The September meeting of the CIAMS was held at Marcia’s on the Waterfront in Decatur, Illinois.  It was attended by 23 persons.  There were several items of note brought up during the business portion of the meeting.  First of all, it was announced that planning for the Midwestern Regional Extremes Conference is underway.  It will be held from October 13-15, 2005 at the Hawthorne Suites in Champaign and will have the same theme as last year’s conference.  We have received positive responses from our three invited speakers, Paul Kocin, Morris Weisman, and Tim Marshal.  The Education Committee plans to offer a scholarship to one or two students presenting posters at the meeting.

In addition, the Education Outreach Committee is involved with the National Science Olympiad competition in Champaign this May.  The Science Olympiad is a competition which middle school students have an opportunity to test their knowledge in different scientific areas against those from other schools.  This is a great opportunity for education, outreach, and name recognition for the CIAMS.

After dinner, Dan Kelly from the National Weather Service Office in Lincoln spoke about the change in upper-air measurements taken at the Lincoln office.  The NWS upper air network is undergoing a significant upgrade which is slated to be completed within the next 3 or 4 years.  The new system, the NOAA Tracking and Receiving System, or TRS, will replace the old Automatic Radio Theodolite (ART) system.  The new system will allow for much more accurate transmission of wind direction and speed by using GPS transmissions.  In addition, the observations will be taken every six seconds.  Dan also talked about several of the quality control processes used to obtain accurate soundings and the specifications of the instrumentation.  For more information on RTS, you can consult, www.rrs.nws.noaa.gov.

After questions the meeting adjourned at around 9:10 PM.
Mike Spinar, Secretary, 2004-2005.

The November meeting of the CIAMS was held at Michael’s in Bloomington, Illinois.  It was attended by 23 persons.  There were several items of note brought up during the business portion of the meeting.  Several proposed changes were suggested for the Constitution and By-Laws. These are scheduled to be drawn up and voted on at the next CIAMS meeting in January. In addition, the Education Committee reported that they are volunteering at the following three Science Olympiad Competitions: (1) Champaign Regional, (2) Illinois State, and (3) National. In addition, the Midwestern Extreme and Hazardous Weather Conference planning committee met in mid-October. Among other things they discussed the timetable for they were working to have Paul Kocin of the Weather Channel offer an autographed book to the winner of the poster competition.

 Dr. James Moore from Saint Louis University gave a presentation entitled, “Atmospheric Processes Associated with Heavy Banded Snow Illustrated by a Case Study: 4-5 December 1999”. In the presentation, he looked at the ingredients necessary for heavy snowfall: (1) lift, (2) moisture, and (3) instability. He pointed out that although instability is not commonly associated with winter storms, there is strong evidence for it. He then examined the conveyor belt theory of cyclones, but showed that if a system-relative approach is taken, considerable warm, moist flow is often focused in the TROWL, or Trough of Warm Air Aloft, region. This, combined with an induced circulation from strong frontogenesis occurring over the dry airstream, leads to slant-wise convection. This slant-wise convection then leads to a very narrow, heavy band of snow as seen in the presented case.

After questions the meeting adjourned around 9:20 PM.
Mike Spinar, Secretary, 2004-2005.

The January meeting of the CIAMS was held at Ned Kelly’s in Urbana, Illinois.  It was attended by 27 persons.  There were several items of note brought up during the business portion of the meeting. We went through a discussion of new changes in the constitution and by-laws. The changes will be put up for vote at the next CIAMS meeting.

In other business, Mike Kruk asked for submissions of CIAMS surveys. The survey results will allow the chapter to better serve its members and will be disseminated via the website. The Education and Outreach Committee also shared several items of note. First of all, the CIAMS will be judging the Illinois Academy of Science’s Central Region Science Fair at Lincoln Land Community College on March 19^th. We will be working specifically on the special awards section, and will be giving a prize set up by the American Meteorological Society. Secondly, the committee is soliciting volunteers for the Illinois State and the National Science Olympiad Competitions held in Champaign, Illinois. Finally, the committee will be working with the members of the Midwestern Hazardous and Extreme Weather Conference Committee to develop criteria for judging the student posters. Tom Bellinger then talked about the AMS Chapter Breakfast he attended. He mentioned that the AMS is looking for chapters participating in outreach and educational activities and suggested that we should apply for the “Chapter of the Year Award”.

 Michael Kruk from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign gave a presentation entitled, “Bow Echoes During BAMEX: Assessing Transitions in Surface Wind Damage”. The premise of the work, which is still preliminary in nature, was that there appears to be a storm-relative transition in surface wind damage types during the progression of a bow-echo convective system. In at least the two cases examined, which occurred on 4 July 2003 in Indiana and Ohio, and 5 July 2003 in Nebraska and Iowa, there appeared to be an interesting radar and damage signature. The damage type appeared to change from a downburst and tornado signature, with many small-scale regions of damage, to large, fanning regions characteristic of a bow echo system.

The study consisted of examining damage points and attempting to filter them based on population density. The reports were then examined in concert with NEXRAD level II reflectivity and velocity data. There appeared to be a weak reflectivity notch which occurred coincident with a region of high winds. This feature is the subject of future work.

After questions the meeting adjourned around 9:25 PM.
Mike Spinar, Secretary, 2004-2005.