ATSC 499 01: Topics in Meteorology

Prof. Gilmore graduated with a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from Texas A&M University in 2000.  After post-doctoral fellowships at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (long-term visitor) and University of Illinois, he arrived at UND in 2008 where he developed and taught four innovative new UND courses: Extreme Weather and Climate (formerly known as "Severe and Hazardous Weather"), Storm Experience Field Trip, Communicating Science, and Microphysics Parameterization and Simulation.  For many years, he also taught ATSC’s Radar Meteorology.  More recently, he has taught or co-taught sections of the following ATSC courses: Atmospheric Thermodynamics, Broadcast Meteorology, and Computer Concepts.  He enjoys teaching graduate students how to distill their research into a speech that is understandable by anyone through the UND Three Minute Thesis (3MT®).  His research expertise is in microphysical parameterization and thunderstorm simulation using weather models.

Learn where to find, safely observe and document severe thunderstorms.  

Upon successful completion of this course the student should be able to:

1. identify significant structures of thunderstorms and differentiate thunderstorm types;

2. visually recognize severe thunderstorm threats;

3. demonstrate severe thunderstorm safety;

4. analyze where there will be severe weather potential;

5. reflect upon the day’s forecast to understand why the forecast panned out (or not);

6. reflect upon the experience in terms of group dynamics, ethical considerations, and scientific value.

Expect to have fun, learn a lot, gain experience predicting where storms will form, but not necessarily see a tornado.  Severe storm activity can vary from day to day and year to year, necessitating our mobility within the climatological region prone for severe thunderstorms generally ranging from Midland, TX to Sioux Falls, SD. There is no guarantee that this year will be particularly active for severe thunderstorms or tornadoes anywhere inside the typical region.  However, since we will be mobile, chances are good that we will see at least a few severe storms.

Only students with extraordinary patience and understanding of this weather reality should attend this field trip.

In order to succeed in this course, at a minimum, you should be able to:

Insert minimum requirements expected and needed. In the bulleted example list below

• Navigate in and use basic Blackboard functions
• Download and open electronic documents
• Create, save, and upload/attach electronic documents
• Send, receive, and manage email

Qualified Students

Qualified Students for the Field Trip are those that have completed these five items:

1. Be officially enrolled at UND and sign up for 3 credits of ATSC-499-01 (special permission # needed)
2. pay the $1125 Field Trip Fee
3. complete the UND liability release form
4. complete the Medical history and emergency contact form
5. Extra Credit: train in First aid or CPR (or show your valid certification card)

Class credit is only available for students who complete the above qualifications and actually attend the Field Trip.

Responsibilities

Student duties are to participate in discussions, listen to instruction, journal their experiences in a notebook, and give weather briefings & debriefings. Students will take turns posting messages on the class’ Facebook and Twitter.  Students must abide by the UND student handbook and behave legally at all times.  Students will provide input but the instructor will make the storm intercept decisions.  Students should keep the instructor informed about any injuries or issues affecting their participation during the trip or prior to departure.  Students are responsible for following the class rules and for checking on their class “buddy” to insure safety and punctuality.  Students who jeopardize the safety of the group (or individuals) or engage in unlawful activities will be sent home at their own expense without refund.  Students must complete the coursework (see below) to earn a grade.

Professor duties include selecting student participants; training students how to brief the group in current and future weather; overseeing these weather briefings; instructing students in nowcasts (real-time prediction) that combine surface, radar, and upper-air reanalysis data and relating those to the visual observations; making complex navigational decisions; commenting on student journals; monitoring student participation; grading the final reports; and assigning final grades.  They will also relieve the T.A./Driver when necessary.  The professor(s) will help students pick a target location where supercells or severe thunderstorms are most likely and will make the final decision on storm selection, lodging, and extra-curricular activities during “down days”.  Should there be a break in the weather, they will arrange the trips to visit National Weather Service offices, the National Weather Center in Norman, OK, and arrange extracurricular group events.  The professors may call upon students for task assistance at times.  Daily, professors will meet with the TAs and drivers.

Teaching Assistant (TA) duties include monitoring the storms and road network to keep the class safe; helping with the pre-departure meeting and van preparations, weather briefings/debriefings, forecast training, and mobile classroom activities; assisting students in posting to the Twitter and Facebook feed; assisting the professor in posting to NWSChat to report severe weather; and assisting with phone and CB radio communications.  Communications will occur with TAs/professors in the other vans and motel receptionists.  The TAs may call upon enrolled students for task assistance. TAs only have TA duties when in a TA role.  TAs will need to retire later and awaken earlier to attend mandatory meetings with the professors/drivers/TAs and to fulfill the above duties.

