Early this month, the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) 96th annual meeting was held in New Orleans, LA. SCO staff and students presented on research conducted at our office to scientists from across the nation.
Raleigh Weather Redux
Folks at our office arrived in New Orleans to familiar weather. While our colleagues in Raleigh dealt with highs in the mid-40s, we got to enjoy the mid-60s. The brief déjà vu was twofold. By the end of the week we enjoyed a high of 66°F and nearly three quarters an inch of rain, which was quite reminiscent of our warm, wet December.
Presentations at AMS
Aaron Sims, Associate State Climatologist: Aaron presented results from his Ph.D research on convective storm development and interactions in the sandhills of the Carolinas. He also contributed to several posters at the conference.
Adrienne Wootten, Graduate Researcher: Adrienne presented on three separate projects related to her dissertation work: one poster on the effects of model resolution on precipitation simulation, a talk on uncertainty in downscaled climate projections, and a second talk on the sensitivity of modeling precipitation in Puerto Rico.
Geneva Gray, Graduate Researcher: Geneva presented on the use of climate data in ecosystem modeling on and around Camp Lejeune, NC.
Michael Brackett, Undergraduate Researcher: Michael presented a poster on his evaluation of several data sets across Eastern North Carolina.
Sam Roback, Undergraduate Researcher: Sam presented a poster on two methods deriving precipitation type in weather models and verifying their results.
The oral presentations will be available to watch by mid-February on the AMS website.
Summary
Research is only one component of what we do at the State Climate Office. The AMS annual meeting gives our office the opportunity to share what we do with the wider research community. Staff and students come back to North Carolina buzzing with new ideas for the climate office. It sure is a productive way to start the new year!