Christina Speciale from the National Weather Service will discuss why measuring rain and snow sets the trend for long term climate. Through ground truth observations meteorologists are able to build long term climate data and understand the climate of a region. The only way we know if a weather event is an "extreme" is if we compare it to "normal". Having a long standing climatology for a region, allows us to definitively say if an event is a true anomaly or not. Christina will highlight how the National Weather Service has established rules explaining how to properly measure rain and snow. Snow is especially challenging and the data collection needs to follow certain rules to be included as official records in the NWS climate database. Science teachers and their students play an instrumental role as weather observers and data collectors for rain and snowfall amounts.

Christina Speciale has been a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany, NY since 2017. Her duties include creating forecasts for eastern NY and western New England over the Day 1 to Day 8 range, issuing advisories, watches and warnings in advance of inclement weather including winter storm and severe thunderstorm warnings and communicating weather hazards to local, county and state emergency manager partners to assist them in making life saving decisions. Besides forecasting the weather she is also the Upper Air and Assistance Climate Focal Point where she trains forecasters to launch weather balloons and assists in quality controlling and maintaining the climate database from weather stations across eastern NY and western New England. Before joining the National Weather Service, Christina worked for a private weather company in northern New Jersey for five years where she was involved in Forensic Meteorology in addition to her duties as the lead meteorologist for the company’s Maryland, Washington D.C and northern Virginia clients. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from Rutgers University in 2011.

Pub Science events are FREE (except for any food or drink that you purchase) and held monthly at various locations around the Capital Region. Join us for a casual conversation and presentation and earn professional development time (2 hours) at the same time!

Schedule:

6:00p-6:45p : Gathering, order drinks and food - Brown's Brewing Company, Troy, NY

6:45p-7:45p : Presentation and conversation

7:45p-8:00p : Wrap up, questions, pay your tab