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Severe Weather: Tornadoes

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April 14, 2012: Severe Weather and Tornadoes Seminar at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois

April 14, 2012: Severe Weather and Tornadoes Seminar at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois

Our Fermilab tornado seminar takes place a week from tomorrow in Batavia. Tornadoes across the US are running ahead of last year’s pace which makes the subject a timely one as we head into "prime-time" of the Chicago area’…s tornado season. On April 21, we mark the 45th anniversary of this area’s most devastating and deadly tornado outbreak–the infamous Oak Lawn and Belvidere tornadoes. We’ll be talking about what happened that horrific day. It’s not "if" but "when" another outbreak occurs on that scale–and the next one does so in an area which has undergone explosive growth in the many decades since 1967. I do hope to see many of you there. We have an amazing line-up of speakers this year including the Director of the Storm Prediction Center, the NWS facility which issues all of the country’s tornado and severe t-storm watches, the President of the American Meteorological Center and Director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) our friend Dr. Louis Uccellini, Jim Reed storm chaser and extreme weather photographer with whom we chased just over a year ago and who you’ve seen on the Weather Channel, Dr. Jim Angel, our state climatologist, Ed Fenelon, in charge of the Chicago National Weather Service Office and of course Jim Allsopp & Brian Smith, NWS-Warning Coordination meteorologists at Chicago & Omaha respectively. Our programs next Saturday, April 14 take place at Noon with a repeat of the entire program at 6PM for those who prefer to join us in the evening. Both are free, seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Hope to see you there!–Tom Skilling, Senior Meteorologist