WxChallenge Competitor from York wins at Atlantic City, NJ

Rob Davis, an undergraduate student in the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, has earned the TOP SCORE at Atlantic City, New Jersey from among a pool of 1,653 weather forecasters from Canada and the U.S. as part of the WxChallenge forecasting competition.

Faculty, students, post-doctoral scholars and research scholars in atmospheric science from 52 universities and institutions around Canada and the U.S. compete annually in WxChallenge, a contest designed to test weather forecasting ability. Participants submit forecasts of high and low temperature, precipitation and maximum wind speed each day for two weeks at one city, forecasting for a different city every two weeks for a total of 10 cities each academic year. The team from York consists of 14 undergraduate and graduate students this year, sponsored by the Department in this, the inaugural year of participation at York.

Rob defeated all participants in his category (3rd and 4th year undergraduates) and achieved the best score overall by defeating all competitors from the other three categories (1st and 2nd year undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty/research scholars). Rob has received a trophy (pictured above) from the WxChallenge administrators in recognition of his achievement.

All Department members are eligible to participate again next year, beginning in September; look for announcements later this summer. Those interested can check out the contest website for further information: http://wxchallenge.com.