The Department of Geography at the University of Kansas invites applications for a tenure‐track Assistant Professor position in atmospheric science with a research specialty in mesoscale and synoptic meteorology.

Lawrence Daily Forecast--courtesy of the KU Atmospheric Science student forecasters:

Synopsis: As the surface low moves out of our area a slight chance of precipitation remains for the afternoon and tonight with cold air advection throughout the night will help to clear the skies A fairly zonal upper air pattern enters our area for the weekend so expect clear skies with cool temperatures. Monday night a surface low will be moving into the area on Tuesday and lasting through Wednesday, bringing our next chance of precipitation.

Forecast:
Currently: the high in Lawrence is 40 degrees with overcast skies with winds out of the Southeast 5-10 mph.

Tonight: Lows will be in the lower 20s with winds shifting to the Northeast around 20-30 mph.

Tomorrow: Look for highs in the lower 50s with sunny skies. Winds mostly westerly at 10-15 mph.

Tomorrow night: Lows in mid 20s with winds 5-10 mph.

Sunday: Another sunny day with highs in the lower 50s and lows in the mid 20s, winds from 5-10 mph.

Monday: Nice start to the week with highs in the upper 50s and lows in the upper 30s. Winds from 10-20 mph, and a slight chance of precipitation late Monday night.

Tuesday: Another warm day with a high around 60 and overnight lows in the upper 20s. Winds 5-10 mph, with a 20% chance of precipitation.

Wednesday: Highs around upper 50s, overnight lows in the mid 20s. Winds 5-15 mph, with a 10% chance of precipitation.

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**** University of Oklahoma WXCHALLENGE, a national forecasting competition****

Hi everyone,

This year we’re going to continue participating in the University of Oklahoma WxChallenge (ignore OU’s name on it, they just run it, they don’t rule it), and hopefully build on our finish from last year. An exciting new thing this year is that Juneau, AK, and Hilo, HI are forecast cities, the first time the contest has chosen places outside the Continental US.

Here’s how it works:

The contest begins in late September and runs for 10 weeks each semester. The forecast locations rotate every 2 weeks and can be anywhere in the U.S. (the schedule is at http://www.wxchallenge.com/challenge/schedule.php). The way it works is that every contestant submits a forecast composed of a max and min temperature, maximum sustained wind speed, and precipitation amount every Monday-Thursday by 0000 UTC (7pm CDT, 6pm CST). The forecast is for the following day from 0600 UTC-0600 UTC (24 hour period). Error points are subsequently calculated and people with less error points are higher in the standings and so forth. One thing I should note is that freshmen and sophomores compete in a different category than juniors and seniors. Grad students are a separate category, as are faculty/staff.

The cost is $3 for the fall semester and $5 for the full year. If you just do the fall, you can sign up to do the spring later on, if that works better for you. For those of you taking ATMO 605 in the spring, I make participation in the WxChallenge mandatory for that class, so it would never hurt to get an early start.

There are a lot more details about the contest that can be found on the website http://www.wxchallenge.com. I will say that this contest is one of the best ways to get forecast experience and I've found that for myself and others throughout the years, it's been a good learning experience and fun at the same time.

Forecasting starts Monday September 26th. I will be holding an information session about the contest for those that sign up the week before the contest starts (time/date TBA). I also tentatively would like to hold weekly early-week forecast discussions about whatever city we're forecasting for at a time convenient for all participants.

****IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PLAYING****, please either fill out the attached sign up sheet or email me the requested information on that sheet NO LATER than Wednesday, September 21st.

I hope you decide to join, and how you rank in the contest is only a small part of the benefit. Mostly, it's a good experience that will help prepare you for real-world forecasting, it looks good on a resume, and it will also help get our department's name out there among meteorology departments nationwide.

