Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW)Historic ArchiveThe annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW), initiated in 2002 by the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Services Division, brings together a diverse group of climate researchers, climate product producers, and climate information users to share developments in research and applications of climate predictions for societal decision-making. A unique planning team, consisting of several NOAA climate services partners, organizes and hosts CPASW at a different location each year to ensure varying climate application focuses, and both regional and national perspectives.Below are the agenda and presentations from past meetings.
More historic information will be added in the future.
2024
2023
2022
2021
2019
2018
2016
2006
2004
In 2024, NOAA's 21st Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW21) was held in conjunction as a joint workshop with the NOAA's 48th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop (CDPW48). The joint meeting was held in sunny Tallahassee, Florida, USA from March 26-29th, 2024. The joint workshop was hosted by the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science (EOAS) and the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) at Florida State University and was co-hosted by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Climate Services Branch (CSB) of the National Weather Service (NWS). The joint workshop brought together a diverse community to share developments in research and application of weather and climate information for societal decision-making. Participants included researchers, service producers, resource managers, planners, practitioners, social scientists, and others making weather and climate-sensitive decisions. The meeting was planned as a hybrid, in person / virtual event, in hopes to combine the benefits of a face-to-face meeting with the potential for broader virtual participation. The plan was to have all speakers and poster presenters on site in Tallahassee, with the option for virtual attendance for those who would like to listen to workshop speakers without traveling to Tallahassee.
Vasu MisraProfessor of Meteorology, EOAS, COAPS, Florida State UniversitySam HuckabaDean of College Arts and Sciences, Florida State UniversityDavid DeWittDirector, NWS Climate Prediction CenterMarina TimofeyevaChief, NWS Climate Services Branch
Keynote Speaker
Lessons Learned at the Intersection of Research and Service in the Southeastern U. S.Pam Knox, Director of the University of Georgia Weather Network, Extension Climatologist, UGA
Session 1: Communicating and Responding to the Risk of Extreme Heat Moderator: Wassila Thiaw, NWS Climate Prediction Center
Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker:
Pam Knox, Director of the University of Georgia Weather Network, Extension Climatologist, UGA
Pam Knox is an Extension Climatologist specializing in impacts of weather and climate variability and change on agriculture. She is also the Director of the University of Georgia Weather Network, a group of 90 automated weather stations across the state which provide weather and climate data to farmers, utilities, Extension agents and private citizens. Knox is a past Assistant State Climatologist for Georgia and has also served as the Wisconsin State Climatologist in University of Wisconsin-Extension and in the National Weather Service Office of Hydrology studying extreme rainfall. She was an author for the 5th National Climate Assessment chapter on the Southeast released in November 2023.
48th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop
Wednesday Invited Speaker:
Paris Perdikaris, Microsoft
Paris Perdikaris is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research AI4Science and an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in Applied Mathematics at Brown University in 2015, and, prior to joining Penn in 2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His current research interests include foundation models for weather and climate modeling, physics-informed deep learning, generative models and uncertainty quantification.
48th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop
Florida Climate Recap: 2023 and BeyondDavid Zierden, State Climatologist, FL / Florida State University - Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Prediction Studies
Welcome from the FSU President Richard McCullough, Florida State University
Session 9: Climate Prediction and Application Over the Southeast U.S. Moderator: Adam Hartman, NWS Climate Prediction Center
Banquet Banquet Speaker: Michael Berkowitz, Executive Director of the University of Miami’s Climate Resilience Academy
End of Day Three
Thursday Invited Speaker: David Zierden, State Climatologist, FL / Florida State University - Center for Ocean-Atmosphere Prediction Studies
David Zierden earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology in 1996 at Florida State University. He followed that with a Master of Science in Meteorology under the direction of Dr. James J. O’Brien, then director of FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies. Following graduation, David served under Dr. O’Brien, a recognized world leader in ocean modeling and climate application studies, as the Assistant State Climatologist from 1998 through 2005. In 2006, Mr. Zierden was appointed State Climatologist and has served that role ever since.
