Spring Semester Update!

Greetings all!

Happy New Year! I hope this blog entry finds you all well rested and maybe even getting ready to come back to Purdue for the next semester. For me, it is always amazing to see how quickly the break goes before Christmas, and then how slowly it goes after that point. Needless to say, I am ready to come back to Purdue. I may not be so ready for classes to start again, but as is the journey of college.

Looking back, PUMA had an innovative fall semester! With a few new events and the implementation of a Forecasting Club, it kept us all plenty busy. I speak for all of us here at PUMA when I say thank you for those that supported our forecasting products this past semester! We are setting our goals high for the future to expand on this idea that we are really still in the process of sculpting.

Our Forecasting Club is a club made up almost entirely of Atmospheric Science majors with the exception of a few non-majors who are attending to help out and learn as well. For majors, we learn all about the science and theory embedded in the atmosphere. From physics, to thermodynamics, to dynamics, we learn so much but often do not get a chance to apply that knowledge. Our purpose for this club is to not only to provide practical forecasting experience to ATMS majors (to apply this awesome knowledge), but also to provide accurate and dependable forecasts to the West Lafayette area (via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube).

We have a busy semester coming up for PUMA with the AMS conference in Atlanta and some new events in the making. The AMS student conference is February 1st-2nd. While the main conference starts on the 2nd and goes until the 6th. Many PUMA members will be attending and it is not too late to sign if you are still interested in going though it may be difficult to find a hotel at this point. In addition, we will have spring callouts that will likely take place towards the end of January. We are in the process of planning 3 new events for this semester! Provided there is enough interest for these events, we will be going to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, attending the Central Indiana Severe Weather Symposium and setting up a Science Movie Night (Sharknado???). Spring Fest is April 12th and 13th this year and we would love to see as many of you there as possible (club members or not).

For now though, that's a wrap! Stay tuned for more updates. I'll try to do more blog updates this semester to keep those of you away from Purdue in the loop.

In weather,

Joseph Bauer
PUMA President