(Netherlands, 1977; currently in Spain)

Oscar van der Velde is researcher of lightning and high-altitude electrical discharges (sprites, jets) produced by thunderstorm systems, at the Technical University of Catalonia. He obtained his PhD degree in the same field in Toulouse (2008), and his MSc degree in Meteorology from Wageningen University (2002). During and after his studies, he worked at the national meteorological institute in The Netherlands (KNMI) on topics as total lightning activity of thunderstorms compared to radar and other parameters, model initialization, and vertical profiles derived from aircraft observations. In 2001 Oscar visited the University of Oklahoma in Norman (USA) for six months to collaborate with Dr. MacGorman on relations between 3D lightning activity and precipitation types derived from polarimetric radar. He returned in 2003 and followed two advanced meteorology courses. Oscar runs a website showing his other main hobby: photography of weather phenomena and landscapes.

(Germany, 1983; currently in Austria)

Helge Tuschy (1983) is a student in Meteorology / Geophysics at the Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria. In 2002, he worked in the National Weather Service Amarillo, Texas for 3 weeks on the day-and night shifts including occasional chasings. In the spring of 2004, he visited the Storm Prediction Center ( SPC ) where he got the chance to work with a meteorologist on a tornado climatology project. 3 years later, in 2007, he visited the NWS of Amarillo, TX again where he worked for 3 weeks with a supervisor and he was also able to spend a day in the SPC where he was taught how to create an outlook. Helge participated in the ECSS 2007 in Trieste and he prepared numerous talks / presentations.

(Germany, 1980)

Johannes Dahl is pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the German Aerospace Center DLR, working on the parametrization of lightning occurrence. Johannes is highly interested in the dynamics of rotating thunderstorms which is the topic of his M.Sc. thesis ("Diplom" in Germany). Visits to the SPC and National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma have strongly contributed to his desire to forecast severe convective storms across Europe. He attempts to merge theoretical knowledge with applied meteorology which is why, apart from forecasting aspects, he is strongly interested also in theoretical physics and theoretical meteorology.

(The Netherlands, 1979; currently in Germany)

Pieter Groenemeijer is working at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, performing several case-studies of severe and non-severe thunderstorms that have occured in Europe. In the past, he has worked at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), which resulted in a guide on forecasting severe convective storms. He has studied meteorology at Utrecht University (Netherlands) which included a half year's stay at the University of Oklahoma, USA. He has studied the application of Doppler radar in severe convective weather at the Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), resulting in this report. Pieter is involved with the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD), a project of the European Severe Storms Laboratory, which is intended to help get a clear picture of what types and numbers of severe weather events occur across Europe.

(Germany, 1975)

Christoph Gatzen has studied Meteorology in Cologne and at the Free University of Berlin, where he founded the "Berlin Weather Forecast Challenge" together with J. Hoffmann. He has been a lecturer for the weather discussion, and organized a successful initiative to continue weather observations at the WMO station 10381 Berlin-Dahlem. He has written his M.Sc. thesis at the German Weather Service (DWD) on "The impact of incremental digital filter initialisation on analysis fields of the GME". He has published the first case study about a derecho that occurred outside of the United States, while working at the German Aerospace Center. Currently, he is operational forecaster at MC-Wetter in Berlin.

(Germany, 1985)

Oliver Schlenczek studies meteorology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. He has participated in COPS (convective and orographically-induced precipitation study) in a mobile team for surface measurements and soundings. In 2007, Oliver prepared some presentations about severe weather in Germany and thunderstorm forecast. He is going to present a case study about the severe weather outbreak on July 29, 2005 at the Extreme Weather Congress in Hamburg on March 27, 2008.

Senior Research Scientist
CIMMS, University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
United States of America

United Kingdom

Tomas Pucik
Student of physical geography
SKYWARN CzechoSlovakia
Poprad
Slovak Republic

Bulgaria

The Netherlands

Student at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics-Meteorology
Skywarn Slovenia
Slovenia

Skywarn CzechoSlovakia
Kolín
Czech Republic

Brazil Research Meteorologist
Météo France
Toulouse, France

France

Researcher
National Severe Storms Laboratory
Norman, Oklahoma
United States of America

Researcher
National Severe Storms Laboratory
Norman, Oklahoma
United States of America

Meteorologist/researcher
National Weather Service MeteoSwiss
Geneva
Switzerland

United States of America

Meteorologist / researcher
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Helsinki
Finland

Meteorologist / researcher
Finnish Meteorological Institute
Helsinki
Finland

Germany

Romania

Romania

UK Tornado forecasting and site investigations
TORRO
Leicestershire
United Kingdom

Radar meteorologist
Meteo Service weather research GmbH
Berlin
Germany