The 7th Annual National Storm Chasers Convention is coming to Denver from February 18-20th!

Speakers include: Dr. Al Bedard, Dr. Erik Rasmussen, Dr. Howie Bluestein, Dr. Josh Wurman, Dr. Greg Forbes, Tim Marshall, Tim Vasquez, Scott Blair, Jim Reed, Jim Edds, John Davies, and more.

Complete details and registration is available at: http://chaserconvention.com/site/

Last year, I attended Tim Vasquez's Severe Weather Forecasting class after the convention. While it was very informative, it's definitely NOT for the uninitiated! I have taken the Meteorology and Climatology undergrad courses at Colorado State University, and was a little rusty in the class. If you want to go, definitely bone up on your map skills (identifying and drawing front lines from isobar readings, etc.)

Not sure if I'll be able to go at all this year, as I'm starting a new job on the 21st, but more on that later...

If you want some local involvement with weather reporting, you should also check out CoCoRAHS! There is also a great article on CoCoRAHS at: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/weather/4157645/detail.html

Nick O'Kelly from 9 News in Denver requested kids send in audition tapes for a chance to be on a morning weathercast.

My oldest son, Connor, and I went to work gathering the latest weather data from Denver/Boulder Severe Weather at the National Weather Service.

We put together a script, and he drew up a map of Colorado with a few significant current temps from the viewing area.

Next we did a practice run (we only had a week to get a tape/DVD in for the studio deadline), and then filmed it on our new Sony digital camcorder.

We took the camera up to the iMac and captured the clips in iMovie, put together a quick intro image in iDVD, dragged the iMovie over, and burned the DVD!

I sent it in, and we waited, and waited. Yesterday, during the morning show, they featured Connor's audition! We didn't tape it, unfortunately, but lots of friends and family saw the segment and called or emailed in to our new TV star!

We still don't know if he's won a spot on site at the studio, but his clip is featured on the 9 News website at: http://9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=390953f6-0abe-421a-01e6-8a067ef3052d&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf

I'm so proud of my little weatherman!!!