WCSU students perform well in national weather forecasting challenge
DANBURY, CONN. — Western Connecticut State University students participating in a nationwide weather forecasting competition achieved a strong ninth-place team performance among 50 universities and colleges ranked in the 2007 fall semester Wx Challenge.
The fall 2007 stage of the Wx Challenge, sponsored by the University of Oklahoma, attracted weather forecast submissions from more than 1,300 college students nationwide. The nine WestConn students who joined the competition posted a cumulative team score surpassing results for 41 public and private universities across the United States, many with undergraduate enrollments several times as large as WCSU.
The Wx Challenge requires each participating student to forecast maximum and minimum temperatures, precipitation, and maximum wind speeds for selected cities. During the fall semester, students were challenged to submit forecasts during specified time periods for Cape Hatteras, N.C.; Great Falls, Mont.; Portland, Me.; Peoria, Ill.; and Wenatchee, Wash.
The WestConn forecasters include a group of seven students who participated in Assistant Professor of Meteorology Rob Eisenson’s Operational Forecasting and Weathercasting I course during the fall semester. These students, who also comprise “The Weather People” team providing weather forecasts on WXCI radio and video streamed on the WCSU Web site, are Joe Roy, J.J. DePasqua, James Boyle, Michael Lombardi, Daren Miceli, Adam King and Jacob Wycoff. Roy turned in the top individual WestConn performance in the Wx Challenge with a cumulative forecasting accuracy ranking among the highest 12 percent in participant scoring for the fall semester.
For information, call Eisenson at (203) 837-8989.
