Date: Saturday, April 11 from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Location: Range Cafe, Bernalillo Location | 925 S Camino Del Pueblo, Bernalillo

Topics:  

• 12:00 - 12:30 pm - Social | Active members (membership dues are paid in full). Place Lunch Orders at Table. Local Chapter Matters | President Anand

• 12:30 pm - Enjoy lunch!

• 1:00 pm  - Guest Speaker | David Gutzler, Retired Professor Emeritus, UNM; PhD Meteorology, MIT | Review Gutzler's complete bio below | Topic:  Record Warm Winter & Potential Impacts of A Warming Climate

Members volunteered to man the chapter table and talked to students and families visiting the fair about meteorology. We handed out our new AMS stickers, candy, and tried some local fair food. 

After a busy summer, members met at the Nob Hill location of Tractor Brewing Company to discuss future events, including STEM Day at the New Mexico State Fair and our next meeting. 

Location:  Flying Star on Corrales Road in Albuquerque, NM

Guest Speaker: Bladen Breitreiter, Lead Meteorologist / Incident Meteorologist (IMET), NWS El Paso

Topic:  Fighting Fire With Science

The President, Michael Anand, recapped the second year of the local AMS Chapter and discussed future outreach goals for the upcoming third year. The keystone speaker for the banquet was Bladen Breitreiter, Lead Meteorologist and IMET at NWS El Paso, who provided a presentation on the IMET program starting with the background and history of the program and how it has evolved to present day. They also went into the importance of the program the NWS mission and to the fire fighting community as a whole.

Guest Speaker:  Andrew Mangham, NWS Senior Service Hydrologist

Topic:  Ruidoso Burn Scar Impacts and Response

Great ideas were bounced around in this meeting of how to expand our membership and our reach to those in southern New Mexico and the National Weather Service Office in Santa Teresa, NM. The meeting ended with Andrew Mangham, NWS Senior Service Hydrologist, providing a presentation recapping the mid-June 2024 fires in Ruidoso and the subsequent flash flooding on the burn scars during the monsoon season. Andrew also went into the decision support he and the National Weather Service Office in Albuquerque, NM, provided to emergency management and public officials in Ruidoso and Lincoln County.

Guest Speaker:  Adrian Marziliano, PhD student at UNM

Topic:  Monitoring Mountain Snowpacks in the Southwest

The President, Michael Anand, provided a refresher on changes voted on by the membership in the chapter constitution. A few administrative items were discussed before the guest speaker, Adrian Marzillano, talked about his work focused on monitoring and analyzing snowpack changes across the mountain ranges in the Desert Southwest.

The membership was given a tour of the Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) facility by the Science and Outreach Officer, Sharon Sullivan. Sharon went over her daily shift duties and how the CWSU really helps the aviation industry and air traffic control operators’ direction flights in and out of Phoenix Sky Harbor (KPHX). Finally, the membership was able to listen into commands from the air traffic control operators to the pilots of various aircrafts and in return from those pilots.

Location:  ZiaMet Station near Placitas, NM

The membership met at a ZiaMet site near Placitas, NM, just east of Interstate 25 and north of the Sandia Pueblo. Dave Dubois and his group of NMSU graduate students provided a close up look at the station, how it records data, and how it is maintained to keep it producing high quality data. Afterwards, some of the members went down the road to Bosque Brewing in Bernalillo to have food and drinks.

Location: El Bruno Restaurant Y Cantina

Guest Speaker:  Joe Diaz, Chief Meteorologist, KOAT-TV

Topic:  How Better it is to Forecast the Weather Now

The President, Michael Anand, recapped a successful inaugural first year for the chapter and introduced the newly elected chapter board. After eating high-quality New Mexican food, the membership actively participated in a presentation from the honoree banquet speaker, Joe Diaz. Joe provided a look at how the broadcast meteorologist enterprise has changed over the course of his more than 40 year career!

Guest Speaker:  Dr. Dave Dubois, New Mexico State Climatologist

Topic:  ZiaMet Weather Station Network for New Mexico

The new chapter logo was revealed to the membership. The vice president, Daniel Porter, announced the 1st Annual Banquet and the Science and Outreach Officer, Dave DuBois, announced the creation of social media pages. The membership discussed of ways to reach out to students in the area through events and funding their travel to future AMS national conferences. Chapter elections were also announced with officers in the new chapter year having two-year terms effective after the April 2024 election. Finally, Dave DuBois gave a presentation about Ziamet, a new statewide Mesonet program developed by him that monitors surface weather conditions and sub-surface soil conditions.

A holiday get together was held at 3128 Social House in the Nob Hill neighborhood in Albuquerque. Members had a great time getting to know each other more and indulge in excellent high-quality food.

The third all time meeting of the New Mexico AMS Chapter was held at the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque, NM, on September 23rd.  President Michael Anand mentioned chapter updates and logistics since the second meeting on July 8th at TopGolf. A chapter email was also created before the third meeting. Vice President Daniel Porter mentioned plans for a holiday gathering during the month of December and an annual banquet will be Saturday, April 20th, 2024. The board was open for other get together opportunities. Treasurer Grant Tosterud mentioned we have a chapter bank account and asked for members to submit annual dues. Secretary Byron Morton took meeting notes and asked for feedback and suggestions on these notes. Science and Outreach Officer David Dubois took a group photo for our new social media pages. Finally we introduced and certified the constitution with an official vote! The board introduced a logo competition with the winner receiving a free annual membership in 2024. Members will vote for the logo in the next meeting on January 20th, 2024, which will be held on the University of New Mexico campus. As of the September meeting, our member count was 74. At the end of the meeting, NWS Albuquerque meteorologists conducted a special 18 UTC weather balloon launch for the chapter members. Here is a picture of that balloon launch.

In this meeting, the group discussed how to gain membership for the chapter, setting a price for annual dues, setting up social media accounts, as well as trying to sign-up for booths at big community events. The chapter also announced a logo competition. Finally, the chapter officers reviewed the chapter constitution with the membership which then got approved by the membership.

Getting to know each other

Discussed future meetings, outreach and how to vote on roles.