AMS Centennial

The American Meteorological Society was founded in 1919.  The AMS has celebrated its centennial throughout 2019, which is to culminate at the 2020 Annual Meeting in Boston, the city of its headquarters.

I first became aware of the AMS as a meteorology undergraduate at Valparaiso University.  We had a student chapter for the AMS and another organization, the National Weather Association (NWA).

After hearing about the AMS a lot while at Valparaiso, I had the opportunity to participate in the organization in a larger way when I attended the 2013 Annual Meeting in Austin, TX.  This conference played a part in helping poise me for my professional life after college by putting into the mindset of a professional through the events and interactions at this conference.

At the start of the conference, there was a large gathering held with Boone Pickens.  The moderator had a dialogue with Mr. Pickens as he shared his experiences.  It caught my attention when the moderator did something a little bit different, introducing those gathered to Mr. Pickens.  The moderator referred to the AMS attendees present as a community of people who were involved in some way in the science of meteorology.

The AMS is an organization that brings together thousands of members in academic, public, and private sectors of meteorology.

There's no doubt that weather affects all of us in some way.  And it's very likely the vast majority of people check the weather before headed out for the day.  The information people get about weather has so many people behind it.  Certainly, there are the meteorologists who look at the current conditions and other available information to make a forecast about what will happen.  Much of the information used to make forecasts is the result of research, and a huge sector of the meteorology community is involved in scientific investigations to better understand the atmosphere and how weather happens, because there's so much unknown about the atmosphere:  for example, one of the most attention-grabbing aspects of weather research is storm chasing, where scientists head for severe thunderstorms to better understand why some storms form tornadoes, and others don't.

Some researchers are at universities.  Others are part of government agencies.  The US government also has operational meteorologists who forecast the weather, particularly in the National Weather Service.  And there are people who work at private companies who forecast the weather, often in a pointed way focused on the interests of their company, like meteorologists who work for airlines.

Probably the most visible meteorologists are those who are on TV telling us the weather.  Two people I've followed closely are Tom Skilling on WGN-TV Chicago and Brant Miller on NBC5 Chicago.  And I know a number of people among my friends, classmates, and colleagues during my years at ValpU who are broadcast meteorologists.

While I was studying meteorology, people would often ask about my being on TV.  While I first became interested in weather after watching Brant Miller, my interests involved, even beyond a growing awareness of the less glamorous details underneath the surface regarding the hard work of TV meteorologists.  While at ValpU, I became aware of all the ways meteorology can applied in various aspects of society.  Attending the AMS Annual Meeting increased my awareness of those applications, like with the group Atmospheric Science Librarian International.

There are so many working behind the scenes toward a better understanding of the weather, so that we all have the best information available when headed out the door.  Even if they're not in visible roles like those on TV, they are still providing an important service, looking to the skies to better understand what's happening up there in all its complexity, and helping the rest of society make sense of it in a down to earth way.

Indeed, it would be difficult for the average person to make sense of all the complex movements in the atmosphere, with much technical language used to describe it, and complex mathematical equations behind the language.  (If you want to have a sense of how technical meteorology can get, read an area forecast discussion written by an employee of a local NWS office.  Go to weather.gov, type in a location in the search box, and then scroll down past the forecast to where it says "Forecaster Discussion".  Depending on what office it is, you may very well be reading something written by a ValpU alumnus, maybe even someone I know, as they are at numerous offices throughout the country.)

With so much happening in the skies above us, it's great to have people who dedicate their life's work to doing something about.  They go beyond the adage, "Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."  Meteorologists help people make sense of the weather.  But you can't necessarily blame them for it:  At a presentation by NWS employees when I was at ValpU, I heard the Meteorologist-in-Charge of the Northern Indiana Weather Forecast Office say that meteorologists are in sales, and management is way above.

Aware of all that goes into the science of meteorology, I have much reason to celebrate the AMS Centennial, for the role this organization has played in bringing together the members of the meteorology community to advance the science in our society.