David is a full member of the American Association of State Climatologist and the American Meteorological Society, and the Florida Climate Institute. He has published journal articles on satellite meteorology, climate variability and wildfire threat, and applications to agriculture in the Southeast U.S. and presented these findings at many professional conferences. He is well know among growers, producers, and Extension in the Southeast for providing seasonal climate forecasts and presents this information at many workshops, trade shows, and commodity meetings. David Zierden is involved in many other climate applications projects in Florida and the Southeast involving agriculture, water resources, environment, and human health.
David Zierden grew up in Panama City, but has lived in Tallahassee since 1995. He is married to Pastor Betsy Ouellette-Zierden and has two teenage children, Ian and Adam. Growing up in the outdoors and continuing to enjoy fishing, surfing, skiing, and running, helped spur his interest in weather and climate.
Thursday Banquet Speaker: Michael Berkowitz, Executive Director, University of Miami's Climate Resilience Academy
Michael Berkowitz is the Executive Director of the University of Miami’s Climate Resilience Academy. He is also the Eric T. Levin Endowed Chair in Climate Resilience. The Academy is an operational unit connecting and amplifying the work the University’s 12 schools and colleges.
Previously he was a Founding Principal at Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges.
In August 2013, he joined the Rockefeller Foundation to shape and oversee the creation of 100 Resilient Cities (100RC). He served as the 100RC President from 2013 to 2019. The cities in the 100RC network created more than 80 holistic resilience strategies, which outlined over 4,000 concrete actions and initiatives, resulting in more than 150 collaborations between private sector and public sector to address city challenges, including $230 million of pledged support from platform partners and more than $25 billion leveraged from national, philanthropic, and private sources to implement resilience projects.
From 2005 to 2013 he worked at Deutsche Bank in a variety of risk management roles including as the global head of Operational Risk Management, where he oversaw the firm’s operational risk capital planning efforts and connected the myriad operational risk management efforts group-wide.
From 1998 until 2005, he was Deputy Commissioner at the Office of Emergency Management in New York City. He worked on planning initiatives, including the city’s Coastal Storm, Biological Terrorism and Transit Strike plans. He also responded to major incidents including the crash of American Airlines 587, the 2003 Northeast blackout, as well as the 2001 World Trade Center disaster.
48th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop
Closing Remarks Vasu Misra, FSU, Professor of Meteorology, EOAS, COAPS David DeWitt, NWS Climate Prediction Center Director Marina Timofeyeva, NWS Climate Services Branch Chief
Development of an Improved Week 3-4 Temperature Consolidation First GuessDanny Barandiaran, NWS CPC
Detecting Major Pattern Changes at the Climate Prediction Center via the Regime Change Prognostic ToolCory Baggett, NWS CPC
Key Messages at the Climate Prediction CenterJohnna Infanti, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/CPC
The Impact of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on the Frequency of Extreme Winter Weather over the Contiguous United StatesStephen Foskey, University of Oklahoma
Short-term Bias of the MJO in the Hindcast Inter-comparison of Weather and Climate ModelsMeng-Pai Hung, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
Discovering Global Sources of Regional Flash Drought Predictability using Causal NetworksSudhanshu Kumar, Auburn University
The Role of Indian Ocean SST Variability on African Winter and Summer SeasonsBhaskar Jha, CPC/ERT
Operationalizing the Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) and Value-added Products for CONUS Drought Monitoring and Early Warning at the NOAA Climate Prediction CenterYutong Pan, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/Climate Prediction Center; Earth Resources Technology (ERT) Inc.
