• Gary Cannalte

    Gary Cannalte – Dark Skies Severe Weather Seminar Master of Ceremonies

    • Chief Meteorologist from August, 1999 to present. Morning meteorologist from September, 1990 to August, 1999. On-air television Meteorologist for 5, 6, 9, and 10 PM newscasts.
    • Provide live and recorded weekday morning and afternoon weather forecasts for radio stations WMGN, WWQM, and WTDY in Madison, WI, WCLO and WJVL in Janesville, WI, WGLR-AM/FM in Lancaster, WI and WPVL-AM/FM in Platteville, WI.
    • Provide daily forecast updates and weather content for Channel 3000 web site (www.channel3000.com).
    • Present weather educational talks for schools and severe weather seminars for businesses and the general public.
  • Dr. Leigh Orf

    Dr. Leigh Orf – Observing and Modeling Supercell Thunderstorms and Tornadoes

    • Associate Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Systems (CIMSS).
    • His research focuses on severe weather, including supercell thunderstorms, tornadoes, & downburst
    • He is especially interested in obtaining new insight into the atmosphere by efficiently utilizing high-performance computing (HPC) resources, such as the Blue Waters supercomputer.
    • His past presentations have included the International Computing for the Atmospheric Sciences Symposium, Sept. 15, 2015, Annecy, France – Valparaiso University 13th Annual Great Lakes Meteorology Conference & the 19th annual Severe Storms & Doppler Radar Conference.
  • Rusty Kapela

    Rusty Kapela – Radar Interpretation

    • Retired National Weather Service Meteorologist.
    • 40 years in the weather business — over 36 at the National Weather Service.
    • Before joining the National Weather Service in 1977, he lived and worked in Antarctica for three months — the geographic South Pole, where he arrived to find the temperature at minus 50.
  • John McLellan

    John McLellan, Dane County Emergency Management – Preparedness

    His career has been associated with emergency response (from the fire hose to writing standard operating procedures to strategic and long range planning for emergency and municipal agencies), specializing in the development and testing of organizational policy and procedures. Current career with Dane County’s Department of Emergency Management allows the opportunity to interact with a diverse and ever expanding group of government, non-profit, and for-profit professionals. This is the most attractive part of the job. The outcome from our interaction can come in many forms: from a one-time conversation to develop a general understanding of what “preparedness” is for an organization to the multi-year development of emergency procedures including evaluation and improvement mapping to ongoing participation on select emergency preparedness / organizational response committees.

  • National Weather Service Logo

    National Weather Service – NWS Spotter Class

    • Sullivan WI, MKX
  • FEMA Logo

    FEMA (Federal Emergency Management), Jody Pradelski – Community Preparedness

    • Meteorologist
    • Disaster Preparedness Consultant, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management)
    • Department. of Homeland Security, FEMA Region V
  • Chad Woodward

    Chad Woodward, Dane County AEC for SKYWARN/Dane County Emergency Management, VP-Midwest SSTRC – Advanced/Elite Severe Weather/Spotter Class

    • VP-MidWest SSTRC: Provide volunteer support to the National Weather Service via MidWest SSTRC through spotter training, damage assesment and whatever additional aide is requested.
    • SKYWARN: Provide volunteer support to Dane County Emergency Manangement via radio communications with weather information during potentially life-threatening situations, while relaying that information to the National Weather Service.

    Chad became involved in severe weather spotting for the National Weather Service when a then F3 tornado struck the housing development north of Belleville, Wi called “Vineyville” in 1992. His daughters friend was sitting on a couch in their living room, when the errant tornado “spun-up” (later called the Waubesa Heights tornado).

    There was no warning.

    Because of his technical background Chad was aware the NWS had installed new “Doppler Radar” and he was mystified why the technology seemingly didn’t work. Little did he know that his next actions would lead to an education that would be a life changing event. Feeling helpless and somewhat angry, an emotional Chad called the National Weather service wondering why the Doppler Radar failed, leaving two scared kids on couch not knowing what to do. The voice on the other end assured him that the radar was working, but it had limitations.

    The next exchange went something like this….

    Chad- “…wait a minute, don’t you have …spotters?, I am sure you have spotters!”

    National Weather Service- “Yes we do, but we don’t have enough, would you like to become one?”

    They had thrown down the gauntlet, leading to an unexpected journey. Now Chad is dedicated to aiding the spotter program in anyway possible. As is Dale Bernstein and the rest of the Midwest team. He mentors and trains others to become spotters as well, and the rest as they say, is history.