Understanding Severe Weather

Erik Salna, acclaimed meteorologist, discusses extreme weather events and their impact.

Erik Salna is a Meteorologist and currently Associate Director of Education and Outreach for the Extreme Events Institute (EEI) and the International Hurricane Research Center (IHRC) at Florida International University in Miami. EEI and the IHRC are at the forefront of reducing the impact of natural hazard events through research on storm surge, economic loss modeling and wind engineering, including the NSF-NHERI Wall of Wind.

Education outreach has been a career focus for Erik, including the annual NOAA Hurricane Hunter Awareness Tour, the Wall of Wind Mitigation Challenge High School Competition, Wall of Wind Museum Exhibit, NOAA P-3 Hurricane Hunter Museum Exhibit, Hurricane Andrew Museum Exhibit, and Eye of the Storm Museum Event. These successful projects involved many public-private corporate partnerships, and local, state, and national partners, including NOAA’s National Weather Service, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, International Hurricane Protection Association, American Red Cross, Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Resilience Action Fund, Florida Division of Emergency Management, Miami-Dade and Broward Emergency Management, CNN, and The Weather Channel.

Salna also has many years of experience as a broadcast meteorologist, providing live continuous coverage of hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding.