Meramec’s Sky Club hosts severe weather seminar for students and staff
BY : Will Murry
Art & Life Editor
On Feb. 27, Meramec’s theater bore witness to an event that was not to be mist. The Sky Club’s severe weather seminar featured an educational presentation by Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jim
Photos by Will Murry
Kramper. Over the course of the three hour seminar attendees were trained how to spot dangerous inclement weather, what to do during dangerous weather conditions and how to properly report weather.
“The number one goal of these seminars to teach people how to keep themselves safe. Here they learn what not to do and how to get the information they need so they can make those critical decisions. That’s the bottom line,” said Kramper, “People are responsible for their own safety, and they’ve got to use all the information at their fingertips and use that to make their decisions on what to do in
inclement weather.”
Attendees were shown different types of cloud formations, weather conditions and atmospheric behaviors so they could learn to identify when a cloud is more bark than bite, or if they need to round up their family and get so a safe location.
At the end of the seminar, audience members were given their very own “Storm Spotter” identification cards to show that they have been educated on inclement weather and that they are qualified to spot and report potential storms into the National Weather Service of St. Louis.
Joe Schneider, Sky Club advisor and professor of meteorology and astronomy, said that events like the severe weather seminar are important for the community because there aren’t enough opportunities in the classroom to teach that kind of information.
“These events are really to teach the community—not just students and staff, but the surrounding city of Kirkwood and St. Louis as a whole—how to spot and understand what they’re seeing as far as severe weather,”
said Schneider.
For those that missed the seminar, Kramper will be presenting it twice more: at the Missouri botanical on March 21 and the Sunset Hills Community Center on March 24, before he retires at the end of the month.
