The 30th Conference on Severe Local Storms (SLS30), sponsored by the AMS and organized by the AMS Committee on Severe Local Storms, will be held 12-16 October 2020 at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Basic hotel and travel information will appear on the AMS web site soon. The full conference program, registration, and general information will appear on the AMS web site (http://www.ametsoc.org) by November 2019.

Nowcasting Severe Weather in the Next Decade   

Oral and poster presentations are solicited on all topics related to severe local storms and associated hazards of tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, lightning, and flash floods.  Submissions that focus on (i) basic research towards the physical understanding of severe convective storms, (ii) the efforts to skillfully leverage that information into forecasts and warnings, or (iii) effective risk communication of hazardous weather are encouraged. We will be emphasizing research that seeks to answer specific scientific questions rather than provide general overviews of a topic.

Presentations on the following scientific themes are solicited:

1. Supercells: theoretical, modeling, and/or observational studies of supercell storms; studies relating to supercell structure, evolution, dynamics, microphysics, and environments.
2. Mesoscale Convective Systems: theoretical, modeling, or observational studies of mesoscale convective systems (e.g., QLCSs, bow echoes, etc.); studies relating to their structure, dynamics, microphysics, and environments.
3. Tornadoes: theoretical, modeling, or observational studies of tornadoes; processes associated with genesis, maintenance, and failure thereof; tornado dynamics; discrimination between tornadic and nontornadic storms; tornado detection; damage assessment; tornado environments.
4. Hail: theoretical, modeling, and/or observational studies of hail formation, growth, and melting; severe hail detection and sizing; physical properties of hailstones; hail environments.
5. Lightning: Theoretical, modeling, and/or observational studies of lightning; processes associated with lightning initiation; the relationship of lightning to the dynamics, microphysics, and kinematics of thunderstorms; lightning detection techniques.
6. Severe Local Wind: theoretical, modeling, and/or observational studies of severe convective winds; processes associated with severe wind production; severe wind detection and environments.
7. Flash Flooding: theoretical, modeling, and/or observational studies of flash flooding events; including hydrometeorological impacts of severe local storms; flash flood detection.
8. Advanced Techniques for Nowcasting and Forecasting Severe Convective Weather: advanced data assimilation, machine learning, or other numerical techniques for the analysis and prediction of convective storms and their hazards; operational forecasting products and prediction systems; severe storms forecasting.
9. Climatologies and Climate Impacts of Severe Local Storms: Novel techniques to assess regional or global climatologies of severe convective storms and their associated hazards; the impact of changing climate on severe storm environments; severe storm hazard databases; orographic/regional/local influences on severe storm environments.  
10. Societal Impacts of and Responses to Severe Local Storms: understanding the social impacts of high-impact severe storm events; societal resiliency and response to severe local storms; warning communication.

            Students are strongly encouraged to submit oral and poster presentations. Monetary awards will be given for the best oral and poster presentations by first-time student presenters at SLS30. Registrants should indicate their eligibility for student awards when submitting their abstracts. More information on funding opportunities for student travel will be made available soon in a separate announcement. Special sessions and events are being planned with a focus on student involvement in severe storms research and operations.

            Please submit your abstract electronically online at http://ams.confex.com/ams/ by the deadline date of 12 June 2020.  An abstract fee of $95 (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 may 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. Authors of posters may be asked if they are interested in giving a short 3-5 minute talk (i.e., lightning talk) to highlight their poster. Authors of accepted presentations will be notified via e-mail by mid-July 2020. Authors may submit an extended abstract (at no extra cost) electronically prior to the start of the conference and will also be accepted through electronic submission through 13 November 2020. Instructions for formatting extended abstracts (PDF format, up to 10 MB in size) will be posted on the AMS web site. All abstracts, extended abstracts and presentations will be available on the AMS web site at no additional cost.

        For additional information please contact either of the program chairs: Kristin Calhoun, Kristin.Calhoun@noaa.gov, National Severe Storms Laboratory, 120 David L. Boren Blvd., Norman, OK 73072; or Michael French, michael.m.french@stonybrook.edu, Stony Brook University, 111 Endeavour Hall, Stony Brook, NY 11794.