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Steven J. Weiss

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki




Steven J. Weiss
File:Steve Weiss 2018.jpgSteve Weiss 2018.jpg Steve Weiss 2018.jpg
Born (1948-03-25) March 25, 1948 (age 78)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
🏫 EducationUniversity of Oklahoma, University of California Los Angeles
💼 Occupation
Known forSevere storms forecasting
👩 Spouse(s)Kay Weiss
👶 Children3
🏅 AwardsAMS Fellow & NWA Special Lifetime Achievement Award

Steven J. Weiss is an American meteorologist and retired forecaster who spent over four decades at the U.S. National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Oklahoma. Weiss joined the NWS full time in June 1973 and worked at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) in Kansas City, MO, a predecessor to the SPC, starting in 1974. The Storm Prediction Center is responsible for the forecasting of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms across the lower 48 states. During his career he served in operational and scientific leadership roles — including SPC national Lead Forecaster, Science & Operations Officer, and chief of SPC’s Science Support Branch. He contributed to research and operational programs such as the Hazardous Weather Testbed, which focuses on the testing, evaluation, and transition of promising new tools from research to operations, especially state-of-the-art high resolution convection-allowing model guidance for use by forecasters. He retired from the SPC in July 2018 after 46 years of public service.[1]

Steve's unique blend of decades of operational forecasting responsibilities, coupled with his numerous research projects and publications, resulted in an amazing career that greatly benefited the entire meteorological community around the world.[2]

File:SELS c1978 Weiss, Wilson, and Williams color from RJWilliams MOD.png
Steve Weiss (left) and Richard Williams (right) assist lead forecaster Larry Wilson (center) in coordinating a severe weather watch. c. 1978.
File:SJW1999.tif
Steve Weiss working at SPC lead forecaster desk in 1999.
File:Weiss 2009.jpg
Weiss leads a map discussion in the Hazardous Weather Testbed in 2009.
File:Tor191c.jpg
Steve issues a tornado watch during one of his final forecast shifts in 2018.

Life and Career

Steve Weiss was born on March 25, 1948 in Chicago, IL. Ironically, Steve's birthdate matches the date of the first successful tornado forecast at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. He attended the University of Oklahoma for undergraduate studies, then the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), earning an M.S in meteorology.

Weiss first worked as a student assistant at the United States Weather Bureau (predecessor of the National Weather Service) in Chicago during the summers of 1968 and 1969. He also worked briefly as a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, OK in 1970. He returned to the NWS as a meteorologist intern in Detroit, MI in 1973. The next year, he was hired by NSSFC in Kansas City, MO to become an Assistant Forecaster. Weiss spent a decade in the Severe Local Storms (SELS) and Aviation units, before becoming a SELS Lead Forecaster in 1984. Steve worked the lead desk for over 17 years, before becoming the unit's second Science & Operations Officer (SOO) in 2001. He was subsequently promoted to Science Support Branch Chief in 2013.

Weiss served as an elected officer in the National Weather Association (NWA) for eight different years between 1988 and 2006. He was national president of the organization in 2005.[3]. During this time, he also served as Editor of the NWA's National Weather Digest and Journal of Operational Meteorology. His community service extended to the American Meteorological Society (AMS) where he served multiple terms on the AMS's Severe Local Storms technical advisory committee and Severe Storms Conference program committees. In addition, he was an Associate Editor of the AMS journal Weather and Forecasting.

Weiss’s research spanned more than four decades, bridging operational forecasting and academic meteorology. In the late 1970s and 1980s he examined fundamental forecasting tools such as lifted-index diagnoses, four-layer models of instability, and associated numerical prediction model vertical sounding structures, and assessed statistical forecast skill for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms at NSSFC.

Beginning in 2000, shortly after the move of SPC to Norman and its co-location with NSSL, collaboration between a small group of SPC forecasters (including Steve) and NSSL scientists led to the creation of the innovative SPC-NSSL Spring Program (which later became the internationally recognized Hazardous Weather Testbed). This first-of-its-kind partnership brings together forecasters, research scientists, academics, model developers, and graduate students each year during the peak severe weather season to conduct real-time experiments exploring cutting-edge ways to improve operational analysis and forecasting.

