The Challenge
The competition begins on September 24, 2012 for Pensacola, FL (KPNS). The full schedule for the Fall semester is as follows:
| City | Identifier | Dates | ||
| Pensacola, FL | KPNS | September 24 - October 4 | ||
| Billings, MT | KBIL | October 8 - October 18 | ||
| Louisville, KY | KSDF | October 22 - November 1 | ||
| North Bend, OR | KOTH | November 5 - November 15 | ||
| Syracuse, NY | KSYR | November 26 - December 6 |
Source: http://wxchallenge.com/challenge/schedule.php
Forecasts are due at 00 UTC and are made for a period 06 UTC - 06 UTC. So until Daylight Savings Time, forecasts are due at 8:00 PM after which it will change to 7:00 PM. You forecast every Monday night - Thursday night and have Friday's off. After the Fall cities are done we take a break and resume in the Spring semester.
The cost for participation in both the Fall and Spring semesters is $5; the cost for one semester is $3. Your forecaster ID must contain 6 letters and/or numbers. You will be put in a category with other participants of your level, e.g. Category 4: Freshmen/Sophomores, Category 3: Juniors/Seniors, Category 2: Grad students, etc. It is not unusual and is highly encouraged for Cat 4 forecasters to kick Cat 2 forecasters' butts. Just putting that out there. However, we do get judged as a team (SUNY-Stony Brook) so please feel free to discuss your forecasts but you must keep your exact numbers to yourself.
For each forecast you must submit a high temperature (F), low temperature (F), maximum wind speed (kts) and precipitation amount (in). Note that the wind speed is sustained, not gusts, and the precipitation amount is the cumulative liquid precipitation- so don't put 12 inches if you think it will snow a foot!
That's about all of the important information I wanted to provide here. For more detailed info and guidelines on the scoring system please see the WxChallenge website. Motivational statement: first and second place forecasters for each category receive trophies for every city, not just overall or tournament winners.
Below are a few useful resources however everyone is encouraged to log onto the Metlab computers and plot model data using nmap2, analyze soundings with BUFKIT, etc. Thanks for your enthusiasm and good luck-- let's go SBU!
Useful Links
Submit your forecasts: http://wxchallenge.com/challenge/submit_forecast.php
Current Analysis
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Global Satellite (NRL)
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WxForecaster
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