The tornadoes that struck southwestern Ohio on April 9 and Xenia in 1974 will be the topic of the Third Annual Ohio Severe Weather Symposium at Ohio State. The conference will be held 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Friday (4/30) in the Ohio Union Conference Theatre, 1739 N. High St.

Four people were killed and 90 homes destroyed when a pre-dawn twister struck Hamilton County earlier this month. The 1974 storm is known as the Super Outbreak among meteorologists. During a two-day span in 1974, a single storm spawned a record 148 tornadoes, of which 30 became an F4 or F5 on the Fujita Scale. More than 300 people died, including 34 in Xenia when an F5 tornado destroyed over 300 homes.

Among the conference highlights:
--1:00-1:40 John DiStefano and Greg Tipton, Science Operations Officer and Lead Forecaster at the National Weather Service Office in Wilmington, will discuss "A Case Study of the April 9, 1999 Southwest Ohio F-4 Tornado"

--1:40-2:20 p.m. Steve Horstmeyer, Meteorologist at WKRC-TV (Channel 12) Cincinnati, will discuss "The April 9, 1999 Southwest Ohio Tornado"

--2:30-3:30 p.m. Dan McCarthy, Mesometeorologist at the Storm Prediction Center, Norman, Okla., will discuss "A New look at the Super Outbreak of 1974 Using Today's Models"

--3:30-4:30 p.m. Greg Forbes, associate professor of meteorology at Penn State, will present "The 1974 Super Outbreak in Retrospect"

Organizers expect around 200 people to attend the symposium.

Contact: Mike Ryan, Conference Coordinator, Atmospheric Sciences Program, 292-1957