Developing a New CPC Long-term and Real-time Land Surface Monitoring ProductLi Xu, NWS CPC
Extensions of the TCLOGG Tropical Cyclone Formation Guidance to all Basins and through Two Weeks Lead TimeRyan Remondelli, Florida State University
Process-Oriented Diagnostics for Tropical Cyclones and Disturbances in Climate Models Using the Column-Integrated Moist Static Energy Variance BudgetJarrett Starr, Florida State University
Model Agreement in the North American Multi-Model Ensemble: Forecast of Opportunity or Source of False Confidence?Sarah Strazzo, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Improving the CMORPH2 Real-Time Production Through Infusing GPE and PMW Retrievals from Direct BroadcastsPingping Xie, Shaorong Wu, and Xiujuan Su, NWS CPC & ERT
Empowering Climate-Sensitive Decisions: The Next-Generation Local Climate Analysis ToolJenna Meyers, NWS Climate Services Branch
Towards a Process-Oriented Diagnostic for Tropical Disturbances: Tracking in ERA-5Allison A. Wing, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Impact of Arctic Sea Ice Concentration on Winter Temperature over East Asia since the 2000sYoujin Won, Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA)
Exploring Seasonal Prediction Skill Potential of U.S. NAMS Precipitation in CFSv2 through Statistical Post-processingYanyun Liu, NOAA/NWS/NCEP Climate Prediction Center and Earth Resources Technology Inc
Verification and Potential Usage of Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Tropical Cyclone Activity Forecast based on the JMA/MRI–CPS3Akio Nishimura, Japan Meteorological Agency
Post-processing for Week 2 Forecasting of (absolute) Extreme Heat MetricsEvan Oswald, NWS CPC
Supporting At-Risk Aquatic Species Management with Hydrologic ProjectionsCatherine A. Nikiel, ORISE/SECASC USGS
On Establishing the U.S. Weekly Drought Prediction System based on Empirical, Dynamical, and Machine Learning FrameworksLisi Pei, Climate Prediction Center, NOAA/NWS/NCEP
The Navy Earth System Prediction Capability: Overview and Future DevelopmentsCarolyn Reynolds, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory Marine Meteorology
Towards a Distributed Soil Moisture Network in Alabama: Opportunities for Low-cost, Easy Deployable SensorsLee Ellenburg, University of Alabama in Huntsville
Integrating the Global Hydro Intelligence Sub-Seasonal-to-Seasonal Subsystem into 14th Weather Squadron Climate OperationsAlexa Rohling, USAF 14th Weather Squadron
Usability Testing of Drought Forecast Visualizations for Improved Understanding and Decision MakingApoorva Joshi, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
Introduction to KMA Activities Based on ExCMOS Supporting to Several Sectors Against Extreme Climate DisastersJeongmok Choi, Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA)
Audience Segmentation to Improve Usability Flood Inundation Mapping: Engagement and Testing with Technical Users and Impacted CommunitiesSajani Kandel, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota
Enhancing Climate Information Services for Underserved Communities: A Solution-Oriented Approach through National Weather Service Insights.Shubhechchha Sharma, University of Minnesota
Building Knowledge to Support Equitable Climate Resilience in the Upper Mississippi River BasinAmelia Kreiter, University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment
Hybrid Post-Processing of NOAA NCEP GEFSv12 Reforecasts for Predicting Extreme Rainfall Events on Sub-Seasonal Scale over CONUSMurali Malasala, NOAA/NCEP/EMC; UCAR
The 20th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW) brought together a diverse community to share developments in research and application of weather and climate information for societal decision-making. Participants will include researchers, service producers, resource managers, planners, practitioners, social scientists, and others making weather and climate-sensitive decisions. NOAA’s National Weather Service Climate Services Branch, National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS), and many other climate services partners collaborated in the organization of the March 2023 CPASW.
The workshop convened in Asheville, North Carolina from May 9-11, 2023, for discussion centered on the theme of "Understanding Socio-economic Value of Climate Data, Prediction, Information and Services" and addressed the following focus areas: (1) Linking social, behavioral, and economic sciences (SBES) to climate services and (2) Improving Data, Prediction, and Attribution to Understand and Communicate the Risk of Extreme Events and Response Strategies.
Travel to New Belgium Brewery Directions / Instructions for Travel
91 Craven Street, Asheville
Transportation will be provided between The Collider and New Belgium before and after the event. Additional details will be available the day of the event.
If you wish to use your own transportation, the New Belgium Brewhouse is separate and to the left (and across the walking bridge) of the New Belgium Liquid Center. Park in the left side parking lot titled "Brewery and Liquid Center Parking" versus the right side parking lot titled "Liquid Center Parking - Tours and Tastings".
5:00-7:00pm
Field Trip / Banquet
New Belgium BrewerySustainability at New Belgium, taking action on climate changeBanquet Speaker: Sarah Fraser, New Belgium Brewery Sustainability Specialist
Sarah Fraser is the sustainability specialist at New Belgium's east coast brewery located in Asheville, NC. Sarah supports the company’s social and environmental programs with a focus on supply chain and material sustainability. She engages brewery coworkers and supply chain partners in making progress toward the company’s ambitious GHG, energy, water, emissions and waste reduction goals.
