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| Kevin's Blog |
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Beginning tomorrow, meteorologists and climatologists from around the world will gather in Phoenix, Ariz. for the 89th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society.
This year's theme is "Urban Weather and Climate: Now and the Future."
Why focus on urban weather? Two-thirds of the U.S. population lives in cities that, when added together, occupy less than 2% of the U.S. landmass. We are seeing a dramatic shift in population tendencies, both here and around the world. By 2030, nearly 80% of our world's population will likely live in an urban environment.
In other words, the old notion of distributing equally spaced weather instruments around the country to observe weather and climate is rapidly becoming obsolete. It is imperative that we do a better job of understanding weather and climate where people live, and then use this information to determine how the urban areas (buildings, pollution, people) might be affecting weather and climate.  Weather instruments in Downtown Oklahoma City - Oklahoma Micronet, Photo Credit Jeff Basara
The AMS Annual Meeting includes continuing education courses for people like me who tend to forget things often, opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to learn about career paths and job opportunities, sessions on weather and climate policy including scientific advice for the new presidential administration, presentation and discussion of current weather and climate research, and a large exhibit showing the latest in high-tech weather measurement and forecast systems.
AMS Exhibit Hall - Photo Credit Sarah Swift
I am in Phoenix for these meetings and will be using this blog space to share the interesting happenings during the week! Keep checking Fox Weather for the latest as the weather community convenes to set the weather and climate research goals for 2009!
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