University to Host Public 3rd Annual Lightning Symposium

– Did you know that lightning is the number one weather killer in Florida and may inflict severe lifelong injuries on 10 times as many people as it kills?
Participants will share these and other lightning facts in the Florida Tech Third Annual Lightning Symposium on April 11, from 1 to 4 p.m.

The symposium, to be held in the F.W. Olin Engineering Complex auditorium, is free and open to the public. The College of Engineering’s Department of
Marine and Environmental Systems meteorology students sponsor the symposium.

Speakers include Dennis Decker, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Melbourne (“Lightning Basics” and
“Lightning Safety”); William Roeder, chief staff meteorologist, 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base (“Lightning Forecasting”); Dr. Joseph R.
Dwyer, Florida Tech associate professor of physics and space sciences (“X-ray Emission from Lightning”); Todd McNamara, chief of the Weather System
Division, 45th Weather Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base; and David Smith, lightning survivor.

For more information, call Florida Tech at (321) 674-8096.