Primary efforts have focused on development and use of advanced numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The HWT established long-lasting productive interactions between SPC, NSSL, and national and international weather modeling centers. The HWT has played a key role in the operational implementation of cutting-edge convection-allowing NWP (e.g., high-resolution versions of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model) and creation of probabilistic, ensemble-based guidance for high-impact weather. This groundbreaking work is documented in numerous studies examining topics such as ensemble size, model resolution, updraft parameterization as a predictor of storm intensity, and radar-data assimilation. Steve's pioneering efforts in the HWT Spring Experiment led to numerous research topics that were instrumental in promoting collaborative workflows between forecasters and researchers. His applied research interests and direction of the HWT emphasized usefulness and real-world forecast skill rather than purely theoretical studies.

SPC Career

Weiss holds the record as the longest-tenured staff member in NSSFC and SPC history covering a total of 44 years. He spent over 17 years at the SELS/SPC lead forecaster position, issuing over 2,700 severe thunderstorm and tornado watches over the contiguous U.S. This included working many historic and damaging severe weather outbreaks, for example:

In 2001, Weiss left full-time forecasting responsibilities and became the SPC SOO. This change allowed him to focus on operationally-based science activities within SPC including forecaster education and training, outreach to NWS forecast offices, technical interactions with other NCEP Centers and NOAA Labs, and co-leading the annual HWT. He helped to direct this highly collaborative event each year, helping to test and evaluate new modeling systems and forecast methods before they entered day-to-day forecast operations. He worked with numerous researchers and academics across the United States and around the world to find the best tools and methods for subsequent meteorologists.

Steve was promoted to SPC Science Support Branch Chief in 2013. This position allowed Weiss to lead all science and technology training efforts within the SPC, as well as maintain general supervision of the HWT. Importantly, his passion for severe weather forecasting never waivered throughout his career and he continued to work many operational forecast shifts while serving as SOO and Branch Chief. He remained in the latter position until his retirement in 2018.

Awards

  • 1992 NWA Member Of The Year[4]
  • 2001 AMS Editor's Award - Weather and Forecasting[6]
  • 2001 Silver Medal (Joint Organization Award) – “For providing the citizens of Alabama life-saving tornado watch and warning information during the tornado outbreak of December 16, 2000.”[7]
  • 2004 Gold Medal (Joint Organization Award) – “For outstanding, life-saving performance during a record tornado outbreak from May 4-10, 2003.”[8]
  • 2008 Bronze Medal (Joint Organization Award) – “For outstanding fire weather forecast and briefing support to fire agencies fighting the catastrophic Southern California fires of October-November 2007.”
  • 2009 Bronze Medal (Joint Organization Award) – “For providing proactive and life-saving service during the record-breaking February 5, 2008, “Super Tuesday” killer tornado outbreak.”
  • 2012 AMS Kenneth C. Spangler Award - To the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed Team, "For bringing the government, academic, and private sectors together in a visionary, proactive, and exemplary manner to deal with the challenges posed by hazardous weather. "[9]
  • 2017 NWA Special Lifetime Achievement Award - "For contributions to operational meteorology, specifically forecasts of severe convective storms, that includes science-centered leadership within forecast operations, mentorship of students and young scientists, and supreme dedication to the transition of scientific research to forecast operations, that have advanced our enterprise and helped protect society."[2]

Bibliography

This is a list of peer-reviewed publications. Weiss also authored or co-authored many dozens of conference pre-print articles, technical reports, book chapters, and presentations that are not listed below.

