MEDIA ADVISORY: Yes, they'll talk about the weather.

Contact: Sammy McDavid

More than 200 weather professionals and others from around the region will be at Mississippi State April 4 and 5 for the Seventh Annual Southeast Severe Storms Symposium.

To be held at the Bost Extension Center auditorium, the professional gathering is sponsored by the National Weather Association/American Meteorological Society's East Mississippi Chapter. The university's geosciences department and its broadcast meteorology academic program are event organizers.

The schedule for the 4th [Friday] primarily involves a broadcasters' workshop. The daylong program on the 5th [Saturday] will include a series of short sessions covering various aspects of severe-weather prediction and coverage.

Featured speakers will include Kenneth Pryor of the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service; Jan Dutton, director of Weatherbug, an Internet weather information site; and James Spann, the well-known Birmingham, Ala., television weather forecaster.

While not considered a general public event, the symposium welcomes interested members of the news media. For a complete schedule of speakers and programs, contact Mike Brown of the geosciences department at 662-325-2906 or mike.brown@msstate.edu.

For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.