End of Day 1
Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker:
Ko Barrett, NOAA's Senior Advisor for Climate
Ko Barrett is NOAA’s Senior Advisor for Climate. In this role, Barrett is responsible for providing strategic advice and direction within NOAA to enable the agency to align, integrate, and extend its capabilities to best provide the climate services needed to address the climate challenge. She represents NOAA’s equities in whole-of-government efforts to transform the economy and achieve U.S. climate goals to reduce emissions and stabilize global temperature by mid-century.
Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker:
Deke Arndt, Director, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
Deke Arndt became NCEI’s Director on January 30, 2023. He served as Chief of NCEI’s Climatic Science and Services Division (CSSD) for three years after previously leading the CSSD Monitoring Section. Deke’s career began in 1996 at the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. He worked closely with public safety, agriculture, climate monitoring, and the energy generation and transmission sectors. In recent years, he served on the Council of the American Meteorological Society, was a co-lead editor of the AMS’s annual State of the Climate report, and co-chaired the US Global Change Research Program’s Interagency Indicators Working Group.
Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker:
David DeWitt, Director, NWS Climate Prediction Center (CPC)
David DeWitt is the Director of the NWS Climate Prediction Center. DeWitt joined NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) in 2012 as the lead modeler within the Science Plans Branch of the Office of Science and Technology. During his tenure at NWS, he served a detail as the acting deputy director for NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center, and as a project manager for the Sandy Supplemental projects, which accelerated development of NOAA’s foundational numerical guidance for weather prediction. David has provided leadership on several NWS and NOAA cross-line office activities targeted toward improving NOAA’s products and services. Prior to coming to NOAA, DeWitt worked as a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University from 1999-2012. From 1994-1999, DeWitt worked at the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies developing coupled atmosphere-ocean models for seasonal forecasts and conducting research to better understand short-term climate variability.
Wednesday Invited Speaker: Dawn Chávez, Executive Director of Asheville GreenWorks
Dawn has more than 25 years of leadership experience in nonprofit management in the environmental field. A native of the Bronx in New York City, Dawn has lived and worked across the country in many different communities, from wilderness outposts to small towns to large urban centers. Throughout her career, Dawn has been passionate about equity issues, environmental protection and the intersection of the two. Before moving to Asheville in January 2015, Dawn worked in Boston for twelve years as director of the Boston Youth Environmental Network and education director of the Urban Ecology Institute. Dawn serves on the board of the NC Center for Nonprofits and the North American Association for Environmental Education. In her free time, Dawn enjoys hiking and camping in the mountains around Asheville with her husband, Andrew, two children, Noah and Phoebe and the family dogs, Finn and Paco.
Michelle Ragland is the site Environment, Health, and Safety Manager for Pratt and Whitney’s new state-of-the-art aerospace manufacturing facility in Asheville, North Carolina. Her responsibilities span from supporting the design of the LEED-accredited facility to overall compliance with internal and external regulatory bodies. Michelle spent the first half of her career as an Environmental Officer in the maritime industry and transitioned to the aerospace industry in 2015. After supporting a greenfield expansion with sister company, Collins Aerospace, she expanded her interest in startups to pursue Pratt and Whitney's new 1.2 million square foot facility. Michelle takes this opportunity with great responsibility because she believes today’s investments in design and forward-thinking technologies will have environmental and operational impacts for many years to come.
