SeCAPS 2026 Keynote Speakers

James Spann
Chief Meteorologist
Alabama Weather Network

Mr. James Spann is chief meteorologist of the new Alabama Weather Network, which started operations in August 2025. AWN provides severe weather coverage for all 67 Alabama counties. He is also chief meteorologist for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham and has been a professional meteorologist for 47 years. After starting his college career as an electrical engineering major, he would go on to change majors and finish in the meteorology program at Mississippi State University. James was honored as one of the “Top 100 Outstanding Alumni” of the Mississippi State Department of Geosciences in 2016. The University of West Alabama conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree to James in 2013. He has won the “Award For Broadcast Meteorology” from the American Meteorological Society, the “Broadcaster of the Year” from the National Weather Association and has earned multiple Emmy awards over the years. He was elected to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, representing outstanding achievement spanning at least 25 years in the broadcast industry with a proven record of mentoring and community involvement. The Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) named James as the National Weatherperson of the Year in 2019. James was one of the first weather anchors in the nation to earn "Certified Broadcast Meteorologist" status from the American Meteorological Society. James does weather programs in schools daily across Alabama, and leads children’s worship at Double Oak Community Church in Shelby County. James and his wife Karen have been married for 44 years, and have two grown sons.

Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain
UCAR Senior Social Scientist

Dr. Kim Klockow-McClain is a UCAR Senior Social Scientist, most recently working with the National Weather Service as the NCEP Coordinator for Social Science Applications. In this role, Kim provided social scientific support within and across the National Centers. Prior to joining NWS, Kim developed and led the Behavioral Insights Team at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. Kim’s research background involves behavioral science applied to weather and climate risk, especially in the communication of forecast uncertainty and response to hazardous weather warnings. She holds a PhD in Human/Hazards Geography from the University of Oklahoma, a Master's degree in Professional Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics (with honors) and Synoptic Meteorology from Purdue University.

Dr. Micheal Simpson
Climavision

Dr. Micheal Simpson attended SUNY Brockport with Dr. Scott Rochette as his advisor, receiving his B.S. in meteorology in 2012. Thereafter, Micheal obtained his M.S. at the University of Missouri, working with Dr. Patrick Market in the isentropic framework to derive a new method of calculating diabatic heating. Not long after, Micheal was recruited to develop a workflow to ingest, quality control, and plot weather radar data from the X-band radar (MZZU) at Mizzou. This work earned him a PhD in the Fall of 2017. 

After obtaining his PhD, Micheal joined CIMMS in 2017 to work with the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) group. He has been involved in several publications with the group, ranging from radar QPE to quality control. He also created and analyzed differences between physically based QPEs and machine learning based QPEs for the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. 

In 2022, Micheal joined Climavision where he currently manages the weather radar workflow and algorithm development with his team of radar scientists. Micheal routinely provides lectures on radar hardware, software, and other meteorological topics at Universities and Colleges that are partners with Climavision.

In his spare time, Micheal is also the full-stack developer of his historical weather webpage, www.hwxhub.com, has been playing the guitar for 10+ years, and recently picked up the piano. He lives in Rochester, NY with his wife, 4-year-old daughter, and 3 cats.