  • Ferguson, E.W., J.T. Schaefer, S.J. Weiss, and L.F. Wilson, 1983: The year of the tornado. Weatherwise, 36, 19-27.
  • Stensrud, D.J. and S.J. Weiss, 2002: Mesoscale model ensemble forecasts of the 3 May 1999 tornado outbreak. Weather and Forecasting, 17, pp.526-543.
  • Kain, J.S., M.E. Baldwin, P.R. Janish, S.J. Weiss, M.P. Kay, and G.W. Carbin, 2003: Subjective verification of numerical models as a component of a broader interaction between research and operations. Weather and Forecasting, 18, 847-860.
  • Kain, J.S., P.R. Janish, S.J. Weiss, M.E. Baldwin, R.S. Schneider, and H.E. Brooks, 2003: Collaboration between forecasters and research scientists at the NSSL and SPC: The Spring Program. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 84, 1797-1806.
  • Kain, J.S., M.E. Baldwin, and S.J. Weiss, 2003: Parameterized updraft mass flux as a predictor of convective intensity. Weather and Forecasting, 18, 106-116
  • Kain, J.S., S.J. Weiss, J.J. Levit, M.E. Baldwin, and D.R. Bright, 2006: Examination of convection-allowing configurations of the WRF Model for the prediction of severe convective weather: The SPC/NSSL Spring Program 2004. Weather and Forecasting, 21, 167-181.
  • Wasula, A.C., L.F. Bosart, R.S. Schneider, S.J. Weiss, R.H. Johns, G.S. Manikin, and P. Welsh, 2007: Mesoscale aspects of the rapid intensification of a tornadic convective line across central Florida: 22-23 February 1998. Weather and Forecasting, 22, 223-243.
  • Kain, J.S., S.J. Weiss, D. R. Bright, M.E. Baldwin, J.J Levit, G.W. Carbin, C.S. Schwartz, M.L. Weisman, K.K. Droegemeier, D.B. Weber, and K.W. Thomas, 2008: Some practical considerations regarding horizontal resolution in the first generation of operational convection-allowing NWP. Weather and Forecasting, 23, 931-952.
  • Schwartz, C.S., J.S. Kain, S.J. Weiss, M. Xue, D.R. Bright, F. Kong, K.W. Thomas, J.J. Levit, and M.C. Coniglio, 2009: Next-day convection-allowing WRF model guidance: A second look at 2-km versus 4-km grid spacing. Monthly Weather Review, 137, 3351-3372.
  • Potvin, C.K., K.L. Elmore, and S.J. Weiss, 2010: Assessing the impacts of proximity sounding criteria on the climatology of significant tornado environments. Weather and Forecasting, 25, 921-930.
  • Schwartz, C.S., J.S. Kain, S.J. Weiss, M. Xue, D.R. Bright, F. Kong, K.W. Thomas, J.J. Levit, M.C. Coniglio, and M.S. Wandishin, 2010: Toward improved convection-allowing ensembles: Model physics sensitivities and optimizing probabilistic guidance with small ensemble membership. Weather and Forecasting, 25, 263-280.
  • Coniglio, M.C., K.L. Elmore, J.S. Kain, S.J. Weiss, M. Xue, and M.L. Weisman, 2010: Evaluation of WRF model output and severe weather forecasting from the 2008 NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Experiment. Weather and Forecasting, 25, 408-427.
  • Kain, J.S., M. Xue, M.C. Coniglio, S.J. Weiss, F. Kong, T.L. Jensen, B.G. Brown, J. Gao, K. Brewster, K.W. Thomas, and Y. Wang, 2010: Assessing advances in the assimilation of radar data within a collaborative forecasting-research environment. Weather and Forecasting, 25, 1510-1521.
  • Kain J.S., S.R. Dembek, S.J. Weiss, J.L. Case, J.J. Levit, and R.A. Sobash, 2010: Extracting unique information from high-resolution forecast models: Monitoring selected fields and phenomena every time step. Weather and Forecasting, 25, 1536-1542.
  • Carley, J., B.R.J. Schwedler, M.E. Baldwin, J. Trapp, J. Kwiatkowski, J. Logsdon, and S. J. Weiss, 2011: A proposed model-based methodology for feature-specific prediction for high-impact weather. Weather and Forecasting, 26, 243-249.
  • Sobash, R.A., J.S. Kain, D.R. Bright, A.R. Dean, M.C. Coniglio, and S.J. Weiss, 2011: Probabilistic forecast guidance for severe thunderstorms based on the identification of extreme phenomena in convection-allowing model forecasts. Weather and Forecasting, 26, 714-728.
  • Clark, A.J., S.J. Weiss, J.S. Kain, I.L. Jirak, M.C. Coniglio, C.J. Melick, C. Siewert, R.A. Sobash, P.T. Marsh, A.R. Dean, and M. Xue, 2012: An overview of the 2010 Hazardous Weather Testbed Experimental Forecast Program Spring Experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 93, 55-74.
  • Ralph, F.M., J. Intrieri, D. Andra Jr., R. Atlas, S. Boukabara, D. Bright, P. Davidson, B. Entwistle, J. Gaynor, S. Goodman, J-G. Jiing, A. Harless, J. Huang, G. Jedlovec, J. Kain, S. Koch, B. Kuo, J.J. Levit, S. Murillo, L. Riishojgaard, T. Schneider, R.S. Schneider, T. Smith, and S.J. Weiss, 2013: The emergence of weather-related test beds linking research