Poster Session 1 (Wednesday 10:15am - 10:45am)Improvements of Land Surface Air Temperature Reconstruction in NOAAGlobalTemp: An Artificial Neural Network Approach Boyin Huang, NOAA NCEILong-Range Forecasting of Atmospheric Variables using Transformers Trained on MERRA2Ankur Kumar, University of Alabama in HuntsvilleClimateBench v1.0: A Benchmark for Data-Driven Climate Projections Yuhan “Douglas” Rao, Cooperative Institute for Satellite and Earth System StudiesCONUS404: The NCAR-USGS 4-km Long-term Regional Hydroclimate Reanalysis over the CONUSRoy Rasmussen, NCARComparison of CLM 4.5 and BATS Land-Surface Scheme in Regional Climate Model for Climate Prediction in Indonesia: A Sensitivity StudyJose Rizal, Indonesia for Agency Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG)Analyzing Future Changes of Frost Damage Risk for Apples in Nagano prefecture, Japan - Assessment of Delay in Breaking Bud Dormancy Due to Climate ChangeFumi Sezaki, Japan Meteorological AgencyPoster Session 2 (Wednesday 10:15am - 10:45am)Impacts of Increased Precipitation on the Upper Mississippi RiverJeffrey Boyne, NWS La Crosse Making NASA Earth Data Accessible and Actionable Elizabeth Joyner, NASA Economic Assessment of Weather Information Services: A Case Study of the Outlying Island Tourism in Penghu, Taiwan Hen-I Lin, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research Disproportionate Heat Exposure Makes Fan Use Unsafe for Many Vulnerable Populations in the US Luke Parsons, Duke University An Integrated Approach to Develop a National Early Warning System for Forest Fire Alberth Nahas, Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) IndonesiaHyperspectral & Polarimetric Ocean Observations from space! How the NASA PACE Mission will Advance Environmental & Societal Applications in Disaster ManagementNatasha Sadoff, NASAExamining the North American Monsoon: A Look at the Onset of, and Climatology of the Monsoon and its Impacts on New MexicoTim Brice, NWS El PasoAssessing Tropical Pacific-induced Predictability of Southern California Precipitation Using a Novel Multi-input Multi-output AutoencoderSalil Mahajan, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryObserved Changes in Extreme Precipitation Associated with United States Tropical CyclonesJohn Uehling, North Carolina State University, NCICS
The 19th Annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW) brought together a diverse community to share developments in research and application of weather and climate information for societal decision-making. Participants included researchers, service producers, resource managers, planners, practitioners, social scientists, and others making weather and climate-sensitive decisions. NOAA’s National Weather Service Climate Services Branch, Michigan State University, the Michigan State Climate Office, and many climate services partners collaborated in the organization of the 2022 CPASW.
The workshop convened in East Lansing, Michigan, May 24-26, 2022, for discussion centered on the theme of “Toward equitable and actionable climate services across communities and timescalesâ€and addressed the following focus areas: (1) Equitable and Seamless Climate Services ; (2) Climate Impact-based Decision Support Tools and Service Delivery Across Sectors and (3) User Engagement and Service Requirements.
Breakout Group 1: Climate Impact-based Decision Support Tools and Service Delivery Across Sectors (Room 110)Moderator: Beth Hall, Purdue UniversityScribe: Audra Bruschi, NWS Central Region HeadquartersBreakout Group 2: Partnership Engagement (Willy Room)Moderator: Doug Kluck, NOAA NCEIScribe: Jenna Meyers, NWS Climate Services BranchBreakout Group 3: Equitable and Seamless Climate Services (Lincoln Room)Moderator: Marina Timofeyeva, NWS Climate Services BranchScribe: Jeff Boyne, NWS LaCrosse
Report Outs and Wrap Up Moderators from each breakout group
Tuesday Morning Welcome Speaker: John Murphy, NOAA National Weather Service
John D. Murphy is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS). He has overall responsibility for day-to-day mission execution units responsible for delivering NWS weather, water, climate, and space weather products, services, and information as well as the budgetary planning for 11 National Service Programs. He joined NWS in 2011 after serving more than 29 years with the United States Air Force as a career meteorologist and finally as Commander of the Air Force Weather Agency and Deputy Foreign Policy Advisor to United States Strategic Command.
Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker: James Clift, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)
James Clift is Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), where he oversees the department’s policy and engagement work. He heads the offices of Legislative Affairs, Public Information, and Great Lakes; as well as three offices created under the administration of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: Climate and Energy, Clean Water Public Advocate, and Environmental Justice Public Advocate.
James helped launch all three new offices – vital steps in pursuing the state’s goal of carbon neutrality in an equitable manner that provides opportunity for all Michiganders and protects the state’s world-class water resources.
