UNIVERSITY PARK – For the second consecutive year, a team of Penn State students captured first place in the Weather Challenge, a North American collegiate weather forecasting competition.
Penn State’s forecasters bested teams from more than 50 universities. The top five Penn State forecasters were senior Ryan Kramer, junior Brad Yehl, and graduate students Kyle Imhoff, Josh Boden and Michael Goss. Their names will be engraved on the Weather Challenge trophy, which will reside at Penn State during the 2013-14 academic year.
Kramer was the individual Weather Challenge national champion, finishing with the top cumulative score among all forecasters, while Imhoff finished second overall and first among all graduate students nationwide. Freshmen Michael Priante and Matthew Strauser finished first and second nationally among all freshmen and sophomore forecasters.
During the 20-week forecasting contest that ran from September to April, students predicted high and low temperatures, precipitation and wind speeds at 10 different cities. Some of this year’s forecast locations included Duluth, Minn., Astoria, Ore., and Louisville, Ky. SUNY-Albany finished second overall in the forecasting competition, followed by Georgia Tech, Mississippi State and MIT.