I'm teaching a 3-hour tornado forecasting class at Chaser Con 2019 in Wichita, Kansas on Sunday, February 10. It's the first class I'm doing at Chaser Con in 5 years, so I've been working hard to make it interesting and useful for both newer chasers and more experienced ones.
Thanks to Roger Hill for footing the cost and making it part of the convention fee. In the past it has often been an add-on extra cost for convention goers, instead of part of the convention ticket. So this is a good year to attend. And thanks to my wife for her patience and helpful comments while I've been putting this together.
I'll do the class in three parts starting at 9 a.m., lasting until around noon with a couple breaks:
Part 1 - General forecasting issues, notes on basic meteorology related to severe weather, and factors more specifically related to forecasting supercell tornadoes.
Break
Part 2 - A detailed case example from 2018 using the material in Part 1, followed by two forecasting exercises for the class.
Break
Part 3 - More advanced topics, including skew T's and hodographs. I'll also touch on cold-core tornado settings, upslope tornado settings, picking out a cell to follow, and patterns that produce tornadoes on multiple successive days.
While the class won't be streamed online, I've had several people contact me about whether the class will be available later online or by DVD. I don't know about those issues yet, but my wife Shawna and I will provide some handouts for taking notes, and I'll see about putting all or part of my PowerPoint presentation online for a period after the convention.
There's still time to register for Chaser Con... go to chasercon.com for more information, and click on "Register Now" at the top to register. Hope to see you there!
- Jon Davies 1/28/19