He began his work in the state Capitol as a Michigan Senate environmental policy analyst. More recently, he was policy director at the Michigan Environmental Council for 20 years, working on environmental policy with the council’s more than 70 member and partner organizations. A fixture at the Capitol, he coordinated the council’s legislative and policy work on an array of environmental issues including water protection, environmental justice, clean energy, air quality, and climate mitigation and adaptation.
A graduate of Central Michigan University, James earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Wayne State University, where he spent two years assisting in research and editing textbooks and other works of Prof. Robert Abrams, a leading U.S. expert in water law. James is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and its Environmental Law Section.
Workshop attendees will enjoy a field trip to visit the beautiful Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan followed by a tour and dinner at the Schwallier’s Country Basket Apple Orchard.
Itinerary and details below:
1:30pm Bus leaves Kellogg Center
2:30pm Stop at Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, MI
Tour of Gardens
4:30pm Bus leaves Meijer Gardens
5:00pm Stop at Schwallier’s Country Basket Orchard, Sparta MI
Apple Orchard Tour and Talk by Phil Schwallier (Tree Fruit Grower & Extension Agent)
5:30pm Dinner @ Schwallier’s County Basket
6:30pm Bus leaves to return to Kellogg Center
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park opened in April 1995 after 13 years of planning and fundraising by the West Michigan Horticultural Society. In 1990, Fred & Lena Meijer were asked for their support, and they embraced the concept of a major cultural attraction centering around horticulture & sculpture. The original vision has turned into a top cultural destination in the Midwest region, known internationally for the quality of the art and gardens.
Meijer Gardens' commitment is to create a legacy of lifelong learning, enjoyment and a rich cultural experience for generations to come. It is a non-profit organization, privately funded by grants, foundations and individual and corporate gifts. The organization is operated by almost 200 full and part-time staff, more than 850 active volunteers and supported by gifts from more than 28,000 member households and many donors.
Meijer Gardens promotes the enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of gardens, sculpture, the natural environment and the arts.
www.meijergardens.org
Schwallier’s Country Basket has been a family-owned business since we first opened our barn doors in 1989. We are located in Sparta, Mich., in the heart of West Michigan’s apple capital known as “the Ridge”— just a short drive north of downtown Grand Rapids. They are dedicated to serving friends and family who come from near and far to enjoy our delicious treats, fresh produce, and simple, satisfying slice of farm life.
The one-of-a-kind store has grown from humble beginnings as a roadside produce stand into a thriving farm market, complete with giant corn maze, petting farm, pumpkin patch, cow train and wagon rides, and other attractions. And each year we strive to add new, fun activities for families at the farm.
www.schwalliers.com
Wednesday Invited Speaker: Dennis Todey, USDA Midwest Climate Hub
Dennis Todey is the Director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames. He is a native Iowan with his BS and PhD from Iowa State in Meteorology and Agricultural Meteorology. He has spent two stints in South Dakota, first completing his MS at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and most recently as Associate Professor and State Climatologist for South Dakota at South Dakota State University. He is well known regionally as a speaker and media source on various climate issues and is the former president of the American Association of State Climatologists.
Introductory RemarksStephen Baxter, NWSDoug Kluck, NOAA NCEIAllison Leidner, NASA Earth Science DivisionBeth Hall, Purdue UniversityDennis Todey, USDA Midwest Climate HubKelly Karll, Southeast Michigan Council of GovernmentsQ&A Discussion
Meeting Wrap-up (Marina Timofeyeva & Jeff Andresen)
Thursday Invited Speaker: David DeWitt, NWS Climate Prediction Center
David DeWitt is the Director of the NWS Climate Prediction Center. DeWitt joined NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) in 2012 as the lead modeler within the Science Plans Branch of the Office of Science and Technology. During his tenure at NWS, he served a detail as the acting deputy director for NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center, and as a project manager for the Sandy Supplemental projects, which accelerated development of NOAA’s foundational numerical guidance for weather prediction. David has provided leadership on several NWS and NOAA cross-line office activities targeted toward improving NOAA’s products and services. Prior to coming to NOAA, DeWitt worked as a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia University from 1999-2012. From 1994-1999, DeWitt worked at the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies developing coupled atmosphere-ocean models for seasonal forecasts and conducting research to better understand short-term climate variability.