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Author Archives: Alois Holzer
EWOB app relaunch
Just before the end of this ESSL jubilee year 2016 the EWOB app was relaunched. The main improvements are:
- better translations into 35 languages spoken in Europe (thanks to our voluntary translators!)
- photos taken will now also be stored on your device and not only be sent to the EWOB database
- bug fixing and increased stability
Download the European Weather OBserver (EWOB) app here and tell your colleages, friends and family how important your reports are for warning forecasters and researchers!
ECMWF new ESSL member
ECMWF and ESSL enter into a new stage of partnership: on 22 November 2016 the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts officially became a full institutional member of the European Severe Storms Laboratory.
After increasing informal cooperation over the past years this step will facilitate a close collaboration in a number of fields in the future, like in the exploitation of the European Severe Weather Database ESWD.
The ESSL now has 13 full institutional members, most of them national weather services.
Exhibition opening on 100 years Wiener Neustadt tornado
On 29 June 2016 at 19:00 the grand opening of a photo exhibition on “100 years Wiener Neustadt tornado” takes place in the Stadtmuseum Wiener Neustadt. Alois M. Holzer from ESSL provided expertise to the Museum regarding the selection and interpretation of the damage photographs and will also contribute to the opening programme.
The photo exhibition will be open until 31 July 2016:
Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun 10:00 to 16:00
Thu 10:00 – 20:00
Join Testbed 2016 online briefings and lectures!
Tuesday 7 June 2016 online briefings and expert lectures of this years’ Testbed start at 09:00 UTC with the severe weather forecasts for day 1 and day 2. Join us online via EUMETCAL. The login is free of cost. Just click on the respective event in the provided list and register with your email address.
Thursday 9 June 2016, after the severe weather briefing, Rich Thompson from NOAA will talk about “Anticipating Convective Mode” – a highly relevant topic.
Testbed2016 Blog active
Already on the first day of the ESSL Testbed 2016 a striking example for the potential of high resolution ensembles was found. In this case it is the COSMO-DE-EPS. Find out more here.
ESSL involved in EUMETNET ASIST project
At their meeting at ZAMG in Vienna on 13 January 2016 plans to involve ESSL in the Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting EUMETNET programme ASIST (Application oriented analySIS and very short range forecast environmenT) were presented by the EUMETNET programme partners. The project is foreseen to run until December 2017.
Programme partners are encouraged to participate in the ESSL Testbed 2016 and in the ESSL Testbed 2017. An outcome shall be subjective Testbed validation of the different systems.
Verification and testing of ASIST systems as well as training with ASIST systems is foreseen. One of the ASIST goals is to develop Nowcasting training material.
Pieter Groenemeijer and Alois M. Holzer from ESSL together with ASIST representatives at their meeting (at ZAMG in Vienna) on 13 January 2016. (Photo by Georg Pistotnik, ZAMG)
ECSS Awards 2015
The list of ECSS awardees together with their contributions – for best poster, best oral presentation and best student contribution – is now available here.
The awards were presented during the closing ceremony of the ECSS on the 18th of September 2015:
Nikolai Dotzek Award 2015
Dr. Harold E. Brooks receives the 3rd Nikolai Dotzek Award.
At the occasion of the 8th European Conference on Severe Storms that was held in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, Dr. Harold E. Brooks (National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma, USA) has been awarded the 3rd Nikolai Dotzek Award.
The Nikolai Dotzek Award was established in 2011 in the memory of ESSL’s first director and founding father, Dr. Nikolai Dotzek, who passed away in May 2010.
Dr. Brooks has been given the award for his innumerable and diverse contributions to the science of severe storms, which among many other accomplishments, include
- his pioneering work in developing and applying proxy parameters to assess the climatology and risk of severe storms, both regionally and globally.
- his contributions in establishing the connection between vertical wind shear in the lower troposphere and the occurrence of tornadoes.
- his extensive work and significant progress on verification methods for forecasts of extreme events.
In addition, Dr. Brooks was commended for his support to the European and international communities of severe storm researchers that has resulted in many fruitful collaborations.
A list of all Nikolai Dotzek Awardees is available here.
ECSS Conference Photo
The official ECSS 2015 photo is now available here:
Photo (c) Thomas Schreiner, ESSL