Bowling Green, Ky. - Nine undergraduate and graduate geography students majoring in meteorology and climatology at Western Kentucky University attended the sixth annual National Severe Weather Workshop in Midwest City, Okla.

Attendance at the March 2-4 workshop is part of the students’ training in the Department of Geography and Geology as meteorologists, and they were sponsored by Dr. Rezaul Mahmood and Dr. Stuart Foster of the Kentucky Climate Center.

The three-day workshop is designed to enhance partnerships between severe weather forecasters and researchers, emergency managers, broadcast meteorologists, businesses, storm spotters and other weather enthusiasts.

WKU students attending the conference were geoscience graduate student William “Mark” Baldwin of Crossville, Tenn., and undergraduate meteorology students Robert Kyle Coffelt of Tompkinsville, Danny Gant of Hopkinsville, Ronnie Leeper of Bowling Green, Ross Livingston of Hohenwald, Tenn., Joelle McNichols of Cadiz, Lindsay Peters of Columbia, Tenn., Julie Scott of Morgantown and Jane Marie Wix of Brandenburg.

Sponsors of this annual event are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NWS), the NWS Southern and Central regions, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the NWS forecast office in Norman, Okla., the NWS Warning Decision Training Branch, NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory, Oklahoma Emergency Managers Association, and the Central Oklahoma Chapters of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association.

Featured speakers included John Jones, deputy director of the National Weather Service, and Eve Gruntfest, professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, an internationally recognized expert in natural hazard warning system development and flash flooding.

According to Geography and Geology Department Head Dr. David Keeling, “this annual workshop brings together a number of different constituencies who address local and national severe and hazardous weather situations. Students can learn a tremendous amount of practical knowledge from attending workshops like this, which will ultimately benefit their respective communities.”

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555.