Driver duties include safe driving at all times; following faculty directions/requests; safety-checks for the van each morning before departure; monitoring and correcting fuel/oil levels, cleaning windows, and adjusting tire pressure at each gas station stop; accurately communicating any driving problems with the faculty and TAs.  Drivers do not have TA responsibilities when in a driving role.  Drivers may ask enrolled students for assistance at gas stations.  The drivers will meet separately with the professors and TAs daily.  Drivers will need to retire later and awaken earlier to attend meetings and to insure that the van is fueled and ready to go.  Drivers also undergo UND van safety training. 

Costs for the field trip include tuition (three credits for instruction) and a $1125 field trip fee which pays for travel expenses such as lodging, navigation/internet, internet data, supplies, van rental, fuel, and equipment replacement/repair.  Also, students must budget $40 per day for meals/snacks, entrance fees on approved extracurricular activities, & other miscellaneous expenses.    It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that Student Account Services applies their field trip fee correctly.  The Field Trip Fee is due prior to trip departure.

Because this class is not a full (12-week) summer term course, the drop and refund dates differ significantly from full term courses.  Contact Student Account Services at 701-777-3911 or UND.studentaccounts@email.und.edu to inquire about the dates / deadlines.

Financial Aid:  may be used to cover the field trip fee and tuition.  However, because Summer Session Financial Aid disburses after the class returns from the trip, students will need to plan ahead with parents/family for loans, online crowdsourcing, or to request a larger financial aid amount in Spring Semester.  

Enrollment is made possible through a special permission number, provided by the instructor.  Simply being enrolled does not guarantee your seat, however.  If we exceed the van's capacity, or if too many students drop which makes a van not viable, some students may need to wait and enroll in the class the following year.

Class or Van Cancellation may occur if the instructor (or all drivers and backup drivers) get sick right before the trip, if a van is suddenly not available from the rental company, or if a van does not reach minimum capacity. 

Lodging will be reserved by the professors/TAs and paid with student field trip fees. The group will lodge where free breakfast and wireless internet is offered.  Male students and female students will have separate rooms.  No more than two people per Queen or King-sized bed.  Some suite-style rooms may be used occasionally to serve 6 students as they may have three beds or two beds and a sleeper sofa.

Instruction time will occur at the motels each day and while we are traveling in our mobile classroom.  See our “chase schedule” posted on Blackboard for more info.  Instruction will also occur during our forecasting bootcamp prior to departure.

Down time:  Such times are more relaxed and may be several hours while driving to nearly whole days. When down times only last a few hours, students may sleep or engage in activities with headphones, books, or journal writing. This is a time to catch up on your journal entries or start writing your final report.  Down Days will be declared by instructors when the morning weather briefing reveals that severe weather is not expected that day or when the required distance traveled to observe severe storms would be unreasonable or put the group out of position for a more favorable future location.  During “down days”, after the required weather briefing, the group will either drive to position themselves for the next day or will find nearby recreation that is still within the scope of the class.  Visits to state/national parks and National Weather Service Offices are possible options.

Storm Intercept occurs when storms have been identified on radar and are actively being followed by our class.  At this time, complete attention of students is needed.  Students will want to have cameras ready and journals nearby to jot down information (or have a voice/video recorder going).  To keep everyone safe, the professor’s directions must be followed carefully.  Nearly all of the storm intercept will also be captured on video and kept for future advertising purposes so it is important to keep a professional demeanor at all times.

Health and Medical issues are tracked on the medical release form.  Everyone on the trip fills this out (including professors, TAs, and drivers).  This is where you list your medical insurance, medications, allergies, and persons to call in the event of an emergency.  To protect participant privacy, these will be put into a sealed envelope to be opened by the instructor or TA only in case of emergency – otherwise shredded after the trip.  Everyone must maintain good hygiene, monitor their own food/water, bring needed medications*, and monitor restroom needs.

*If you are allergic to bee stings or certain foods, please bring Benadryl and an EpiPen. 

One will notice that a “C” grade is possible by doing the quizzes, having good participation, and completing the daily journal.  However, the best learning experience will occur in conjunction with the final paper, which must be completed for a “B” or “A” grade.

Readings will be provided that will help supplement what you learn in the mobile classroom. These readings may be cited in the final paper.

