Director

Peter Robinson has been involved in Applied Climatology since arriving in North Carolina in 1971. He was the State Climatologist from 1976 until 1980, at which time he left the state on assignment as Assistant Director of the National Climate Program in Washington DC. There he was responsible for Federal-State Climate relationships and was in charge of the climate data and information services. During this time he laid the administrative foundations for the program which evolved into the Regional Climate Centers. At the end of the assignment he returned to Geography Department at the University of North Carolina, teaching courses in atmospheric science and being involved in applied climatic research. He served for a period as the Chair of the Regional Climate Centers National Oversight Committee. He is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist, slated to serve in 2008 as the Chair of the Administrative Board for the program. He is also the US Representative to the International Geographical Union Commission for Water Sustainability.

He became Director of the Southeast Regional Climate Center when it was relocated to the University of North Carolina in April 2007.

Dr. Charles E. Konrad II Associate Professor Department of Geography 305 Saunders Hall Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3220 Telephone: 919-962-3873 Web: http://www.unc.edu/depts/geog/people/faculty/konrad/ Email: konrad@unc.edu

Charles (Chip) Konrad is originally from Roanoke, VA. He received a B.S. in Geophysics in 1985 from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in Environmental Science in 1989 from the University of Virginia. In 1993, he earned a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Georgia. Chip’s research focuses on the synoptic climatological characteristics of precipitation-producing weather systems in the southeastern United States. Ongoing research includes the investigation of the precipitation patterns associated with landfalling tropical cyclones as well as the analysis of snowfall regimes in the southern Appalachians. Much of his research focuses on different types of extreme weather events, including high winds, thunderstorms, cold air outbreaks and heavy rainfall. He has published articles in a wide range of atmospheric science and geography journals. Chip is responsible for directing the climate services at the Center.

William G. Schmitz Service Climatologist/Meteorologist Bank of America Plaza Suite 602 137 East Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Telephone: 919-843-9721 Email: wschmitz@email.unc.edu

B.S. 2001, Plymouth State College, New Hampshire, Meteorology

A.S. 1998, Canada College, Redwood City, CA, Physics

William spent most of his youth in California near San Francisco. He moved to Vermont in the early 1990's so that he could experience some real weather. In March Super Storm 1993 came plowing up the East Coast and planted the passion and ambition for Weather/Climate that would drive him along his career path. In 1998 he obtained his Associates Degree in Physics and transferred to Plymouth, NH where in 2001 he graduated with a Bachelors in Meteorology. His first Job was with Aquila Inc. a Kansas City, MO based energy company that was just spinning up a Weather Derivative Desk. While in Kansas City William was a Climate Data Analyst and managed a global database of weather data. He then went on to Work with a small group called GuaranteedWeather and finally with the Southeast Regional Climate Center in 2005. Within the SERCC William is the Service Climatologist and is responsible for climate research associated with the Southeastern U.S. and educating current and new users on how the SERCC can be of assistance to them.

Helen B. Needham Administrative Assistant Bank of America Plaza Suite 602 137 East Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Telephone: 919-843-2704 Email: hneedham@email.unc.edu

