The 48th Northeastern Storm Conference: A Resounding Success

The 48th Annual Northeastern Storm Conference (NESC) was held in Burlington, VT this year at the DoubleTree by Hilton from March 10th – 12th. This year’s conference was the largest since the start of the COVID – 19 pandemic with over 200 attendees. The conference is held every year with the same goal in mind: to unify all facets of the atmospheric sciences community and promote and nurture new knowledge and ideas in the field. The Northern Vermont University – Lyndon Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association worked to further achieve this goal for attendees through an abundance of academic presentations, professional development workshops, and insightful keynote speakers.

Friday evening keynote, Meaghan Thomas, a broadcast meteorologist for WKRN News2 in Nashville, Tennessee, kicked off the conference. Her energetic presentation gave an overview of her journey and the importance of creating your own brand. Academic presentations started off Saturday. There were over 50 presentations this year. Sessions throughout the weekend covered presentations in field work, tropical, severe, lightning, hydrology, communication, and more. Intertwined were professional development workshops for all attendees no matter the stage of their career.

This included the Demo Reel Critique session where broadcast students had the opportunity to show their reels and get feedback from Cecy Del Carmen, freelance bilingual meteorologist in the Boston area, and Alex Wasilenko, weekday morning meteorologist at Local 22 and Local 44 News in Burlington. Other popular professional development sessions included the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Mental Health and Depression, and Budgeting After College workshops. 

A new conference implementation attendees were able to embark on this year were guided tours with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Burlington. Over 75 attendees toured the facility during one of the several offered sessions throughout the weekend. Later Saturday afternoon, attendees had the opportunity to attend a networking event and career panel. The career panel allowed students to ask questions to a panel of experienced professionals. The panel included Rebecca Duell, meteorologist for the NWS in Burlington, Dr. Scott Steiger, professor at The State University of New York at Oswego, Jason Nicholls, Senior Meteorologist and Lead International Forecaster at AccuWeather, Inc., and Cecy Del Carmen.

The evening ended with a presentation from keynote speaker, Dr. Karen Kosiba, Managing Director of the Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (F.A.R.M.) Facility and adjunct research professor at the University of Illinois. Her presentation discussed her career and passion for field work encompassing some of the most recent campaigns she has been involved in. This includes Lake Effect Electrification (LEE) and Propagation, Evolution, and Rotation in Linear Storms (PERiLS).

The last keynote, Dr. Matthew Lazzara, discussed tales from Antarctica covering all aspects of meteorological fieldwork on the seventh continent. This included details on experiences through the Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) Program.

The conference wrapped up with additional academic and professional development sessions, a weather balloon launch, and a career fair. Eight vendors made up the career fair including Weather Routing, Inc., New York State Mesonet, NWS Burlington, Plymouth State University, The University of Oklahoma, Mt. Washington Observatory, USA Weather, Inc., and the conference’s sponsor, AMS Weather Band.

This year’s conference gave participants an opportunity to reflect and recognize those who have made the conference what it is today including past organizers, keynote speakers, presenters, and more. The NVU – Lyndon AMS & NWA would like to extend a tremendous thank you to this year’s sponsor, AMS Weather Band, the Northern Vermont University and Lyndon State College communities, professional and student presenters, and most of all, the attendees that continuously support the conference year after year. This marks the 48th year of NESC and it most certainly won’t be the last. We hope you will join us for the 49th Annual Northeastern Storm Conference in 2024!