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Southwest Michigan AMS/NWA
22 Jan 2020
West Michigan Aviation Academy
5363 44th St
Grand Rapids, MI 49512
President Warren Wheeler called the meeting to order at 7PM. All of the board members were present with the exception of Treasurer, William Marino, due to his work schedule. Total attendance was 23 people.
Cort Scholten gave the treasurer’s report. After gift cards were given out in November and December to contest winners and to the West Michigan Aviation Academy as a thank you for hosting us, we now have total cash on hand of $861.89 as of 22 January.
Storm Spotters Kim Howell and Bill Oosterbaan who gave a presentation on “Storm Chasing: Do’s, Don’ts and Everything in Between”. Their slides and videos this evening were from the EF5 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma in May 2014, the Pilger, Nebraska tornado from June 2014 and the Mangum, Oklahoma tornado in May 2019. If you go to our website, amsnwa.com, there is a link to see videos from their many years of storm chasing. It is interesting both of them stated when chasing tornadoes they are less fearful of tornadoes than they are of traffic jams from too many spotters, large hail and lightning.
Kim and Bill also showed this slide of their storm chasing tips. One additional point was to avoid what they called “roads of death”. Many of the dirt roads in the plains states are red clay, which becomes slippery as ice when wet. It is also very easy to sink into the mud on a dirt road with no way to escape. Bottom line is to get trained on how to chase storms, plan escape routes well and don’t go alone.
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