Learning Experiences in Broadcast Meteorology

One of the unique on-campus preprofessional partnerships the Meteorology Program benefits from is with the Department of Communication’s Northern Television Center (NTC). The NTC assists in applying the meteorology students’ knowledge of weather analysis and forecasting in a real-world television studio environment. For many years, NIU meteorology students have participated in daily student-run broadcasts that feature weather segments – what a great experience for those interested in pursuing a meteorology broadcasting career! Students have the opportunity to develop and construct their own weather presentations in front of the studio’s green screen, which is an excellent way for students to practice communicating weather phenomena to a broad audience. In addition, tapes of these broadcasts may be used to illustrate a student’s abilities to potential employers when applying for internships or jobs.

The Northern Television Center studios.

Meteorology students who study and work at the NTC utilize a variety of weather data obtained through the National Weather Service, including sophisticated data from remote sensing tools such as radars and satellites as well as advanced numerical weather prediction models. Using these data, in combination with their forecasting knowledge gathered from classes such as Synoptic Meteorology (MET 320 and 421) and Mesoscale Meteorology (MET 444), students are encouraged to formulate their own five-day forecasts similar to those forecasts found on local and national news broadcasts. The NTC broadcasts are aired daily Monday-Thursday with full news, sports, and, of course, weather coverage! The daily show is broadcast worldwide through the Department of Communication website and through MySpace, as well as on-air broadcast to the student body and local community via the Northern Television Channel. The NIU Northern Television Center and the Meteorology Program is a distinctive on-campus partnership that facilitates the development and honing of professional broadcasting skills in our students!

Current and future Meteorology Students interested in preprofessional experiences at NTC are asked to contact Carrie Cunningham, an undergraduate junior majoring in Meteorology and Journalism. Students interested in Meteorology as a major, as well as meteorology broadcasting internships with local channels in Chicago, Rockford, and the Quad Cities, are asked to contact the Meteorology Undergraduate Coordinator, Dr. Dave Changnon. Students in the Meteorology Program with an interest in broadcast meteorology should investigate completing a Minor in Journalism through the Department of Communication. Dr. Allen May, the faculty coordinator for the NTC, will work with Dr. Changnon to assist Meteorology Program students in the integration of the broadcast minor coursework into their academic program. This minor, much like the GIS certificate, assists students who are looking for internships and employment.

Undergrad Research Experiences: The Case of MET 431 (Applications in Climatology)

NIU’s Meteorology Program strives to develop valuable student “preprofessional” experiences through student participation in a variety of activities, including: faculty research projects through National Science Foundation grants and the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, forecasting for the campus student newspaper and television station, operating the DeKalb-area National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Station, serving the community as severe weather watchers, conducting weather awareness seminars in local schools, and through internship experiences with the NWS and various weather-sensitive organizations in northern Illinois.

One of the unique “preprofessional” experiences that Meteorology Program students can take advantage of during their tenure at NIU is the annual “Applications in Climatology” course taught by NIU Presidential Teaching Professor Dr. David Changnon. “Applications in Climatology” (MET 431) is a senior capstone course where students work in groups of two to four on applied climate research projects for regional decision makers. Real issues from both the private and public sectors are addressed by student/faculty teams to produce tangible results for the sponsoring organization. Dr. Changnon has published two articles that highlight the uniqueness of this course: "Design and Test of a "Hands-On" Applied Climate Course in an Undergraduate Meteorology Program" (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Volume 79, pages 79-84) and "Improving Outreach in Atmospheric Sciences: Assessment of Users of Climate Products" (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Volume 85, pages 601-606). In addition, a number of projects completed by MET 431 students have appeared in top international research journals over the last ten years. Undergraduate research experiences, like those enabled through courses like MET 431, are a hallmark of the NIU Meteorology Program. Skills learned during these experiences empower our students, helping them gain a “leg up” in the job market.

Below is a summary of the three research projects carried out by student groups during fall 2008’s MET 431 class:

Del Monte Foods:
The student group that included Joe Astolfi, Jonathan Kopczyk, and Matias Sich, worked with Dr. Brian Flood (entomologist) and Mr. Mike Sandstrom (meteorologist) of Del Monte Foods on a project examining the influence of various weather variables on the occurrence of the first major corn earworm (CEW) migration in north central Illinois. The group found that on average (during the 1960-2005 period) the first major CEW migration occurred on approximately August 20, however the date of the first major flight of the growing season varied from August 1 to September 16. Weather factors that were found to occur just prior to a major flight included a southerly wind and precipitation. In some cases, periods of usually warm weather preceded the first major flight. This predictive model successfully forecasted the first major flights for the years 2006-2008. Climatologically, when the first major flight occurred prior to August 20, both the number of warm nights (Tmin > 65°F) and the accumulated number of growing degree days (base of 50°F) were above average. Farmers and food production companies such as Del Monte Foods may find this research useful as they develop methods to protect vegetable crops from pests such as the CEW.