Thanks,

Shawn

Shawn Milrad
Visiting Assistant Professor
Atmospheric Science Program
Dept. of Geography
University of Kansas
413A Lindley Hall
Phone: 785-864-3040
E-mail: s732m108@ku.edu

 

 

 

Meteorology students at the Univ. of Kansas planning trip to help tornado victims in Alabama

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_kansas/meteorology-students-at-the-univ.-of-kansas-planning-trip-to-help-tornado-victims-in-alabama

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Atmospheric science grad students working with Prof. David Mechem do the heavy lifting to install a disk array in the Atmospheric Science Linux cluster. The disk server provides an additional analysis capacity and 60 Terabytes of storage for regional climate simulations, cloud-resolving models, and eddy-covariance tower data. These computing resources support our research projects funded by NSF EPSCoR, NOAA, Department of Energy, Office of Naval Research, and NASA. Pictured, from left to right in the photo, are Halley Holmes, Prescott Bishop, David Huber, and Kathryn Clark.

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Just an FYI for those who read the Daily Kansan and/or are interested:  KU Atmo 605 students are now the forecasters for the Kansan newspaper! (the paper is no longer using weather.com).  You can find our forecasts today on page 2, at the top.  We hope to make this a year-round thing, where KU ATMO majors will be producing forecasts for the paper in addition to recording for the KU Weather line. 

As a reminder, anytime you need a forecast, you can call the Weather Line at 864-3300. (shameless plug)

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Congratulations are in order for Nate Brunsell, who has just received an NSF Ecosystems grant (with Paul Stoy at Montana State University) for a project entitled “Scaling ecosystem function: Novel approaches from MaxEnt and Multiresolution.”

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Congratulations to Nate Brunsell for receiving the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. The fellowship was awarded for his proposal: "Using Maximum Entropy Production to assess heterogeneity, optimality, and extreme events in land-atmosphere dynamics". This work will be conducted during a year long stay at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany.

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If you would like to get better at weather forecasting, the WxChallenge is a very good opportunity. The WxChallenge is a national forecast contest administered by the University of Oklahoma, which allows you to compete against some of the best collegiate forecasters in the country.
Contestants make 24-hour forecasts for pre-selected cities across the country (somewhat like ATMO 605, for those of you that have taken that). Contestants may be anyone from freshmen to faculty to alumni. Contestants may participate for Fall, Spring, or the whole year. Awards are given on both an individual and a team basis (must have 5 students from to be eligible for team stuff, but anyone can earn individual awards).

More details about the WxChallenge may be found at www.wxchallenge.com.

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Congratulations to Atmo major Anne Alexandra Glanville on her C.E. Spahr Scholarship in the Sciences, John P. Feighner Scholarship and Veta B. Lear Memorial Award. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas honored 73 students with more than $77,000 in scholarships and awards this spring. All the scholarship recipients and most award winners are attending classes at KU this fall. The scholarships and awards, which are made possible by gifts to KU Endowment from alumni and friends, were awarded based on merit, need or both. “These students represent the most talented young scholars in the College. I am grateful that we are able to offer this support to foster their success,” said Interim Dean Gregory B. Simpson.

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Congratulations are in order for Dave Mechem who received the J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award for 2008-2009 in the Natural Sciences Division of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences!

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Congratulations to our 2009 Geography and Atmospheric Science Graduates!

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Congratulations to Kees van der Veen on his promotion to Full Professor.

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See who came to the Atmo Reunion, May 8, 2009

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Congratulations to Ava Dinges and Andrew Oberthaler who have won American Meteorological Society Undergraduate Scholarships! Congratulations also to Sylvia Davison who has won an AMS Minority Scholarship and plans to come to KU.

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ATMO undergraduate student Jesse Lundquist was selected for the prestegious National Weather Service Student Career Education Program (SCEP).  This is a paid internship with the National Weather Service.

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Congratulations to the Atmospheric Science Program on receiving the Cooperative Observer Award from the National Weather Service for the University's weather station near Lindley Hall. The station is one of the oldest of Kansas' stations. Pictured, left to right, are Richard McNulty, Johannes Feddema, Curtis Hall, Bill Newman of the National Weather Service, David Mechem, Donna Tucker and Terry Slocum. To read more, please click here.