WGN-TV Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling to Host the 31st Annual Fermilab Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar
Tom Skilling, WGN-TV’s chief meteorologist, will host the 31st Annual Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar at the Fermilab National Accelerator complex in Batavia, on Saturday, April 30, 2011 starting at noon. The seminar will repeat in its entirety at 6pm. Attendees are advised to arrive early, as admission is free and the seminars fill up quickly. After the seminars, WGNtv.com will post videos from the event.
Tom Skilling’s Annual Tornado and Severe Weather Seminar is open to people of all ages and was created to educate viewers about the dynamics and after-effects of severe weather. Skilling created this seminar 31 years ago, along with Brian Smith, currently with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Omaha, Nebraska. For more information about this seminar, go to wgntv.com. The 2011 Fermilab seminar will include the following weather topics:
- A presentation by WGN’s own chief meteorologist, Tom Skilling, of vivid videos of the Japanese tsunami as well as the progress made in meteorology during the past 50 years
- A discussion of the impact of February’s blizzard from National Weather Service’s Dr. Louis Uccellini, Director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction and Dr. Jim Angel, an Illinois state climatologist at the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.
A collection of slides and storm-in progress video shots from the multi-decade career of storm chaser and extreme weather photographer Jim Reed.
- A presentation by Jim Allsopp, Warning Coordination Meteorologist of the National Weather Service in Chicago on tornadoes in the Chicagoland area.
- An exhibit of “Killer Wind: Do not ignore Severe Thunderstorm warnings” by Brian Smith, a Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
- A discussion by Mary Ann Cooper, MD, from the University of Illinois-Chicago on why lightning injuries are still prevalent in some parts of the globe.
- A presentation on rip currents in the Great Lakes by Ed Fenelon, Meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Forecast Office – Chicago.