This year's event will be a review of the May 28th Tornado from the persectives of the Integrated Warning Team with an advanced spotter presentation to sharpen our skills for this next season.
Tentative Schedule
7:30 a.m.: Registration Begins (Breakfast refreshments will be available)
8:15 a.m.: Welcome and Announcements
8:30 a.m. – 9:20 a.m.: Bryan Baerg and Kevin Skow, NWS Topeka
9:30 a.m. – 10:25 a.m.: Brett Anthony, KCTV5
10:35 a.m. – 11:25 a.m.: Chuck Magaha, Leavenworth County Emergency Management
11:35 a.m. – 12:25 p.m.: Al Pietrycha, NWS Kansas City
12:20 p.m. – 1:10 p.m.: Panel Discussion
Panel Discussion (Includes our speakers and local Integrated Warning Team Members)
Speakers
Al Pietrycha, NWS Kansas City
Albert Pietrycha has been a meteorologist with the National Weather Service for over 18 years and is the Science and Operations Officer at the Kansas City, Missouri office. Al’s area of interest lies within observational meteorology with emphasis on mesoscale and storm scale studies (e.g., tornadoes, supercell thunderstorms, hurricanes, convective initiation, etc,). While earning his B.S. and M.S. in Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, respectively, Al was a Principle Investigator or the Field Coordinator for numerous research projects investigating tornadoes and hurricanes. In his spare time Al enjoys astronomy, photography, handcrafted beers, and racing homing pigeons.
Bryan Baerg, NWS Topeka
Bryan Baerg is a Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka, KS. He grew up on a 3,000 acre farm in the central Kansas town of McPherson. His love for weather grew throughout his childhood as he became fascinated with the extreme severe weather across the Central Plains. Bryan’s love for weather turned into a career path as he attended and graduated from The University of Kansas in December of 2015, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science. His National Weather Service employment began in the spring of 2015 when he was hired as a Pathways Student Intern (formerly known as the SCEP program) with the forecast office in Topeka, Kansas. Upon graduation, Bryan was converted to his current position as a Meteorologist. Bryan is an avid sports fan, especially the Chiefs, Royals, and Jayhawks. Some of Bryan’s hobbies include traveling, golfing, and storm chasing.
Chuck Magaha, Leavenworth County Emergency Management
Chuck is currently the Director for Leavenworth County Emergency Management Homeland Security. He has held this position for the last Thirty one years. Chuck has served as the Chairman of the Metropolitan Emergency Management Committee of the Kansas City Metro area, representing Leavenworth, Johnson, and Wyandotte in Kansas and Platte, Clay, Jackson, Ray and Cass in Missouri. He has served 3 terms as President of the Kansas Emergency Managers Association, an organization representing 87 of the 105 Counties in Kansas. Chuck currently serves as the Homeland Security Chair of Kansas representing all 7 regions of the State of Kansas and Kansas State agencies. He is the State Division Supervisor of the Kansas City Division for the Kansas All Hazards Incident Management Teams in Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth County. His role is to keep the team of 30 members ready for deployment anywhere in the State of Kansas or the United States to assist in Disasters. He currently holds the position as Vice Chairman of the Kansas Commission on Emergency Planning & Response which is a governor appointed position He was the recipient of the Professional Coordinator of the Year Award from the Kansas Emergency Management Association in 1996 and the Instructor of the Year in 2002. Chuck received the Kansas National Guard award for ASelfless Excellence in 2002 from General Greg Gardner for service of the Katrina response. He also received the Governors Gold Medallion from Governor Bill Graves in 2002. He has received the Garrison Commander Coin of Excellence from the United State Army Garrison of Fort Leavenworth in 2005 and the Judge Advocate of Generals Corps Coin of “Loyal Kansans” in 2007. Chuck received the first president’s award in 2015 from the Kansas Emergency Management Association.
Chuck has been involved in law enforcement and has been a volunteer firefighter for Fairmount Township Fire Department in Basehor, Kansas for over 43 years, which he is currently, serves as Logistics Captain. He is a certified EMS First responder through the State of Kansas. He is a professional Kansas Certified Emergency Manager through the Kansas Emergency Management Association.
Chuck is a member of the Kansas Division of Emergency Managements training cadre for various emergency management courses. He is the lead instructor in the State of Kansas to teach Debris Management throughout the state of Kansas. He is State and nationally trained certified instructor of the Incident Command Systems (ICS), which is delivered to emergency responders and many other agencies in the private sector. Chuck did represent the Kansas Emergency Managers in the Kansas Safe and Prepared Schools through Homeland Security.
Brett Anthony, KCTV 5
Brett Anthony joined KCTV5 in October 2017. Prior to joining the KCTV5 family, Brett spent four years in Tulsa, OK. You may also remember him from more than a decade of weather forecasting for another television station in Kansas City. Brett, a two time regional Emmy award winner, says the time in Oklahoma has sharpened his severe weather forecasting and tracking skills. He has a meteorology degree from Western Kentucky University located in Bowling Green. He also has a radio/television degree from Southern Illinois University. Brett and his wife, Sherri, have been married for more than 26 years. They have two sons, Seth and Aaron.
Kevin Skow, NWS Topeka
I began my National Weather Service career in 2009 at Anchorage, AK after having spent my childhood and college years in Minnesota and North Dakota. I turned my sights southward in 2011 with a transfer to the NWS office in Des Moines, IA--followed by a move to Topeka in 2016. My areas of expertise focus around radar meteorology, ground & aerial post-event surveying, severe weather warning operations, and hazard messaging/communication. I spearheaded the demonstration of satellite imagery acquisition for storm surveys in 2013 and led groundbreaking research using these datasets on QLCS tornadoes in 2014 and 2015. One such case--which originally had no reported tornadoes--ended up setting the Iowa state daily tornado record (34 tornadoes)! I am on the forefront of tornado debris signature (TDS) research and developed a broader definition for TDSs that is more applicable to operational meteorologists. In more recent years, my focus has been on improving tornado warning decision making and warning verification techniques.
Panel Discussion Participants and Special Guests
Joe Lauria, Fox4