Northern Illinois University:
The student group that included Matt Chyba, Gloria Maleski, and Kevin Nasiatka, worked with Mr. Jeff Daurer (Director of Capital Budget and Planning) of Northern Illinois University on a project developing a wind speed climatology for north central Illinois. Mr. Daurer was interested in understanding the seasonal variations in wind speed both at the surface and several meters above the surface as they look to potentially expand the campus on the western fringe of DeKalb. Examination of wind speed data from Rockford and NCEP-NARR data identified that July (summer) had the lowest wind speeds. Nearly 50% of the time July wind speeds are less than 7 mph, a critical minimum wind speed for wind turbines. The chances of experiencing low wind speeds in other parts of the year are much less. The group found that the lowest wind speed period during a 24-hour period was generally at night between 6 pm and 9 am.

WGN-TV9; Chicago Tribune:
The student group that included Victor Gensini, Erik Janzon, and Zachary Rahe, worked with Tom Skilling of WGN-TV9 and the Chicago Tribune on a project examining the frequency of summer days with Tmax >90°F (i.e., “hot days”) at Chicago Midway during the 1933-2008 period. Initially the students found that the frequency of Chicago hot days had decreased dramatically from the 1930s. The frequency of warm nights (summer Tmin >70°F) was found to be increasing during the period, a signal expected in an urban heat island. Trends of summer hot days, warm nights and the diurnal range was examined at both urban and rural stations across the Midwest. Trends similar to those found at Chicago Midway were found throughout the region suggesting that a regional land-use factor (e.g., changes in agricultural practices from general farming to intensive row cropping) may be altering boundary layer atmospheric moisture levels and thus changing the summer temperature climatology. An increase in low level dew points could have an influence on the frequency and magnitude of summer heat waves as well as heavy rainstorms.

Interested? Students interested in participating in an upcoming MET 431 course should drop by Dr. Changnon’s office in Davis Hall.

Spring 2009 Colloquium Series Announced

The spring 2009 Geography Colloquium schedule was recently released and it includes a number of talks related to the atmospheric sciences. All talks take place in Davis Hall's Room 121 on Friday's at 3-4 pm. Please feel free to join us for this exciting semester of speakers!

• January 23: "How Will Species Respond to Current Climate Changes? Lessons from the Last Deglaciation." by Dr. Jack Williams (University of Wisconsin - Madison)


• February 6: "Geographic Perspective of Railroad Safety in Illinois" by Stephen C. Laffey (Illinois Commerce Commission)


• February 27: "Computer Simulation Responses to Global Change at the Alpine Treeline" by Dr. George Malanson (University of Iowa)

• March 20: "Water Resources and Environmental Issues" by Dr. Mohamed Sultan (Western Michigan University)


• April 3: "Climate-Economic Models and Uncertainties" by Dr. Donald A. Hanson (Argonne National Laboratory)


• April 10: "Woody Vegetation Change, Carbon Storage, and Climate Change Mitigation" by Dr. William Currie (University of Michigan)


• April 17: "Modeling Seasonal Spread of Soybean Rust in North America" by Dr. Scott Isard (Penn State University)


• April 24: "The Biogeography of Forest Change: Crown Fire, Insect Epidemics, and Drought in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the American Southwest" by Dr. Joy Nystrom Mast (Carthage College)

Career Day 2008 a Huge Success!

On Friday, November 21st, the NIU Department of Geography held its annual "Career Day", an experience that connects the Department's current students with alumni. During this much-anticipated event, alumni make their way back to DeKalb in order to share their career development experiences with students, recruit candidates for positions or internships, and reconnect with friends and colleagues. The Career Day activities started with introductions by Dr. Harold Kafer (Deputy Provost), Dr. Chris McCord (Dean of LA&S), and Dr. Andrew Krmenec (Geography Chair), followed by Career Break-out Sessions where alumni were able to connect with students in specific subdisciplines, including meteorology.

NIU Staff Meteorologist, Gilbert Sebenste, discusses upcoming internship opportunities with NIU Weather during the Meteorology Break-out Session.

