METR 4424
The course in the title of the post is the School of Meteorology’s “tie it all together” course for its seniors. This is a 4 credit hour course (that actually meets for 8 hours a week). This year the course instructor is Professor Kevin Kloesel (who also serves as Associate Dean for the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences). I have the privilege of serving as one of the two TAs for the course, as well as guest instructor for the times Prof. Kloesel has been (will be) out of town.
This is the course I’ve wanted to TA since my being at OU; this is also the course I would want to teach every year if I were a professor in a school or department of meteorology. It’s the course that deals with tying together all the equations and pieces of knowledge that students have acquired during their studies at OU via looking at actual weather maps and data. To me, there is something rewarding about looking at weather maps on a daily basis and developing an understanding – and appreciation – of what is on going in the atmosphere.
This year’s synoptic class has 54 students in it. This is by far the largest undergraduate synoptic class – ever. Because of the size of the class, Prof. Kloesel is trying something different this year. There are no prepared exams; Mother Nature prepares a daily examination. Book-based assignments do not have a due date (except the end of the semester); there simply might not be enough time to get the assignments done because of Mother Nature’s daily examinations. Map analysis occurs on almost a daily basis. In short, there is no predefined curriculum of what is going to occur on a given day. Prof. Kloesel and I wake up every morning, take a look at what opportunities and teachable moments the atmosphere has presented, and then attempt to create a daily lesson based on that day’s opportunity.
So far this semester the students have worked very hard. On the very first day of class, the students were given a blank surface map and given 30 minutes to analyze it. (This turned out to be an all class period assignment.) The students also were given a blank skew-t diagram and the raw data and told to plot the sounding by hand. All the while trying being expected to analyze the 500mb and 250mb maps. On day three, students were given 10, 500mb charts (24 hours apart) that had the dates and times removed and were expected to put the charts back in order. (Oh, by the way, the charts were given to them in-order to start with…). Day four yielded a discussion about a tropical system in the western Atlantic and their first “proficiency evaluation”. Following weeks have yielded discussions on how to identify whether a trough will dig (move equator-ward)or lift (move pole-ward) – Meeker’s method – or if they will intensify (deepen) or weaken (fill) – using 1000-500mb thickness charts. A guest lecture by the Storm Prediction Center’s (SPC) Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM), Greg Carbin, yielded a discussion about doing composite charts via pencil and paper – which promptly led to a “proficiency evaluation” on that very topic the following day.
This is the fourth week of class and all of the students have worked hard – and come a long way, although they can’t see it. However, Prof. Kloesel and I can. The students should be proud of how hard they have worked and how far they have come, but the journey for them is just beginning – not ending. There are a lot of exciting things still to come. Beginning next week, students will be expected to give a quick map briefing in front of their peers. This map briefing will focus on four questions that are usually left out of the forecast process:
- What has happened?
- Why did it happen?
- What is happening?
- Why is it happening?
Notice the absence of anything related to a “forecast”. We aren’t there yet. Students need to be able to understand the analysis process if they have any chance at being able to produce a coherent forecast. That’s what these briefings will focus on the next couple of weeks.
As part of this upcoming emphasis on preparing coherent map briefings (not discussion), I am going to try to post a blog every day addressing these 4 questions. It is my hope that some of the students will stumble across these posts via this blog or via Facebook (which posts snippets from this blog whenever I post).
Now, where did I put that 500mb hand analysis…
