Athens, Ga. – With the nation digging out from this week’s bone-chilling freeze, the White House will convene a discussion by experts on the frontlines of weather forecasting and climate science, including the University of Georgia’s Marshall Shepherd, on Friday, Jan. 10, at 2 p.m. “We the Geeks: ‘Polar Vortex’ and Extreme Weather” will be a conversation with leading meteorologists, climate scientists and weather experts about why temperatures dipped to such frigid lows this week, how weather experts turn raw data into useful forecasts and what we know about extreme weather events in the context of a changing climate.
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will moderate the live discussion, to include:
• J. Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society and Athletic Association Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Georgia.
• Stephanie Abrams, The Weather Channel.
• Jim Overland, Arctic researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Jason Samenow, Capital Weather Gang’s chief meteorologist and the Washington Post’s weather editor.
• Bernadette Woods Placky, Emmy-award winning meteorologist at Climate Central.
“We the Geeks” is a series of Google+ Hangouts to discuss science, technology and innovation in the U.S. The public is invited to join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #WeTheGeeks. The discussion will be online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/we-the-geeks.