MU-AMS
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MU-AMS

Student Chapter

of the

American Meteorological Society

 

Public Weather Awareness Day 2024!

Join us on Sunday, April 14th, from 11AM-2PM for PWAD. This year’s theme is “Polar Opposites,” and will include activities such as face painting, weather jeopardy, a raffle, and more! Meet professional meteorologists and emergency managers. PWAD will be located at the ‘Ville Courts at Millersville University. For more information and updates, check out our PWAD page: https://mu-ams.com/pwad

 

Welcome to the MU-AMS official website!

We are entering our 37th year as a Student Chapter of the AMS. Since its humble beginnings in 1986, our chapter has grown significantly and is notoriously one of the largest student-run organizations on Millersville’s campus. Involvement in the AMS not only helps students build upon what we learn in the classroom, but also presents us with numerous opportunities to network, discover new career paths, and build friendships that will last a lifetime. Our club takes pride in promoting a welcoming environment, developing diverse connections with professionals in various disciplines, and giving back to our communities.

MU-AMS begins every year with the highly successful Meteorology-Mentor Program. Each incoming Meteorology student is paired with an enthusiastic upperclassman who will guide them through their first year at Millersville. The goal of this program is to establish connections between all class levels and help set up younger students for success in their first semester and beyond. Through this program, we strive to help incoming students find their home in the Millersville Meteorology department to achieve both academic and future-career success.

Throughout the school year, our club hosts monthly general meetings and bi-weekly open officer meetings to give all students an opportunity to shape the organization. Professionals in various disciplines of meteorology, including the National Weather Service, academia, broadcast, and other public and private industries host virtual or in-person seminars through our Speaker Series. The goal of the Speaker Series is to provide students with the opportunity to learn about career paths they may not have been aware of. The seminars also give students a chance to expand their network so as to increase their chances of landing internships and jobs after graduation. In addition to the Speaker Series, we have an outreach committee that frequently visits local schools. Committee members educate grade- and high school students on weather, climate, and duties of student meteorologists. Students involved within the chapter can also receive funding to attend local and national conferences held throughout the school year, including the national AMS Conference, to further their connections and knowledge. We also host many different social events throughout the year such as movie and game nights, fundraisers, and trips to local attractions and sporting events to escape the rigors of our curriculum and have some fun!

We also have four sub-groups that our members can become involved in. These sub-groups help introduce our students to unique career paths. These sub-groups include Weather Watch, The Millersville Storm Tracking Team (MiST), Space Weather, and our Weather Balloon Launch Team. Weather Watch is our very own weather discussion short film. Students write their own scripts and film reports about extreme weather events, seasonal outlooks, and the weather in 60 seconds! MiST is focused on teaching students advanced forecasting techniques and helping them improve their real-time weather analysis skills. During the school year, groups of students analyze severe storms and have real-time “met watches” to analyze radar and satellite products and images. MiST also provides students with access to Weather Challenge, a national forecasting competition where students from all over the country participate. Our Space Weather group focuses on weather patterns affected by the sun. In this group, we frequently launch weather balloons and do a lot to not only educate ourselves but also the

public about space weather! Finally, our Weather Balloon Launch Team exposes students to the process of assembling and launching weather balloons. The Weather Balloon Team also had the opportunity to participate in the NASA-led project “IMPACTS.” During IMPACTS, students launched weather balloons in winter storms across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic States to better understand the physics and dynamics of these events.

Every spring, MU-AMS organizes a student-run Public Weather Awareness Day (PWAD), which has been an incredible success since its launch in 2009. This free, family-friendly event hosts local and national organizations that volunteer time to educate the public. We also feature create-your-own green screen videos, weather experiments, a balloon launch, games, and crafts. This amazing event bridges our connection to the community and allows the public to get involved and learn about what we do as a club. Students enjoy communicating their knowledge of meteorological phenomena with our community.

To close out the year, we celebrate graduating seniors with our annual Russell L. DeSouza Banquet. We remember Dr. DeSouza for his renowned dedication to his students and for his endless work to build Millersville’s meteorology program. We also announce our newly-elected officers for the next school year!

I am greatly looking forward to all the events mentioned in this letter. So far this school year, we have held our annual ice cream social and revived the annual College of Earth Sciences Picnic after a one-year hiatus. I plan to continue the traditions of our AMS Chapter, including our Adopt-A-Highway Program commitment, fundraisers, fun nights out for students, and more mentor-mentee events. I will do my best to continue to provide all students with a welcoming environment in which everyone has the tools they need to succeed and feel confident and comfortable at Millersville. I will accomplish this by providing students with ample opportunities to explore the field of meteorology. We think of this organization as a family, and I am ready to help this family grow closer throughout my term as president.

I am beyond excited to work with my team of amazing officers and students within our AMS Chapter this year!