Helen was born in Durham, North Carolina at "Dook", and is a true Suthun Girl. She graduated from Guilford College with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. She has been an employee at UNC-Chapel Hill for nearly 15 years and thus converted from being a Duke fan to a Tarheel! She has a great deal of experience in all aspects of the UNC-Chapel Hill administrative and accounting systems, using Finance Central, InDepth, Excel, etc. She has interests in both Geography and Climate Change. Helen has two passions; one, traveling to exciting destinations and two, rescuing, taming, fostering and adopting out stray cats. Among some of the places she has traveled to; Paris, France, London, England, Bermuda, Cancun, Mexico, The Bahamas, Hawaii, and throughout the United States, with hopes and plans to travel to Italy, Australia, Canada, New Orleans and the western and northern United States. Helen is married and currently owns 10 cats and is caring for 2 stray cats with her husband Bill. Although she is an independent cat rescuer she has worked with several local rescue groups and actually fostered a mom cat and her 3 kittens who survived Hurricane Katrina! She found purrfect homes for the mom and 2 of her kittens, but one sadly didn't survive and is buried in Helen's backyard. She also rescued and adopted out one puppy, so she is a actually "an equal opportunity rescuer"! Helen plans to rescue stray cats for the rest of her life due to the very sad and tragic cat overpopulation crisis. To date, she has rescued over 100 cats directly, and helped well over 100 more indirectly. She spreads the messages to "Please spay or neuter your cats!" (and dogs!) and to "Adopt a Stray Today!" everywhere she goes! Helen is pleased to have joined this great group and to work for NOAA's Southeast Regional Climate Center, and is enjoying learning some interesting weather/climate facts in the process!

Christopher M. Fuhrmann Ph.D. Student (Geography) Bank of America Plaza Suite 602 137 East Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Telephone: 919-843-9721 Web: http://www.unc.edu/~fuhrman1 Email: fuhrman1@email.unc.edu

Originally from Connecticut, Chris Fuhrmann has called North Carolina “home” since 1995. Chris graduated with highest honors from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2004, obtaining his B.A. in Geography with an emphasis in earth systems science. His honors thesis explored the climatology of lightning strikes in North Carolina. In 2006, Chris received his M.S. in Geography from the University of Georgia where he worked as a research assistant in the Climatology Research Laboratory. His thesis examined the synoptic and mesoscale environments associated with severe convective windstorms in Georgia. Chris is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Geography at UNC-Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Chip Konrad. His interests include winter precipitation (particularly ice storms), nonconvective windstorms, lightning, aviation meteorology (specifically clear air turbulence), and applied climatology. Chris's dissertation research focuses on the airstreams and patterns of moisture transport connected with winter precipitation events in the Southeast. His current responsibilities with the Southeast Regional Climate Center involve climate data services, website development, and collaborative research on issues related to climate and health in the region. Ultimately, Chris hopes to use climatological data and information to develop a suite of decision-support tools that can be used by forecasters and those with weather-sensitive interests to ascertain the value of short-term weather forecasts.

Gretchen Stuppy Carlson Masters Student (Geography) Bank of America Plaza Suite 602 137 East Franklin Street Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Telephone: 207-752-0905 Email: stuppy@email.unc.edu

Hailing from Maine, Gretchen traveled extensively around the country before landing here in the Southeast . After attending Middlebury College in Vermont and receiving a degree in Geography and English, Gretchen went on to earn her US Coast Guard Master's license. Gretchen worked on a series of sail training, science education, tall ships around the country and in the Caribbean as a Mate, Program Director, and Captain. As part of these programs, included Sea Education Association, Salish Sea Expeditions, and the Schooner Ernestina, the weather was an integral part of every day, and dictated the well being of everyone aboard. After 2 years as a classroom teacher, Gretchen is pursuing this interest in weather and is currently a graduate student in geography at UNC-Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Chip Konrad. She is currently interested in Coastal Weather and is exploring sea breeze precipitation along the Atlantic Coast. Gretchen is most interested in multi-scale patterns involving ocean-atmosphere interactions.

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   Systems Developer & Administrator

Bryan Aldridge Systems Developer & Administrator 238 Research III Building, Centennial Campus Box 7236, North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7236 Telephone: 919-513-0244 Email: bealdrid@ncsu.edu

Bryan Aldridge was born in Charlotte, NC and received a bachelor's degree in computer science at NCSU in May 2007. Bryan's current responsibilities at the climate office include investigating and evaluating performance of data storage techniques using Linux clusters. He is also responsible for other Linux Systems Administration tasks including the Linux Virtual Server and maintenance of ingest scripts. Bryan also is responsible for developing ACIS/CLIMOD fore the Southeast Regional Climate Center.