Southwest Michigan AMS/NWA
March 7, 2018
Schuler Book Store
2660 28th St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
President Brandon Hoving called the meeting to order at 7:15 PM. Four board members were present. A total of 10 people attended the meeting.
Treasurer William Marino sent an email to the board prior to the meeting regarding our finances and membership. As of March 6th, we had a total of $1,198.23 in our accounts. We now have a total of 20 paid members for 2018. That is the highest since 2012.
Our speaker for the evening was Beth Bishop from Enviroweather. Enviroweather is an organization funded by Michigan State University to provide tools for weather based pest, natural resources and production management. They have installed over 80 automated weather stations throughout the state, which collect information and then transmit it to a central database. This information is processed into 60 different weather based information and decision making products.
You can see a map of the location of these stations and view their weather data at this web site: www.enviroweather.msu.edu. You can also view their weather based products, which include not only standard weather information but data and graphics on degree days as well as other not easily found data on soil temperature and wetness at a depth of two and four inches, leaf wetness and light intensity. There is literally a wealth of information at this site for weather enthusiasts as well as agricultural interests.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM. We have two additional meetings planned soon. One meeting will feature Kaz Fujita, the son of Dr. Ted Fujita, the famous tornado researcher, and another will bring back by popular demand the Delta Airline captain with his experiences and photos from the cockpit of a commercial airliner. More details to follow soon.
Respectfully submitted
Craig James Woods
Secretary