Sunny Saturday greetings from the Maryland Team! Despite our brisk conditions, we hope you are enjoying this calm pattern lately. Given this little February respite, the team has been eager to share with our readers a story about a most amazingly inspiring event we experienced over the past week here in Baltimore. The fun coincidental twist -- this event occurred right on the 20th anniversary of Foot's Forecast! More on that story to come in a separate post. But first -- what was this incredible event? THE WEEK THAT WAS: This historic occasion (for us) was our team's participating in the 104th national conference of the American Meteorological Society - right here in downtown Baltimore! Starting last Saturday right through to this past Thursday, several of our forecasters attended the conference, met up with a number of our former forecasters, meteorologists and advisors from around the country. Even better, we went to presentations given by many former student members who are now Meteorologists, Ph.D.s, Emergency Managers and more. Talk about fun & surreal! Suffice to say, this is the largest meteorology conference in the country and across the world. That we could take part and gain life-changing experiences from professionals in our industry, was humbling and thrilling to say the least. PART 1 - HOW IT ALL STARTED? Going all the way back to summer, our team had been planning to have a booth at the Severe Weather Conference in Richmond. At this event in November, we began finalizing plans for the AMS 2024 event. Before we could turn around to check on each other, Saturday January 27th had arrived! Over 600 university students pursuing Meteorology degrees and many other fields were present - and ours launched at the "Conversations with Professionals" including our region's very own Ava Marie from WBAL. How inspiring it was to be in the room as Ava fielded questions from students about what it's like to be an on air broadcast meteorologist, and shared her story about working through the profession. It was one of a dozen sessions students could attend to gain insight and network. PART 2 - THE STUDENT OUTREACH. How does one plan to receive over a hundred students to your exhibit hall booth? Why with Fruit Snacks & FF Pens of course! Both Saturday and Sunday evening, the Maryland team setup and hosted our outreach table at the Student Career Fair. We were visited by well over 100 prospective students, professors, and colleagues in the private sector. We even learned about how former forecasters had been hired by private companies like WeatherWorks in New Jersey or the National Weather Service in other states! Into Sunday, we were fortunate to interview several intriguing Meteorology student prospects who would be valuable new members of the growing Mid-Atlantic team and beyond. Our visitors included those in the conference who had served on the FF team going back to 2012 - such as Forecast Advisor/Meteorologist Shundra Stewart from Mississippi - now in Emergency Management. Then we were visited by Veronica Johnson, the Chief Meteorologist from WJLA who gave her time to outline tips on overcoming stage fright for future broadcast mets. We started thinking - who are we going to meet next? We also realized -- maybe we should try to bring our former band members back together for a dinner? PART 3 - THE LIFE CHANGING CONFERENCE. (As you see by now, this story is being narrated by me, Forecaster Jack, with some tidbits from Advisor Rich Foot). Here's how it truly was life-changing. The wide-ranging sessions, led by amazing speakers, covered wildfire management, severe weather, flooding risks, climate resilience planning, business continuity and so much more. Starting Monday and for several days after-- Forecasters Zach,Badders at Millersville and Jason Mitchell from Southern MD and I attended different sessions together and separately at times. This allowed us time to find, meetup & connect with presenters who had been well-known forecasters. Jason found Dakota Smith after his presentation on Satellite Imagery of Major Global Weather Events. Dakota is now at Colorado State University's Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) (https://www.cira.colostate.edu/) and was one of the "original 6" of the 2009-10 Maryland Team. Jason also reunited with meteorologist Bob Ryan formerly from NBC4 whom many of you from this region know well from the past. It turns out other MD team members had professional papers or sessions presented by their colleagues, including former forecaster Mike Natoli from Harford County, now at the NWS in Cheyenne, WY. The final day of the conference was highlighted by a truly stunning 2-hour conversation with Dr. Ken Pryor, NOAA Meteorologist at the Satellite Services Division. How interesting it was to share our different experiences we both had in an event, such as managing severe weather, forecasting techniques and how our team engages the public via student outreach. In fact, we are even considering their offer of some tours to NOAA/NWS facilities some time later (when there's very little "weather" going on Another exciting meet up was after former forecaster Joey Krastel’s presentation from MEMA on a new statewide data observing and reporting network he developed over the past years at the state. THE FINALE -- THE MULTI-STATE TEAM DINNERS. Atmospheric patterns managed to align long enough for us to arrange two team dinner meetups. It's a miracle we were able to corral some really busy people from all over Maryland to join in dinner Monday night, including Forecasters Zach, Jason, Advisors Ira, Alan, Rich and his wife Dana and myself. Then, a second dinner of U.S. Team Advisors miraculously happened on Tuesday night, including Jason Advisors Shundra from MS, former forecaster Mark Ingalls from Washington State (now a Meteorologist), Forecast Advisor Jason Media Specialist Evan Schiesser from MD who was the original student member from 2009. Phew! What a story and that's just the highlights. The bigger picture is how this event for us represents the collaboration, passion and innovation of all those who came before us going back to January 26, 2004 -- and the impact all these people have had on our lives over the past 20 years. Going into this 20th anniversary celebration year we are sure will be marked by more team get togethers, merch for FF members - and hopefully even all of you too! The next big thing? When the next version of this story is written to mark our 21st year -- from the AMS 2025 Conference in New Orleans, LA, -- you -- or someone you know will be the lead feature. Maybe it's someone who's a weather enthusiast - or a high school student - or a college student - or even a new professional or a educator. WHAT IT ALL REALLY MEANS: This conference was another big chapter in the FF story we all share -- about people leveraging their passion for science, weather and safety to make a difference, while hoping we can support the effort to save lives and protect property like all our colleagues across the weather world. If you'd like more information about becoming a part of that story - we invite your interest in a message to us via [email protected]. Looking back on this event, and their stories now, just imagine where yours might take you! Forecaster Jack, Forecaster Zach, Forecaster Jason, Forecaster Ira Jolene Wagner, Meteorologist Advisor Rich, Advisor Alan, Advisor Keith, and the Maryland Team of Foot's Forecast
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