Bill Hark finds out what -11F temps feel like!

Roger Hill warms up the crowd at the beginning of the convention.

Jon Davies does the first presentation of the day on his specialty -- cold core systems. But about half way through....

POOF! There goes the power to the whole building! Curiously enough, this happened at EXACTLY the moment that Tim Samaras rebooted his PC due to a crash...Coincidence?!? :-)

Mike Theiss demonstrates the only method of illumination in the room!

Folks wandered around in the lobby waiting for updates or news about the power.

Jeff Piotrowski, Mike Umscheid & Jim Leonard.

Bill Hark getting the latest from Rocky Rascovich.

I don't know why there was a bed in the lobby.

Without power for the heating systems, the subzero temps started creeping into the building. Stu Robinson and Mike Theiss were among the first to feel it!

Jim Leonard and Mike Theiss flank TWC's Dr. Greg Forbes amidst the falling temps!

The power came back on about 30 minutes later. We were non the worse for it, except maybe a little cold.

The "Storms of" guys, Greg Stumpf & Jim Ladue pose while selling the latest Storms of 2005 DVD production in the vendor room.

Chris Collura was representing the Weathervine crew, selling their various hurricane chase videos.

What, it only goes up to 3"?!?!

Doug Kiesling getting a hair raising experience.

Dan Robinson contemplates if he is as brave as a couple of grade school girls!

Emily Rose Sutton gives the Van deGraf a try.

Bill Hark eventually joined in on the fun too.

Dr. Josh Wurman gives a talk on DOW research.

Dr. Greg Forbes gave an incredibly thorough talk about overall patterns for severe weather in the past and how it relates to the upcoming 2006 season.

Dr. Dave Gold describing the PVA forecast method.

Tim Samaras surrounded by all the A/V equipment that he brought and set up!

Bill Hark, Kathryn & Jeff Piotrowski.

View from the 12th floor of the Radisson as the sun set on Convention Day #1. What a view!!!

I spent the banquet dinner with quite a crew!!

Left to right: Bill Hark, Greg Stumpf, Betsy Abrams, Matt Crowther, Jim Leonard, Dan Barker, Mike Umscheid (hiding) & Mike Theiss.

A closer view of Matt, Jim, Dan and Mike.

After dinner came Dr. Chuck Doswell's hilarious presentation on chaser safety & etiquette.

And Tim Samaras' probe deployment presentation got bumped after Chuck's, due to the power failure earlier.

The chase video night ended a bit early, so a small "mini convergence" gathered to watch Mike Theiss' incredible Hurricane Katrina video.

Left to right: Mike Theiss, William Kucharski, Katie Bay, Bill Hark, Mike Umscheid, Matt Crowther, Jim Leonard (out of frame...and mind)

Mike "Chiefie" Umscheid. Nice hat! :-)

Day Two. Jon Davies starts off again with a fantastic presentation on how to effectively use SPC's parameters to forecast storm type. And no power failure this time!

Jeff Piotrowski, Scott Blair & Mike Theiss look over the great photos in Jeff's new 2006 calendar.

Tim Marshall gives tips on how to conduct a damage survey.

I....I just don't know what this is. Amos Magliocco, Scott Blair and me.

Jim Reed finished off the day with a very useful talk about photography tips, tricks and sales.

Just me taking weird pictures again. Anyone who was at the convention will recognize this. :-)

Afterwards, Mike Theiss does his best Howard Dean impression!