PAOC weather forecasting team wins WxChallenge

PAOC's weather forecasting team has won first prize in the recently established national collegiate weather forecasting contest, WxChallenge, run by the University of Oklahoma.

The challenge runs for twenty weeks, covering five (5) two-week forecast periods each semester, with a team prize awarded at the end of each semester. Our team managed to win the fall contest, competing for 10 weeks against more than 50 US colleges. 

All the members of our team performed very well, with ten forecasters ranked in the top 40 out of over 1000 participants. Brian Tang was the top forecaster overall and Garrett Marino was the top undergraduate forecaster in the nation. 

Congratulations to the entire team for the great performance! See fall final scores.

We are looking forward to receiving the trophy, which will be kept at MIT until the next winning team is presented with it. We are eager for another strong showing during the Spring semester, so that we may start another era of forecasting excellence at MIT!

Our inaugural win in the WxChallenge competition is dedicated to the memory of Professor Frederick Sanders who influenced so many in the field of synoptic meteorology.

Fall 2006 Winning team:
Undergrads:
Nicholas Loyd, course 12
Garrett Marino, course 12
Grad students:
Cegeon Chan, PAOC
Daniel Gombos, PAOC
Jonathan Moskaitis, PAOC
Mike Ring, PAOC
Scott Stransky, PAOC
Brian Tang, PAOC
John Williams, PAOC
Christie Wood, PAOC
Angela Zalucha, PAOC
Staff:
Lodovica Illari, PAOC
Jeff Scott, PAOC