The most recent meeting of the Central Illinois Chapter was held 15 May 2002 at The Depot restaurant in Lincoln, Illinois. After dinner, a brief business meeting was conducted. President Holicky polled group opinion on hosting a regional AMS conference. There was interest and a decision whether or not to pursue hosting the conference is expected to be reached at the next meeting. The evening's speaker was Brad Ketcham, forecaster at the Central Illinois National Weather Service Forecast Office. His topic was "The Interactive Forecast Preparation System (IFPS): A Digital Forecasting Process." IFPS is a new component of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). It allows the forecaster to view and edit gridded fields of weather information. It also allows the forecaster to blend and manually modify model forecasts. Users may generate these fields with any combination of model forecasts, other guidance products, observations, or premade user-generated gridded forecasts. IFPS gives users the ability to generate products from the digital database into various formats such as tabular, text, graphical imagery and gridded files. With IFPS, the forecaster can present the forecast products in a number of ways to suit the public's requirements and desires. Initial nationwide implementation of IFPS is underway but development will continue for some time. It promises to be an exciting addition to the NWS forecast process that should take the weather agency into the 21st century.---Scott Kampas.

The second meeting of the year for the Central Illinois Chapter was held 7 March 2002 at Marcia's Waterfront Restaurant in Decatur, Illinois. The evening's speaker was delayed due to air travel difficulties. Dinner was begun slightly late, followed by a brief business meeting. The secretary and treasurer's reports were read, and then Vice President Ed Kieser talked briefly on some chapter news. President Ed Holicky had to leave promptly due to a family emergency, so other announcements were pushed back to the next meeting. Finally, the evening's program commenced. Roger Edwards of the Storm Prediction Center presented "Forecasting and Observing the May 3, 1999 Central Oklahoma Tornadoes." This day was among the most prolific severe weather days ever. The current count is over seventy tornadoes, with nearly fifty fatalities and over $1 billion in damage. This event was poorly forecasted by the numerical models; and even the morning of the event forecasters at the Storm Prediction Center did not realize the threat. The "saving grace" for the dayís forecast was that the upper air environment was sampled well enough for forecasters to realize conditions were setting up for a major event. Combining the tremendous shear in phase with the high instabilities, and the atmosphere was primed for an epic severe weather event. Storm initiation time and place remained uncertain until mid-afternoon. It is thought that a break in a cloud field, in conjunction with a horizontal roll triggered storm initiation. An area of confluence and the predominance of warm, moist downdrafts are among the factors under study as contributing to the severity of the tornado outbreak.---Scott Kampas.

The Central Illinois Chapter held its final meeting of the 2001 calendar year on 6 December. The meeting, a joint meeting with the Indiana Chapter, was held at The Beef House restaurant in Covington, Indiana. There were brief business meetings for both chapters. For the Central Illinois Chapter, Walt Robinson spoke of the essay contest for Illinois high school students of which the chapter is sponsoring. Ed Holicky then spoke about the Chapterís event judging at the Illinois Science Olympiad State Finals Competition. The nightís speaker was Professor Maurice Bluestein of Indiana-Purdue University in Indianapolis. His program was ìThe Development of a New Wind Chill Temperature Chart.

The chapter held its first meeting of the year on 4 February 2002. The meeting was held at Marciaís Waterfront Restaurant in Decatur, Illinois. Brief secretary and treasurer reports were read. Dave Kristovich followed with an overview of the 2002 AMS National Meeting. The program was on mesoscale effects near Illinois nuclear facilities as well as lake breezes. It was presented by Tom Bellinger of the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety.

The next meeting is 7 March 2002 in Decatur. The speaker will be Roger Edwards of the Storm Prediction Center.---Scott Kampas.