Daily Journaling (15%) will allow a record of experiences such as your own predicted target area  reasoning/justification for that area, and important meteorological and personal observations you make throughout the day.  You will want to document trip details (roads driven, time decisions were made and why, radar images and/or synoptic maps of the conditions for a particular day, and personal photographs of storm structure and features) so that it can be contributed to social networking sites and your final paper.  We have a checklist form that will make this easier for you to take notes for your journal while we are traveling. In addition to the written journal, students will want to take pictures of any/all items from your checklist as we see them.  You will have your own Wikipage on Blackboard where you can optionally add and keep track of these images on each day of the trip.  There will be a contest each day to see which student has the most photographed or screen-grabbed documentation for their journal.  Sort of like “Bingo” from the checklist except that you are adding “proof” of various things you saw.  Students do not need to re-type all of their handwritten journal notes.  You will want to fill in any missing details to your handwritten journal, and upload photos to the Wiki, in the evenings or down times. Please turn in the handwritten parts of your journal with your Final Paper.  Everyone will do the journal together on the first chase day and will be checked by the TAs and professor on the second chase day. 

Final Paper (25%) of 4-6 page in length (double-spaced, 12-pt font, not including figures) should be written immediately upon return from the trip.  The paper must analyze the conditions for and the timing, location, and occurrence of storms for one particular case from our trip.  Include a discussion of the accuracy of the official forecasts from the Storm Prediction Center and how those forecasts compare with the class’ own forecast.  Relevant figures should be considered for inclusion: anything from your journal, hand-drawn analyses, computer-generated maps from weather briefings, satellite imagery, and storm photos.  Students are encouraged to incorporate forecast skills learned in previous courses, details from their daily journal, readings, and Skywarn training.

Participation (60%) is expected in the pre-departure “forecasting bootcamp” and Skywarn Spotter Training, preparing a morning weather briefing (may include hand-drawn maps), forecasting discussions (thoughts and well-argued opinions regarding storm target areas), guest presentations and weather-related seminars (via questions), nowcasting and on-the-road storm selection, post-chase analyses, uploading standard forecast graphics to a class Wikipage and/or Dropbox/OneDrive, assisting with navigation, and in communicating clearly/courteously/professionally any necessary information when appropriate. Your participation also involves assistance in preparing photos and text for newspapers and social networking (Twitter and Facebook).  Responsibility for Twitter & Facebook, webcam, and morning weather briefing will be rotated among students.  A checklist will be used to keep track of the participation of each student.

Skywarn Spotter Training will help you understand thunderstorm structure and behavior.  If you miss the local meeting in Grand Forks, you may need to travel a long distance or you will need to take the online version: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id=23.  For the online version, print and provide your certificate of completion.

Prizes – will be given to students who win the daily tornado contest (forecast due 10 AM with tornado verification at midnight), win the neatest online journal with the most photographic evidence of various “checklist” items throughout the trip, for the neatest and most complete online Wikipage containing a web version of the student’s weather briefings & de-briefings, and for the best photos/videos (submitted to a dropbox)

Polls and Quizzes will be used to see how much you are learning throughout the course.  You get credit for participating (not having the right answers).

Non-graded activities

Safety Training in first aid and/or CPR is part of having a safe trip. CPR Training is very important for continuing the heartbeat of someone struck by lightning.  First Aid is important in case we are the first responders to tornado victims.  If your certification is still good as of our departure date, then show your card to the professor for automatic extra credit. 

Assignment Policy

Due dates for each assignment or activity will be posted in Blackboard.

Late Work

If you find that you’re having trouble keeping up in this class, please let me and/or your TA know as soon as possible so we can do what we can to help. Due dates are important insofar as they help you spread out your workload and help us keep the behind-the-scenes aspects of the course as organized as possible. However, late work may be accepted for extenuating circumstances, so please reach out if you know you will need more time or if you are having trouble keeping up. 

Please note: You do not need to disclose or perform trauma when asking for an extension; you just need to let us know (very broadly) that you need help, and we will do what we can to get you back on track in the course.

Class Participation

See the above description within Assessment Summary: Participation.

Incompletes

It is expected that students will complete all requirements for a course during the time frame of the course. For reasons beyond a student’s control, and upon request by the student or on behalf of the student, an incomplete grade may be assigned by the instructor when there is reasonable certainty the student will successfully complete the course without retaking it. More information regarding UND’s Incomplete policy can be found on The Grading System webpage.

Resolution of Problems

Should a problem occur, you should speak to your instructor first. If the problem continues to be unresolved, go to the department chair, and next to the college dean. Should the problem persist, you have the right to go to the provost next, and then to the president.