Today has been presented the program of the Festival of Meteorology, a big event open to the public, which for the first time is held in Italy - in Rovereto, October 16 and 17.
A two-day Festival, rich of conferences, discussions and debates with some of the main leaders in the field of meteorology research. To present the program at the press conference was the scientific director of the Festival, Dino Zardi; the rector of the University of Trento, Paolo Collini, and the Rovereto mayor, Francesco Valduga, were attending the presentation.
A Festival with a new look, created by the University of Trento and more specifically by the research group of Atmospheric physics (Department of Civil, environmental and mechanical engineering) and made possible with the support of the Rovereto Municipality. Collaborating at the making of the project the Museo Civico of Rovereto, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mart), Meteotrentino, as well as national realities as the National Research Council, the Inter-University Consortium CINFAI and the Italian Association of Geophysics.
The event will enable people to meet with the research leaders in the field of meteorology, chosen among national and international professionals and experts. To animate the program of the Festival will be the speeches aimed at a wider audience, as well as scientific and technical presentations about the current topics connected to meteorology. A fair of instruments, meteorological services and various cultural and playful-recreational theme activities will contribute to improve the knowledge of meteorology and the influence the “how’s the weather?” has on our daily chores.
Numerous and influential are the institutions intervening at the Festival with their representatives. Already confirmed are, among others, the National Research Council, the Ministry of Education Universities and Research, the Italian Space Agency, the Meteorological Service of the Air Force, the Higher Institute for the Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), the Department of Civil Protection, (Presidency of the Council of the Ministers), the Epson Meteo Center, the National Authority for Flights Assistance (ENAV), the Inter-University National Consortium for Physics of the Atmospheres and hydrospheres, the American Meteorological Society.
The Festival has the credit to riunite at the table the many actors committed in the studies of meteorology and to “bring back to Italy”, at least for a discussion, professor Claudio Mazzoleni of the Michigan Technological University and doctor Alessio Bozzo, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
There will be many experts and some faces very well know to the general public: to close the second working day it will be present the meteorologist Paolo Sottocorona and he will join in on how to “Comunicate weather forecast to a television public”.
In fact, weather reports have prompted a growing interest also in some specific areas where meteo has a direct impact: such as civil protection, management of service plants for buildings, energy production from renewable sources, tourism, transportation and agriculture management. The specialised weather forecast, in these areas, have the objective to minimise the negative socio-economic impact caused by adverse weather conditions, and, on the other hand, to maximise the benefits achieved in favourable circumstances. A result that might be achieved only by the correct use of a meticulous and targeted meteorological forecast.
«With the Meteorology Festival - explains the scientific manager Dino Zardi of the University of Trento - we want to offer a contribute to the dissemination and consolidation of a basic meteorological culture, at the moment missing in Italy, but more and more necessary to be able to understand the enormous quantity of meteorological information circulated daily by the media. The Festival will be a unique occasion to promote the encounter, the mutual awareness, and interaction among the different realities of the Italian meteorology. The event will get together the operators of the meteorological services, institutional and private, the professionals and the companies working in the field, the researchers, the users of meteorological services and products, the fans of meteorology, and will engage professors and students of schools of all levels and the public in general».
Among the initiatives connected to the Festival, there will be a training course for journalists about communicating meteorology, organised in collaboration with the Order of Journalists.