Bahamas Weather Conference & Disaster Preparedness

Today kicks off severe weather awareness week for South Dakota, and it is an interesting coincidence that I just got back from learning about forecasting for large-scale weather disasters & readying the community for them at the Bahamas Weather Conference. Make sure you go to our weather page by clicking here to see today's information on severe weather awareness.

I'll probably be posting a few different posts over the next couple of days as I sort through all the information I learned, but we'll start with a couple of videos and some information as well:

They really value the conference in the Bahamas - and it really showed! The people there were so friendly toward us, and made us weather-geek types feel like we belong. That picture above was from the first night when they hosted a welcome party for us.


Then the fun began... aside from meeting tons & tons of other meteorologists we did actually learn about the weather as well. Mostly talking about hurricanes, we also covered some topics about emergency management and how to prepare people for floods and hail and things like that. While a hurricane might not make a direct hit on the Sioux Empire, we definitely feel the impacts in a number of ways. It strains our insurance policies, but we learned from one speaker that we shouldn't worry about the insurance industry's ability to pay our claims despite our economic policies.

That picture above was of a forum on the effects of climate change on hurricane strength and development. While my camera kept taking blurry pictures, the guy on the left at the table is Dr. Steve Lyons from the Weather Channel. The 2nd in is Dr. Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center. The 3rd in is Dr. Bill Reed, the current director of the National Hurricane Center, and the 4th on (the one on the right) is Dr. Jim Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They had quite a spirited result, and if you are at all interested in hurricanes and effects of climate change you should make sure to email me (a_shaffer@kdlt.com) and I'll fill you in on the details.

That picture is me with Dr. Bill Gray of Colorado State University. He is quite the spirited atmospheric scientist - and basically one of the founders of modern hurricane science. I was honored to have a picture taken with him at the conference. Just another fun thing that happened on this trip to the Bahamas.

Of course, it wasn't all about the work (as you probably guessed a long time ago). The Bahamas are an AMAZING place... just look at these last few pictures.

Quite a trip - And I'll keep updating you as I figure out how to post video of the presentations themselves.

Have a great night & enjoy this week's warm-up!

~KDLT Meteorologist Aaron Shaffer