Sincerely,

Gabriel Keller

President, 2023-2024

 

Instagram

These awesome pictures were taken in Arizona by a family member of Tori Fortner. Just look at those clouds!
These awesome pictures were taken in Arizona by a family member of Tori Fortner. Just look at those clouds!
some pictures from our round robin this week. we introduced our students to the subgroups that cater to the interests of more of our members and show them different parts of the field
some pictures from our round robin this week. we introduced our students to the subgroups that cater to the interests of more of our members and show them different parts of the field
Senior Cameron Gonteski had the opportunity to intern at NOAA over the summer in Memphis Tennessee. Here's a little about her experience. For my summer internship, I worked with the National Weather Service in Memphis, TN through my NOAA Hollings S
Senior Cameron Gonteski had the opportunity to intern at NOAA over the summer in Memphis Tennessee. Here's a little about her experience. For my summer internship, I worked with the National Weather Service in Memphis, TN through my NOAA Hollings Scholarship. For my project, I studied the rotational velocity of non-tropical tornado events that occurred throughout the Memphis County Warning Area from December 2019 – December 2020. I was mainly looking for any trends in rotational velocity 20 minutes leading up to tornado touchdown. While nothing was proven, I was able to speculate that the rotational velocity increases within a threshold leading up to when a tornado could touchdown. This was a really fun project, and I was able to use programs like GR2 Analyst to collect my data. I was also able to work with the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at our office and attend meetings with emergency managers with him. Lastly, I was the recipient of the Larry R. Johnson scholarship this summer. This scholarship was a $2000 scholarship presented through the American Meteorological Society’s Senior Named Scholarship.
a collection of photos sent in by our treasurer Alison Krantz of last night's storm
a collection of photos sent in by our treasurer Alison Krantz of last night's storm
These awesome pictures were taken in Arizona by a family member of Tori Fortner. Just look at those clouds! some pictures from our round robin this week. we introduced our students to the subgroups that cater to the interests of more of our members and show them different parts of the field Senior Cameron Gonteski had the opportunity to intern at NOAA over the summer in Memphis Tennessee. Here's a little about her experience. For my summer internship, I worked with the National Weather Service in Memphis, TN through my NOAA Hollings S a collection of photos sent in by our treasurer Alison Krantz of last night's storm

2022 - 2023 MU-AMS Members

 
 

Student Spotlight

On August 7th, Millersville’s TILTTING Team deployed to the Mason-Dixon Line to launch weather balloons into a “Moderate” severe weather risk. After sampling the pre-storm environment with a weather balloon launch in York County, they dropped south into Maryland. The team observed a supercell near Taneytown, MD, launching a balloon before and after the storm passed. They then moved to Westminster, MD, to intercept the impending squall line, where they observed damaging winds that downed powerlines. Although the supercell the team observed did not produce any tornadoes, it did produce large hail. The squall line also went on to produce widespread damaging winds and a few tornadoes in York and Lancaster Counties. Team TILTTING will use the data collected to study the thermodynamics and kinematics of tornadic (and non-tornadic) environments. For more info on the TILTTING Project: https://www.tiltting.com/

 
 
 

Activities & Involvement

Met-Mentor

The Met-Mentor program is a month-long program designed to welcome first-year students into the major and introduce them to the upperclassmen. The officers have worked hard to create a fun atmosphere by putting together numerous social events to show the new students the area around Millersville, as well as familiarizing them with the campus. Mentors for the program include the six officers of the MU-AMS and upperclassmen who have volunteered their time to give their fellowship to the new students and answer any questions they may have. And of course, we are all looking to have a good time while enjoying what the area has to offer!

Speaker Series

The Millersville University Chapter of the American Meteorology Society is proud to present an all-star lineup of professional speakers from all avenues of meteorology at Millersville each semester. We pride ourselves in the variety of speakers from a vast number of meteorological fields we attract to speak at our university. From learning about graduate school to how to get a broadcast job on TV, our speaker series helps our members learn everything about their potential career fields and grow as students and professionals.

 

Weather Watch

Weather Watch is Millersville University’s exclusive weather entertainment web-show run entirely by student meteorologists. We go beyond the forecast to inform and enlighten our viewers about the world of weather around them.

Our goal at Weather Watch is to provide professional quality programming to the general public that is both educational and entertaining. We like to think of it as exposing the science behind weather in a format that everyone can enjoy.

 

Space Weather

Founded as a subsection of the Millersville University Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society, the Millersville Space Weather Group promotes research and education in heliophysics and space weather. The Space Weather Group is currently conducting research and testing of high-altitude balloon payloads to measure solar flux in the upper atmosphere to further our understanding of the Earth-Sun system.

 

Community Outreach

A primary goal of the 2019-2020 officers is to raise community awareness about meteorology. In order to accomplish this task, we are striving to expand our audience throughout the Lower Susquehanna Valley, beginning on campus and continuing into area elementary and middle schools with our educational outreach programs.

Public Weather Awareness Day

The annual Millersville University Public Weather Awareness Day is an afternoon full of celebrating and experiencing everything about the weather. This event is designed for children and families, free and open to the general public.

Come produce your own weathercast in front of a green screen, participate in a trivia contest, see hands-on demonstrations, cool weather-related experiments and more. You will have the opportunity to meet and talk with people who make a living forecasting and watching the weather every day!