Skilling Weather Seminar Draws Huge Crowds To Fermilab

After 31 years, WGN-TV weatherman Tom Skilling still draws a crowd for his annual Tornado & Severe Storm Seminar. 

Fermilab’s Ramsey Auditorium was filled to its capacity of 847 last weekend, with several hundred overflow attendees who watched the nearly five-hour program in a nearby classroom on closed-circuit TV. 

So, why does Skilling spend an entire Saturday every April presenting these seminars?

“It sounds hokey, but I really mean this: It's a way to give back,” he said. “This forum has enabled us to bring together a ‘who’s who’ in the severe weather forecast and research community and present these folks to the public so they can hear directly from the researchers.”

The first seminar in 1981 was at Geneva High School, and about 40 people showed up. Brian Smith, a warning coordination meteorologist for the Omaha National Weather Service, lived in Geneva and graduated from the high school. He had met Skilling at a 1979 conference on severe storms in Kansas City when they came up with the idea for a program.

“It was just me and Tom onstage using slides and movie film,” Smith said of the first program. “Never in our wildest dreams 31 years ago did we expect this.”

Smith attributes the success on Skilling’s popularity and that more people are interested in weather. The seminar focused on recent weather events such as the Groundhog Day blizzard and was particularly timely following last week’s deadly tornadoes that devastated seven states in the South, leaving more than 350 dead. 

Skilling said the more time that passes after a tornado outbreak, people tend to “put it in the back of their heads."

“This is an opportunity where we can bring it front and center in people’s minds,” he said. 

Statistical data show northern Illinois typically sees tornadoes rated EF4 or EF5—packing winds 200 mph causing extreme damage and death—on average every five years. 

The last severe outbreak was 21 years ago on Aug. 28, 1990, when a tornado rated EF5 hit the Plainfield/Joliet area leaving 29 dead and unbelievable damage that included the destruction of three schools. Despite the extent of the damage, it is ranked the eighth-worst tornado in Illinois history.

So, in other words, we’re overdue.

In addition to heart-stopping videos of storm chasers, the recent Japanese tsunami, and  stunning footage presented by weather photographer Jim Reed, the audience viewed a segment recently available on the .” 

This rare audio was made by the manager of the Coral Theater in Oak Lawn on April 21, 1967, the day an F4 tornado ripped through the village. Thirty-three people died, including 16 at an intersection next to the high school, making it the fourth deadliest in Illinois history. In all, there were 18 tornadoes in Illinois that afternoon.

On a personal note, I was a 15-year-old getting ready for my confirmation and finishing dinner when that tornado arrived around 5:30 p.m., just three blocks away. It’s something you never forget. 

Skilling mentioned the need for continued funding of satellite equipment and computer upgrades to enable meteorologists and researchers to produce computer models that provide early warnings for dangerous weather. He cited the Feb. 2 blizzard that was imminent days before, and a certainty 24-hours before the snow started falling.

“It’s a ball to have a chance to work with my colleagues in a forum like this to help get the word out on severe weather to people,” Skilling said.

Download the movie

Download the movie