The following meteorology alumni provided valuable feedback and discussions (listed by graduating class):

Mr. Bill Wilson (1979) - National Weather Service (Romeoville, IL)
Mr. Mark Carroll (1984) - Murray & Trettel (forecasting firm)
Mr. Gilbert Sebenste (1994) - NIU Weather
Mr. Mike Ritsche (BS in 1997; MS in 2001) - Argonne National Lab
Mr. Mark Russo (1998) - Chesapeake Energy
Mr. Sam Shea (2005) - National Weather Service (Anchorage, AK)
Mrs. Cindy Dettmer-Shea (2005) - Meteorologist with State of Alaska
Ms. Joi Kwiatkowski (2006) - URS (international environmental firm)
Mr. Alan Black (BS in 2006; MS in 2008) - Midwestern Reg. Climate Cen.
Mr. Dustin Oltman (BS in 2006; MS in 2008) - AON Reinsurance
Mr. Dan Heidel (2007) - ENSCO (forecasting firm for United Airlines)

Thank you to all the Meteorology Program alumni who visited and shared their wealth of knowledge about classes, internships, jobs, and the state of our profession. We all look forward to Career Day 2009!

NIU Research: Nighttime Tornadoes are Worst Nightmare

The following is a reproduced AMS-NIU joint press release featuring research by the Meteorology Program's Dr. Walker Ashley, as well as the Department of Geography's Dr. Andrew Krmenec and Mr. Rick Schwantes.

NIU researchers say twisters occurring from midnight to dawn are 2.5 times more likely to kill

DeKalb, Ill. — A new study by Northern Illinois University scientists underscores the danger of nighttime tornadoes and suggests that warning systems that have led to overall declines in tornado death rates might not be adequate for overnight events, which occur most frequently in the nation’s mid-South region.

Over the past century, the tornado death rate has declined, in large part because of sophisticated forecasting technology and warning systems. But the researchers found that the nighttime tornado death rate over the past century has not shared the same pace of decline as the rate for daytime tornadoes.

“The proportion of nocturnal fatalities and killer tornado events has increased during the last half century,” said lead author Walker Ashley, an NIU meteorologist and professor of geography. “Unfortunately, this nocturnal fatality rate appears to be a major factor for the stalled decline in national tornado-fatality tallies during the past few decades.”

Ashley, NIU Geography Chair Andrew Krmenec and Research Associate Rick Schwantes published their study in the October issue of the American Meteorological Society’s journal, “Weather and Forecasting.”

The study found that from 1950 to 2005, 27 percent of tornadoes in the United States were nocturnal, yet 39 percent of tornado fatalities and 42 percent of killer tornado events occurred at night.

Ashley predicts that annual tornado fatalities might begin to rise. In 2007 alone, 80 tornado fatalities were recorded, with 59 of those fatalities occurring between sunset and sunrise. Nineteen of 26 killer tornadoes that year occurred at night. So far this year, 123 tornado fatalities already have been recorded—nearly double the annual average.

“The tornado death rate has bottomed out and is probably going to increase due to several factors,” Ashley said. “Because of population growth and development patterns, including urban sprawl, tornado risk to the populace has increased in recent decades. Tornadoes are impacting larger populations that are more spread out, resulting in higher tornado death tallies.”

The most dangerous window of time for a tornado, according to the study findings, is the period from midnight to sunrise. Tornadoes during this time period are 2.5 times as likely to kill as those occurring during the daytime hours.

People are more vulnerable during nighttime events because:

• Tornadoes are difficult for the public and trained spotters to see.
• People are more likely to be asleep.
• People are more likely to be in structures that are more susceptible to damage, such as single-family homes and mobile or manufactured homes as opposed to schools and large office or workplace buildings. (Nearly 61 percent of tornado fatalities in mobile homes take place at night.)
• Warning sirens are designed to mitigate hazards for people outdoors and are less effective at reaching those indoors.

“Because most people go to bed after the late evening news, they are sleeping and unaware of televised weather alerts,” Ashley said. “And warning sirens give us a false sense of security. They’re not designed for warning people who are already indoors. We're not seeing a forecasting problem but rather a communication breakdown.

“Scientists, along with emergency managers and people living in tornado-prone areas, must work together to solve this problem,” he added. “Right now, the best alert option during this overnight period is a weather radio.”

A relatively small proportion of American households own weather radios, though they are widely available, cost as little as $25 and come equipped with alarms.

As Ashley noted in previous studies, the nation's mid-South region is most vulnerable to nighttime tornadoes. In fact, while the “tornado alley” region of the Great Plains boasts the most frequent occurrence of tornadoes, most tornado fatalities occur in the mid-South region, which includes parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi.

Percentage of nocturnal tornadoes by state.

Among the reasons for higher vulnerability: The southeast United States has the highest percentage of mobile-home stock compared with any other region east of the Continental Divide. The NIU meteorologist said 45 percent of all fatalities during tornadoes occur in mobile homes, compared to 26 percent in permanent houses.

