WeatherBrains

Meteorologist Josh Eachus joins us live from WBRZ 2 TV News Louisiana.

No guests for the show tonight, so this is a home grown show. Topics during the show included such items as the National Weather Festival in Norman, OK, side lobe contamination of radar data, backup of SPC by Scott Air Force Base, weather phobias and getting the message across without drama, and sending the right message to reassure people about the weather.

Tonight's first Guest WeatherBrain is the Chief Engineer at the Harris County Flood Control District. He is also the President of the National Hydrologic Warning Council. So we're happy to have Steve Fitzgerald on the show tonight.  Guest WeatherBrain number 2 is the Meteorologist in Charge at the NWS Houston/Galveston. Jeff Evans joins us with his perspective of Hurricane Harvey.  And guest number 3 is Tom Johnstone, the Meteorologist in Charge at the NWS Corpus Christi.

Guests for this episode of WeatherBrains include Matt Moreland, MIC of NWS San Diego, but he was the MIC at the NWS Key West, Florida, during Hurricane Irma. Jonathan Kurtz, forecaster at NWS Norman, OK, and Greg Heavener, forecaster at NWS Corpus Christi, TX, were assigned from their home offices to the NWS at Key West prior to the onset of hurricane conditions.

Leslie Chapman-Henderson, President and CEO of FLASH, Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, is our first guest in this episode coming to the show from Austin, TX, where she is attending a meeting. Insured losses in Puerto Rico from Maria alone are estimated to be between 40 and 80 billion dollars.  Joining us for the second half of the show is Bryan Norcross, a television meteorologist and hurricane specialist in the United States. He works for the Weather Channel and has been a meteorologist for WTVJ-TV (the NBC owned-and-operated television station in Miami, Florida), WFOR-TV, and the chief hurricane analyst for NBC News in New York City.

Just the home folks on this show - no special guests! In this episode hear Kevin, Bill, Aubrey, James, and Brian.

In what may become one of the longest WeatherBrains episodes ever, guests are going to be prolific as several of the WeatherBrains, including Bill, Rick, Kim, and Brian, are at the 42nd annual meeting of the National Weather Association (NWA). Guests in this episode include Pat Spoden, Greg Carbin (WPC Washington), Greg Stumpf Norman, OK), Jeff Logsdon (SOO NWS Northern Indiana), Bill Bunting (SPC Norman, OK), Daniel Nietfeld (NOAA Office of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO), and Matt Solum (Western Region, Salt Lake City, UT). Background audio or noise that you hear comes from a special NWA session called the Ron, Research and Operations Nexus, which brings together operational and research folks in the weather enterprise, a platform for exchanging ideas and promoting innovation.

This will be one of the busiest WeatherBrains ever. First up is a visit with Kristen Wise who works in non-profit grants and Kaiti Blake, KSAT meteorologist, discussing Houston, Harvey, and "The Cajun Navy." Next up will be a discussion with Kim Klockow and Dr. Laura Myers on hurricane messaging. The third segment will focus on a preview of the upcoming NWA annual conference with special guests Janice Bunting, Executive Director of the NWA, Gail Hartsfield-Supina, President of the NWA, Todd Lericos, co-chair of the Program Committee for the 2017 NWA Annual Meeting, and Miles Muzio, 2017 NWA Program co-chair.

Michael Gerber from the National Weather Service is here to talk about WEAs. Michael Gerber is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, and a member of the Wireless Emergency Alerts Team. He and three of his colleagues are finalists for a Service to America medal in the homeland security and law enforcement category.  Also joining us are Sean Waugh, Ph.D. Research Meteorologist and NSSL Storm Chaser and Addison Alford, Ph.D. Student. These folks will discuss their experiences with Hurricane Harvey.

Our Guest WeatherBrain for this episode is Bill Read, former director of the National Hurricane Center who is making a special appearance from Houston. Bill is a veteran on WeatherBrains having been with us for episode 195, episode 428 from the National Tropical Conference (2014), and episode 386.