Following the success of the fourth International Summer Snowfall Workshop held in Leipzig in 2023, we are organizing a fifth workshop this year.
These workshops are a meeting place for a relatively small, focussed community with interests in topics such as:
Programme
The draft programme is now available here. The workshop will start on Monday morning and finish on Wednesday lunchtime.
Guidance for presenters:
Poster presenters: the poster boards we have available are 1.2m x 1.2m square, and therefore can accomodate an A0 poster in either portrait or landscape orientation. Poster pins will be provided.
Oral presenters: you have approximately 12 minutes available for your presentation, followed by 3 minutes of time for questions. Suitable formats include powerpoint or PDF (if you want to use something more rarified, please let Chris know in advance).
Travelling to Reading
Reading is located in southern England, around 50km west of London. To travel to Reading from outside the UK there are two main options:
(1) Train via the channel tunnel. This is an effective way to travel to the UK from western Europe, and has a much lower carbon footprint than flying. Eurostar operate a number of services to and from London St Pancras station. You can find (unofficial) tips and advice on rail travel to/from the UK here. From St Pancras, you can take the London Underground (circle, or hammersmith and city line) to Paddington station, and from here there are numerous fast rail services to Reading (travel time 25 mins or so), as well as a number of slower commuter trains, and the new Elizabeth line.
An alternative is to take the underground from St Pancras to Farringdon and pick up an Elizabeth line train direct to Reading.
The Transport for London website can plan your journey from St Pancras to Reading, and has maps of london underground and Elizabeth line trains.
(2) Flying. The easiest airport to access to/from Reading is Heathrow. From Heathrow you can catch a RailAir coach which will take you straight into the centre of Reading (specifically: the railway station). This is much more cost and time effective than going from Heathrow to Reading by train, which involves travelling into central London and then back out again. An alternative is to take a taxi directly from Heathrow to Reading - this may be cost effective if you are travelling as a group.
Alternative airports in the London area include Gatwick and Stanstead. There is a direct commuter train from Gatwick to Reading, which is OK, but a slow journey (1 hour 35 mins). To get to Reading from Stanstead involves a train journey into London and out again.
Please do check visa and passport requirements before you come!
European colleagues please do remember that the UK is not in the EU and it is likely that you will need an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to travel to the UK; please also realise that a passport is essential for travel to the UK for almost all visitors, you cannot use a national ID card. There is some more information here for EU, EEA and Swiss visitors to the UK, but please also check the advice from your own government webpages on travel to the UK.
Accommodation
The recommendation is to stay in the centre of Reading while you are visiting. There is a better choice of accommodation in the town centre, and the university campus is easily accessible by bus. We have built in a relatively gentle start time each day to allow time to travel from the centre of town to the department.
There are no specific recommended hotels, but many visitors to the department in the past have stayed in the Ibis Reading Centre and found it met their needs. There are several other options, and you can explore these through the usual routes to find one that suits your needs and budget.
Travel from town centre to the department, and back again
There are frequent bus services that serve the university campus. Reading Buses runs all of these services, and you can find detailed information on their website.
Buses number 17 (purple) and 4 (lion) stop close to the Earley Gate entrance to campus, which is where the Meteorology department is located. Takes about 10 minutes to walk to the department from the bus stop.
Routes 19a,19b,19c (little oranges) are less frequent, but the bus stop is directly at the Earley Gate entrance to campus. About 5 minutes walk to the department.
You also take the 21 (claret) which stops in the centre of the Whiteknights campus. Here it is a pleasant 15 minute walk to the department.
Costs
There is no registration fee. The meeting is free to attend.
Unfortunately we do not have funding to offer travel or accommodation grants.
This is an in-person meeting, and we do not have the resources to offer a comprehensive option for remote attendance. However, we are aware that some colleagues are affected by the recent non-essential travel ban for US government employees or similar exceptional travel restrictions. If you would like to attend, but cannot currently commit to do so because you are affected by this kind of problem, then please contact a member of the organising committee, or make a note of it in the final text box on the abstract submission form (question 12).
Questions? Contact Chris Westbrook
Organisers: Chris Westbrook, Karina McCusker, Stefan Kneifel, Dmitri Moisseev, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Paul Ockenfuß
Photographs: Chilbolton 25m antenna in the snow by Allistair Mallett; close up of aggregate snowflake structure by Chris Westbrook