Contact: Bob Ratliff
Mississippi State students hold top honors in the first round of the 2002-03 National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Contest.
"The competition spans 13 two-week periods, with participants making forecasts for a different city during each period," said Michael E. Brown, an assistant professor of meteorology at the university. "Corpus Christi, Texas, was the location for the first two weeks, Sept. 9-20."
The annual competition coordinated by Pennsylvania State University challenges students and faculty in meteorology programs across the nation to forecast weather conditions for selected cities.
Brown said a total of some 700 students and instructors from 23 university meteorology programs are participating in this year's contest. Working with numerical model data and other resources available at their school, each participant forecasts the daily amount of precipitation and high and low temperature for the target cities.
Of 37 students and three faculty members on the MSU team during the initial round, 10 students placed in the top 10, while three faculty members were in the top 1 percent.
Now under way, the second round involves daily forecasts for Fargo, N.D.
"This competition is a great way for students and faculty to test and sharpen their skills," Brown said, adding that the satisfaction of a job well done is the winners' reward.
"There are no prizes, just bragging rights for the top schools," he added.