The OU School of Meteorology won the National Collegiate Weather Forecast contest for the fourth year in a row.
The contest is the largest in the world and embodies 1,029 students from 39 universities.
The students presented forecasts during the 2001-2002 school year .
The contest tests the student’s discipline and persistence as well as their forecasting skills. OU won the Team Top Five trophy for the school with the best five forecasters and earned 17 percent of the individual honors given.
The OU participants take an undergraduate forecasting class where they discuss the principles of forecasting then are responsible for their own four day forecasts and the accuracy.
The forecasts are then sent by e-mail to the meteorology college at Penn State University.
Graduate student Bill Martin said that a perfect forecast is extremely hard to make.
Martin has been involved in the contest the past three years. He said that he has learned a lot by examining the end product of research within the forecasts as well as having some of the best forecasting students in the country. Martin believes that some of the motivation for students at OU comes from the severe weather patterns in Oklahoma.
Fred Carr, professor and director of OU School of meteorology said that the meteorology program at OU attracts great students from across the country at the graduate and undergraduate level.
Although any one can participate in this collegiate event this contest is strictly an extra-curricular activity. It was designed for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. The students participate for the practice and from Martin’s observation he said the students that succeed at an extra curricular contest reflect upon OU as being one of the best meteorology schools in the nation.
“This confirms that we are also doing a great job providing an education for these students. I congratulate all our participants,” Carr said.
Carr also said that OU’s performance during the contest illustrates the students are not only well-versed in severe weather research but the additional routine work of forecasting daily weather conditions.
