19th Cyclone Workshop (Sep. - Oct. 2019)

For the first time since its creation in 1979, the Cyclone Workshop was held outside of North America. The original motivation for this exception was the 100^th anniversary of the Bergen School (J. Bjerknes, 1919), which provided fundamental conceptual models for the dynamics and life cycles of extratropical cyclones. The 19^th Cyclone Workshop eventually took place from 29^th September to 4^th October 2019 at Kloster Seeon, an inspiring, secluded venue near Munich, in Germany.

Organizational and financial support for the workshop was provided by W2W, mostly to support the participation of early career scientists from overseas. Twenty-six travel grants for participants from Brazil, Canada, India, and the USA were granted. Overall, 125 participants from 15 countries attended the workshop.

An excellent historical account of the Bergen School by Thomas Spengler, currently Professor for Atmospheric Dynamics at University of Bergen, preluded the workshop. Subsequent topics focused on structure, dynamics, hazards, and predictability of extratropical and tropical cyclones, and the role of non-conservative processes in shaping these characteristics. Further sessions addressed characteristics of cyclone precursors, such as the stratospheric vortex, the jet stream, Rossby waves, and polar tropopause vortices, and tropical-extratropical interactions. The evening sessions featured poster sessions, a panel discussion on education in science, and an interactive visualization session with Met3D. The overall highlight of this workshop, however, was ample time for discussion scheduled in the agenda, despite a large number of contributions. It was during these discussions that the Cyclone Workshop community could clarify questions, reconcile results achieved by different approaches, and identify overarching science questions that may provide guidance for research efforts over the next years.

The organizing committee thanks all participants for their contributions that made the 19^th Cyclone Workshop a great success!

To learn more about the program, the speakers and the venue, click here (official workshop website).

Childcare has been organized during the workshop.

Participants of the 19^th Cyclone Workshop in Seeon, Germany, on October 2^nd 2019. (Photo: Audine Laurian)