Avoca Beach Thunderstorm Conference Awards

• The "Eureka" Award for the most original contribution to the science of thunderstorm dynamics: John Colquhoun for his snail steering mechanism

• The "Sink-the-Slipper Diplomacy" Award for enhancing Head Office-Regional relationships: Graham Mills for his supportive comments regarding the analysis skills of the Victorian Regional Office as "rough as guts".

• The "Isolated, Long-Lived, Self-Sustaining Nag" Award" Chuck Doswell for persistently reminding Tarini Casinader about the time she missed the Red Rock tornado of 26 April 1991. [photo (c)1991 William Barlow, used by permission. NOTE: this image was mistakenly attributed earlier to DeWayne Mitchell and I apologize to Bill Barlow for the error.]

• The "Roget's Thesaurus" Award for descriptive storm reporting: An anonymous Brisbane resident commenting on a damaging hail event ("Unbelieveable!!" oft-repeated)

• The inagurural "Hasson Memorial Spotter of the Year" Award: the late Mr.Hasson of Moora, WA (Please note that this is purely for fun; Mr. Hasson really is alive and well. Permission to use this image [©1996 P. Hasson, used by permission] was kindly granted by his son, Peter, of Hasson Photographic Design^TM.)

• The "Red Symons Gong" Award: John Nairn for giving Tom Keenan the bell 15 seconds into his presentation

• The "Huh?" Award: Robert Pearson for "What are the empirical othogonal eigenfunctions of the atmosphere?"

• The "Greg Williams High-Speed Handball" Award: John Colquhoun for referring the above question to Chuck Doswell in the blink of a synapse

• The "Oxymoron" Award: Kenn Batt for the Dubbo CBD (Central Business District)

• The "Albert Einstein" Award for successfully turning on the overhead projector: witheld

• The "Homer Simpson" Award for skillful operation of advanced technology: Jim Davidson, who in his panic in trying to turn on the overhead projector, mistook it for a photocopier

• The "Jenny Craig Storm Classification" Award: Peter May for his "thinderstorms"

• The "Leonard Cohen Motivational" Award: Chuck Doswell for "We have plumbed the depths of our ignorance but the bobs have not yet touched bottom."