Five years ago, Dalton Van Stratten and Maddy Diedrichsen were two of the first students to attend the University of Nebraska’s National Weather Camp program.
Last week, the two who will be UNL freshman in the fall were organizing the camp for seven high school students interested in weather and science.
“It’s my favorite week of the year,” Diedrichsen said. “We get to talk about weather with like-minded people.”
“This is like family,” Van Stratten said.
This year’s camp “Discover: Weather and Climate Science” included educational classes, experiments and trips to see meteorologists and climatologists in action.
“I first came in 2013,” said Evan Hutchinson, soon-to-be Lincoln High School freshman. “It’s always a great time, and I always learn new things.”
Throughout the week, there were plenty of opportunities. Diedrichsen and Van Stratten had the students learning about how scientists observe and forecast the weather and monitor the changing climate; how to forecast the weather; use instruments to make weather observations (including in Memorial Stadium); learn about the local weather and climate of Nebraska from tornadoes to blizzards; and learn about storm preparedness.
Weather campers also met scientists in a broad range of weather-, climate- and science-related careers and took a field trip Tuesday to see some of those careers up close.
The students toured the National Weather Service in Valley, Nebraska; the Advanced Weather Information Processing Development Laboratory at Raytheon Facility in Omaha; and the Air Force Weather Agency Forecast Office at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha.
As a cap to the week, the students were able to create their own weathercast video in front of a green screen at the UNL TV weather studio.
“A career in weather science is not one you leave at home,” said Ken Dewey, camp adviser and School of Natural Resources applied climate science mission leader. “It’s one you enjoy doing all the time.”
View photos from the field trip to NWS on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/UNLSNR.
-Natural Resources
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/vhic