LET'S TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER

The National Weather Festival has moved online this year and includes storm spotter training, a forecaster Q&A and virtual tours with scientists who study and predict the weather

The National Weather Festival has moved online this year and includes storm spotter training, a forecaster Q&A and virtual tours with scientists who study and predict the weather.

Instead of visiting Norman' s high-tech National Weather Center in person, the coronavirus pandemic has pushed this annual event to a web in ar format that starts Monday. Scientists and staff who work daily to forecast and research weather patterns will be on hand to pull back the curtain.

The six-day festival is packed with weatherrelated seminars and events, including a question-and-answer seminar and virtual tour of the National Weather Center on Monday. Events continue each day until Saturday, when NWS will launch a weather balloon that's used to diagnose short-term weather and improve forecasts.

Registration is required for some events, and signup details can be found at https://www. ou.edu/nwc/nwf and at the festival's social media accounts.

Here' s a sampling of what the National Weather Festival has to offer this year:

Monday

Forecasters from the National Weather Service office in Norman will answer questions about severe and hazardous weather, including how tornadoes form and the strangest weather events they've experienced.

Tuesday

Go through basic storm sp otter training with t he National Weather Service. The class is free and open to anyone. Also that day, take a virtual tour of the University of Oklahoma's Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies to learn about the latest weather research.

Wednesday

Staff from OU' s CIMMS talk about how forecasters handle stress, how radars work and answer questions from viewers in this live panel discussion.

Thursday

NW S presents advanced storm spotter training. Like the basic course, it' s free and open to the public, but the advanced version dives into the meteorology behind how severe storms form and evolve.