[Skywarn] News from Norman

[Lloyd Colston]

News from our friends at the Norman Office.  Spring may be early this year.
 Our focus on severe weather is in February in Altus.  Many of the
activities Rick mentioned will be replicated here along with other events.

Lloyd


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Smith - NOAA Federal <richard.smith at noaa.gov>
Date: Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 8:11 AM
Subject: News Update from NWS Norman
To:


This is the busy time of year here at NWS Norman, and probably for you,
too, as we start gearing up for the traditional severe weather season. I
wanted to share a few news items, updates and information about upcoming
events. Feel free to share this with anyone who might be interested!

STORM SPOTTER TRAINING
We had our first class this past week in Guthrie with a great turnout -
around 80 people from six counties around the area. We have three more
classes coming up in the next week:
Sat Feb 9 - 9am - Wichita Falls
Mon Feb 11 - 7pm - Lawton
Tue Feb 12 - 7pm - Norman (National Weather Center)

Here's the complete schedule http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=spottertalklist

OTHER OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
Our outreach calendar is pretty full this time of year. Here's are a few of
the events we're taking part in over the next few weeks:

2/19 - judging a regional science fair at the University of Central Oklahoma
2/20 - tornado safety presentation at Southeastern Oklahoma State University
2/21 - safety presentation at career tech facility managers meeting at MNTC
2/23 - severe weather safety day in Durant
2/25 - spotter training in Altus
2/26 - first spotter training webinar of the season
2/27 - Oklahoma Emergency Management legislative day at the State Capitol

NATIONAL SEVERE WEATHER WORKSHOP/NATIONAL TORNADO SUMMIT
The annual National Severe Weather Workshop is joining forces with the
National Tornado Summit this year for a joint event March 10-12. It will be
held at the Cox Convention Center in OKC. The event begins on Sunday March
10th with a free to the public severe weather safety fair, featuring the
weather teams from all the OKC TV stations. I will be doing a presentation
that day, as well. March 11th and 12th will feature speakers on a wide
variety of topics and break out sessions. More details here and here
http://www.norman.noaa.gov/nsww/ http://www.tornadosummit.org/

SEVERE WEATHER AWARENESS WEEK
Oklahoma and Texas will observe Severe Weather Awareness Week March 3-9, in
conjunction with National Severe Weather Preparedness Week. We plan to
heavily use social media and our new YouTube channel to help get the word
out about severe weather preparedness.

If you have ideas or suggestions, or if there's something we might do to
help you spread the word in your local community, let me know. Some
examples of things we can help you with include writing an article or
letter to the editor for your local paper, providing and/or recording radio
PSA's and/or doing interviews with your local radio station, etc. Just let
me know!

NWS LEADERSHIP CHANGES
Yesterday, it was announced that Dr. Louis Uccellini is the new Director of
the National Weather Service. Also within the past week, Steven Cooper was
named acting Regional Director of the NWS Southern Region (NWS Norman is
part of Southern Region.)
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130207_nws_newaa.html

WEEKLY WEATHER BRIEFINGS
Many of you have joined for one or more of our Monday morning weather
briefing webinars. We do them every Monday at 10am. The response and
feedback has been very positive so far, but if you have ideas for how we
might make them better, let me know. If you haven't registered for the
webinars, you can do so using this link.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/255390896

That's it for now! If you have questions or comments, please let me know!

Rick


Rick Smith - Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service - Norman Forecast Office
120 David L. Boren Blvd., Suite 2400
Norman, OK 73072