The new study also finds that seasonal factors also come into play. The cool and spring-transition seasons from November to April have the highest nocturnal fatality rates, despite having relatively few tornado events. Daylight hours are at a minimum during these months. Also, storms that occur before the national peak in the severe storm season, which spans May and June, are more likely to catch people off guard.

“Nocturnal tornadoes are dangerous anywhere, but the danger is enhanced in the South,” Ashley said. “There are more nocturnal events in the South than in the Great Plains. And the mobile-home density is much greater in the South as well. It’s a combination of factors.”

The American Meteorological Society is the nation’s premier scientific organization for those involved in the atmospheric and related sciences. For a copy of the paper, contact Tom Parisi (tparisi@niu.edu) or Stephanie Kenitzer (kenitzer@ametsoc.org).

Sun, Surf, and Studying ... in Hawaii!

Bethany Norris, a senior NIU meteorology major, had the incredible opportunity to spend nine weeks this past summer in Honolulu, Hawaii performing research through the prestigious NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program. As part of her internship, she contributed to a project entitled PRICIP, which stands for Pacific Region Integrated Climatology Information Products. The goal of this project is to understand the trends in the frequency and intensity of Pacific storms in order to predict the impacts of future storms, as well as convey this information in a format that is clear and accessible to the public.

Bethany spent the summer developing historical event anatomies, or case studies of past storms, for the project. These historical event anatomies had three main components: event overview, climatology, and impacts. Four events were chosen to research, two high tide events and two high surf events, all impacting the island of O’ahu.

Her research project included obtaining tide station and wave buoy data from the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services and the National Data Buoy Center, along with information concerning the impacts of events from local television and newspaper web sites. In addition, since high surf in Hawaii is generated by extratropical storms traversing both hemispheres of the Pacific, surface weather charts covering the entire ocean basin were examined to determine when and where the waves were generated by these storms. She also assisted in developing a high surf event impacts chart, which is used to describe the types of hazards (e.g. washed out roads, risk of injury to surfers, lifeguard rescues) that can occur in various surf/tide scenarios.

As the only meteorologist on her research team, Bethany was able to evaluate, discuss, and write about topics such as development of extratropical cyclones and interpretation of surface and upper-air weather maps. Further, she was able to learn about ancillary, but valuable, topics such as surf forecasting, ocean wave characteristics, and coastal processes.

Bethany next to the vent on Kilauea.

This is the second summer in a row that has featured NOAA-sponsored travel for Bethany. In May 2007, she spent a week at NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland attending the Hollings Scholarship program’s orientation. The purpose of the orientation was to familiarize the scholars with NOAA and highlight the many opportunities available for the required internship. During her visit, Bethany attended presentations from a multitude of NOAA offices and divisions, toured a variety of NOAA facilities, and attended career fairs held specifically for the Hollings Scholars.

The NOAA Hollings Scholarship is just one of the amazing funding and pre-professional research opportunities for undergraduate atmospheric science students. We recommend that all of our undergraduate students who fit the eligibility requirements submit an application to this truly remarkable program.

Graduate Student Participates in Coop at Argonne

This summer, NIU Department of Geography graduate student Jenni Prell worked among scientists in the Environmental Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research center, under a Graduate Cooperative Education Appointment. Her main project was to assist in adjusting a climate model for biofuel research through the guidance of her supervisor Dr. V. Rao Kotamarthi. The goal of the ongoing project is to show what changes might occur in our environment if current land use practices were switched to grow crops used for different forms of biofuels. The Community Land Model (CLM) is being used to model these changes, but the version did not originally include crops as a plant-functional type (pft). Corn, wheat, and soybean were added into the model as crops that would be likely used for biofuel production, and Jenni's task was to develop a carbon allocation scheme that would distribute carbon, beginning from seed to harvest, to different parts of each plant. She was able to build on her computer programming skills to implement these changes into the model, while expanding her knowledge of crop dynamics. Jenni drew upon other models and scientific literature to help solidify the allocation scheme.

Aside from working on biofuels research, Jenni was also able to take part in various other responsibilities at Argonne. She assisted in measuring, collecting, and downloading Multispectral Radiometer (MSR) and Leaf Area Index (LAI) data at outdoor sites at Fermilab, which allowed her to get up close and personal with field instruments. Jenni also assisted meteorologist and instrument mentor Michael Ritsche in preparing new instruments for deployment to the Barrow, Alaska field site of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program. The replacement of these instruments will be the focus of Jenni's thesis work, researching data quality issues of meteorological instrument change-outs.

Jenni earned her B.S. in Meteorology from NIU in Dec. 2007 and is currently working towards her M.S. in Geography/Meteorology at NIU.