surely had to pay attention to this. I urge you to educate your clients about what a CCM is. We ourselves can personally show the legal community the difference!
|
|
|
Notes from the Field:
Forensic Meteorology Trends in 2021
By Dan Schreiber, CCM
Comparatively speaking to 2020, business boomed for most of 2021 in forensic meteorology. The importance of using competent experts for insurance claims and litigation is becoming more recognized.
Here are some trends that I noticed this past year:
1) Depositions are on the rise. If I publish a weather report for litigation, I am almost certain to be deposed, even when an opposing expert and I agree. Billable hours…
2) Impolite opposing council seems to be a more common trend. I’ve had some real friendly OC’s, but some equally borderline rude OC’s.
3) There is lots of questioning about the weather at an exact location – especially if there isn’t a reliable weather sensor or report nearby. A sharp meteorologist can navigate this questioning easily, but so can a sharp OC. Be ready.
4) Use of automated weather reports remain an issue. Even worse, there are now companies posing as meteorological firms and publishing in-depth written forensic meteorological reports – and these folks are not even scientists. In fact, in one instance, the “expert” was someone who majored in “Russian Studies.” Research your rebuttal experts and their opinions!
5) There continue to be some errors and outdated methodologies utilized, even among professional meteorologists (CCMs included, at a lesser rate). I encourage everyone to do their best to remain on top of the most relevant studies and methods in the science. A lot has changed in the past ten to fifteen years. Stay relevant.
|
|
|
|
Professional Development Opportunities
|
|
|
Introduction to the Community WRF-Hydro Modeling System: Interactive Hands-on Tutorial
Thursday, February 10th at 10:00 AM-6:00 PM Eastern
|
|
In this one day tutorial we will provide an introduction to the capabilities within WRF-Hydro and provide participants with the basic building blocks to start their research with it. Example studies of events and model simulations will be presented as a demonstration of WRF-Hydro’s capabilities. Participants will gain experience with hands-on model configuration and execution and run experimental model simulations and comparisons with a prepared example test case. Participants will also be provided with information on additional resources that can be used to further their familiarity with WRF-Hydro and build on the basics learned during this tutorial. Registration deadline is Friday, February 7, 2022.
|
| |
Navigating the Waters of Social Media
Wednesday, January 12th at 2:00 PM Eastern
|
|
This webinar will go over best practices on using social media in the weather, water and climate enterprise, especially as we approach the AMS Annual Meeting.
|
| |
Hydrology Committee "Meet Your Session Chair"
Friday, January 14th at 1:00 PM Eastern
|
|
Now in its second year, the AMS Committee on Hydrology's "Meet Your Session Chair" Webinar allows session chairs from the 36th Conference on Hydrology at the 102nd Annual Meeting to advertise their sessions and for participants to meet the chairs!
|
| |
 |
|
|
At long last, COMET has completed their Flash conversion project!!! This project updated literally hundreds of lessons in their training catalog to eliminate Flash, and ensure their future usability. In many cases, especially for the older lessons, the conversion also resulted in a refreshing interface update, making the lessons feel newer.
This project has not kept them from continuing to create and produce new materials. Below you will find links to four new MetEd lessons published by COMET in the past quarter, on aviation forecasting, an IBF approach to typhoon forecasting in Taiwan, lightning awareness, and the application of probabilistic principles. They also published one lesson in Spanish on IBF, as well as five lessons in French, and one in Portuguese.
Everyone at COMET thanks you for using their training materials, and sends you their best wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year!
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.
New COMET Lessons in English
- Meteorological Observations for Aviation Forecasting
-
Communicating Typhoon Risks in Taiwan: The Impact-based Forecast and Warning Services Approach
- Improving Lightning Awareness Using GOES-R GLM Products and Ground-based Observations
-
NWP: Applications of Probabilistic Principles
New COMET Lesson in Spanish
Pronóstico basado en impactos: identificación de peligros y construcción de tablas de impactos
New COMET Lessons in French
The easiest way to see the 5 new lessons in French, 4 on hydrology and one on Air Quality, is to display a listing of lessons in French from the MetEd lesson catalogue.
Currently, these materials are freely available to everyone, courtesy of primary sponsors. Sponsors include 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.tyling, and even Personalization Codes!
|
| |
|
Congratulations to the following individual who completed all requirements for certification and was added to the roll of AMS's active CCMs:
Bryan Mroczka #775
|
| |
Massively Open Online Course on Sustainability and Climate Resilience
|
|
|
|
|
Contributed by Gad Levy, NorthWest Research Associates (CCM #501)
PORSEC Association Course on Sustainability and Climate Resilience through Ocean Monitoring by Satellite Remote Sensing, February 21, 2022 to March 21, 2022.
Register here by January 21, 2022. Please email with any questions. Tuition fee waiver for early career scientists!
Synopsis
To support development in the maritime climate preparedness, one needs technology capable of monitoring the oceans, marginal seas, and coastal areas thoroughly and systematically. In that respect, remote sensing from space is unmatched in terms of spatial temporal coverage and accessibility. Remote sensing technology, along with in situ measurements, is essential for monitoring marine natural resources & for assessing climate and human impacts in coastal areas, (e.g., monitoring sea level and sea level rise, coral reefs, and marine utilization planning for various sectors of the economy such as tourism). It is also crucial for monitoring and studying climate variability and change, biodiversity and ecosystems, and changes in the atmospheric, marine, and coastal domains and their societal impact. These topics, among others, address several crucial Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At course end, participant will be able to:
-
Apply remote sensing & GIS techniques, along with in-situ measurements for monitoring the oceans, marginal seas, and coastal areas.
-
Communicate effectively about practical examples of remote sensing and GIS techniques used for monitoring the ocean-atmosphere system in research and operations.
-
Network with students and scientists from around the globe towards conducting ocean- atmosphere project using remote sensing techniques.
Implementation
Course will include lectures, pre-recorded videos, and a group project:
- Participants will be grouped by topic of interest. Facilitators will be assigned as mentors.
-
Participants present project outputs at the end of course.
|
| |
Upcoming Meetings
Please see information on AMS meetings and COVID-19.
102nd AMS Annual Meeting
23–27 January 2022, Houston, TX
13th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography
8–12 February 2022, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa
2022 AMS Washington Forum
25–28 April 2022, Washington, DC
35th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
9–13 May 2022, New Orleans, LA
23rd Conference on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics
13-17 June 2022, Breckenridge, CO
49th Conference on Broadcast Meteorology/Sixth Conference on Weather Warnings and Communication
14–17 June 2022, Milwaukee, WI
20th Conference on Mountain Meteorology
27 June–1 July 2022, Park City, UT
24th Symposium on Boundary Layers and Turbulence
11–15 July 2022, Šibenik, Croatia
Collective Madison Meeting
8-12 August 2022, Madison, WI
30th Conference on Severe Local Storms
24–28 October 2022, Santa Fe, NM
40th Conference on Radar Meteorology
27 August–1 September 2023, Minneapolis, MN
|
|
|
|
LinkedIn
Please join the CCM LinkedIn group if you haven’t already! The group is accessible and open only to CCMs. Follow the link above 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.
| | |
|
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.
| | |
|
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 Spring 2022 newsletter submission deadline is March 15, 2022.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
.png?cb=261934)
