Weather Enthusiasts Join Forces in Class and Competition
Monday, November 6, 2006
World Campus Weather Forecasting Program Graduates its First Class
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. —Lee Grenci is passionate about the weather. “After a storm, I’ve been out on my hands and knees in the dark with a flashlight looking for hailstones with insects encased in them,” said Grenci, senior lecturer and senior forecaster in the Department of Meteorology at Penn State, and self-described “weather weenie.” “I stored the hailstones in my fridge, much to my wife’s dismay.” Perhaps that’s why Grenci is so proud to be seeing his online Weather Forecasting Certificate Program graduate its first group of students, which includes like-minded individuals who share his enthusiasm about the weather.
Eight students will be completing the program, which is offered online through Penn State’s World Campus, this fall. Six of the students, who come from as far away as Missouri, attended a graduation ceremony on Nov. 4, which included breakfast with Grenci and fellow instructors David Babb and Steve Seman, a tour of Penn State’s meteorology department, and a presentation of certificates.
The 12-credit program provides participants with the skills to make their own weather forecasts and access Web-based forecasting tools. “Students will be able to do what the professionals do,” said Grenci.
Grenci cited an anecdote of one of his students, who went with professional weather forecasters on a “storm-chasing tour,” in which participants predict and drive to see tornadic thunderstorms. “My student had pinpointed southwest Nebraska as the place to go to see a storm. The tour leaders overruled her and predicted Colorado. They drove into Colorado, looked at the sky and saw it was not going to happen. So they drove to southwest Nebraska, where there were storms—just like my student predicted.”
Such accurate predictions in the weather are also evident in the nationwide forecasting contest in which his class participates. During the first two weeks of the contest, more than 1,200 meteorology majors and professors around the country competed to predict the weather in Orlando, Fla. The final tally showed three students from Grenci’s class finishing 11th, 13th and 58th nationally, and first, second and third among all Penn State meteorology majors.
Six of the eight students completing the program attended the Nov. 4 graduation ceremony. The six students come from Peculiar, Mo.; Chicago, Ill.; State College, Pa.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Montreal. The other students are from Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Huntsville, Ala.
Editor contact: Melissa Kay at 814-865-7600, mwk10@outreach.psu.edu; or Amy Neil at 814-865-7600, aen4@outreach.psu.edu
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