Researchers from Saint Louis University visit the National Weather Service office in Melbourne

Dr. Rao visit to NWS Melbourne From left to right: Dave Sharp (NWS), Dan Gallagher (SLU), Dr. G.V. Rao (SLU), Bart Hagemeyer (NWS), and Scott Spratt (NWS).
Dr. G.V. Rao and graduate student Dan Gallagher from St. Louis University (SLU) visited the Melbourne NWS Office in early January 2002. The purpose of the visit was to begin a collaborative research project to study Tropical Cyclone tornadoes. The project, funded by the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, will take place during 2002, with the goal of documenting radar signatures to assist forecasters more readily identify potentially tornadic storms. The visitors also presented seminars to the Melbourne staff on their previous research and the weather forecast office staff shared their prior experiences and research results. NWS Melbourne meteorologists will reciprocate with a visit St. Louis University in the Spring to present briefings and to continue working on the project.