and forecasting operations. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94, 1187–1211.

  • Kain, J.S., M.C. Coniglio, J. Correia, A.J. Clark, P.T. Marsh, C.L. Ziegler, V. Lakshmanan, S.D. Miller Jr., S.R. Dembek, S.J. Weiss, F. Kong, M. Xue, R.A. Sobash, A.R. Dean, I.L. Jirak, C.J. Melick, 2013: A feasibility study for probabilistic convection initiation forecasts based on explicit numerical guidance. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94, 1213–1225.
  • Gallo, B.T., A.J. Clark, I.L. Jirak, J.S. Kain, S.J. Weiss, M.C. Coniglio, K.H. Knopfmeier, J. Correia Jr., C.J. Melick, C.D. Karstens, E. Iyer, A.R. Dean, M. Xue, F. Kong, Y. Jung, F. Shen, K.W. Thomas, K. Brewster, D. Stratman, G.W. Carbin, W. Line, R. Adams-Selin, and S. Willington, 2017: Breaking new ground in severe weather prediction: The 2015 NOAA/Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Forecasting Experiment. Weather and Forecasting, 32, 1541-1568.
  • Kain, J.S., S. Willington, A.J. Clark, S.J. Weiss, M. Weeks, I.L. Jirak, M.C. Coniglio, N.M. Roberts, C.D. Karstens, J.M. Wilkinson, K.H. Knopfmeier, H.W. Lean, L. Ellam, K. Hanley, R. North, and D. Suri, 2017: Collaborative efforts between the United States and United Kingdom to advance prediction of high-impact weather, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98, 937-948.
  • Clark, A.J., I.L. Jirak, S.R. Dembek, G.J. Creager, F. Kong, K.W. Thomas, K.H. Knopfmeier, B.T. Gallo, C.J. Melick, M. Xue, K.A. Brewster, Y. Jung, A. Kennedy, X. Dong, J. Markel, M. Gilmore, G.S. Romine, K.R. Fossell, R.A. Sobash, J.R. Carley, B.S. Ferrier, M. Pyle, C.R. Alexander, S.J. Weiss, J.S. Kain, L.J. Wicker, G. Thompson, R.D. Adams-Selin, and D.A. Imy, 2018: The Community Leveraged Unified Ensemble (CLUE) in the 2016 NOAA/Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Forecasting Experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 99, 1433-1448.
  • Evans, C., S.J. Weiss, I.L. Jirak, A.R. Dean, and D.S. Nevius, 2018: An evaluation of paired regional/convection-allowing forecast vertical thermodynamic profiles in warm-

season, thunderstorm-supporting environments. Weather and Forecasting, 33, 1547-1566.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SPC Retirement Announcement".
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "NWA Awards 2017".
  3. ↑ "NWA Past Officers".
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "List of NWA Award Winners".
  5. ↑ "List of Fellows, American Meteorological Society".
  6. ↑ "List of Award Winners, American Meteorological Society".
  7. ↑ ""2001 Department of Commerce Awards Program" (PDF).
  8. ↑ ""2004 Department of Commerce Awards Program" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "2012 AMS Awards Banquet Book".



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