This Town Hall Meeting will look at the weather related societal impacts caused by Hurricane and Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy. The invited speakers will discuss storm evolution and prediction; the emerging research topics that are resulting from this event, how information regarding the storm was communicated to the public through broadcast and social media; how lives, property and infrastructure were impacted; and how the local, state and federal communities prepared to and responded to the storm. Guest presenters include: Louis Ucellini, NOAA/NWS/National Centers for Environmental Prediction, “Introduction to Sandy and the Major Impacts’”; Richard Knabb, NOAA/NWS/National Hurricane Center, “Hurricane Sandy: Hurricane Wind and Storm Surge Impacts.”; David Novak, NOAA/NWS/Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, “Post-Tropical Cyclone: Rain, Snow and Inland Wind Impacts,”; Mel Shapiro, UCAR, “Emerging Research Issues Due to Sandy,”; Bryan Norcross, The Weather Channel, “Communicating the Threat to the Public through Broadcast Media,”; Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang/The Washington Post/Climate Central, “Following the Storm through Social Media.”; and Eric Holthaus, The Wall Street Journal, “Storm Response in New York and New Jersey.” A Q&A Session is being planned, please bring your questions regarding this event, written on paper. Moderators will collect them and have them ready for the panel at 915 pm. This Town Hall will be a launch point for the many discussions, research and presentations that will occur at the 2014 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. The theme for that conference, “ Extreme Weather – Climate and the Built Environment: New Perspectives, Opportunities and Tools” was developed well before Sandy hit, but perfectly encompasses the many aspects of what occurred with Hurricane/Post-Tropical Storm Sandy. For additional information, please contact Tanja Fransen (tanja.fransen@noaa.gov), Randy Peppler (rpeppler@ou.edu) or Kim Klockow (kklockow@ou.edu).

This session includes a Global Overview of the Weather and Impacts of 2012, as well as specific events that occurred outside of the United States.

This session will cover the record setting severe weather event in Hawaii, as well as the April 2012 Derecho event that impacted a large majority of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic region.

This session reviews the 2012 fire season in the United States, review the Waldo Canyon Fire, the Bastrop Fire and the impacts of the ongoing drought in Texas.

This session looks at some of the major weather events in the United States from the past year. The focus is on what the impacts were of the event(s) which could include, but is not limited to: How did they compare in relationship to past events? What were the economic losses of the event? What was the human toll of the event? What preparedness and or mitigation activities were done prior to the event? Were there new communication tools utilized?