Last week I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico attending the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society. This society is a scientific and professional organization serving the atmospheric and related sciences.

Calling this get-together a "meeting" is a bit deceptive. This wasn't twenty people in a room for a half-day talking about administrative matters. Rather, there were about 2000 meteorologists there for five days attending about ten separate conferences on subjects ranging from weather modification to global climate change.

I chaired a session about "Informal Education in Meteorology" - joined by a TV meteorologist and a journalist from Weatherwise, a popular non-technical monthly magazine about the weather. My talk focused on - appropriately - how museums help contribute to the public's understanding of the weather. In fact, these Franklin Facts even got a mention. In the coming weeks, I'll fill you in on some of the other hot topics from this year's meeting.