Cyclones Chasing Cyclones

During Spring 2024, three faculty at Iowa State University offered a new course, Field Observations of Thunderstorms, with a storm chasing field trip component that attracted an enrollment of 13 meteorology students. Undergraduate meteorology majors had been asking for such a course for nearly 30 years, and we used feedback from colleagues at other schools with similar courses as we designed this course and tried to account for all possible contingencies. However, with our field trip coinciding with one of the most active weeks of severe weather on record for the central United States, we learned numerous lessons as our three vehicles drove over 3,500 miles in eight days. The students experienced a wide range of chasing outcomes based on each day’s travel plans, which were largely influenced by weather forecasts they made and by majority decisions of the group. The chasing outcomes included: one day that went surprisingly well, with students seeing tornadoes when the forecast threat was rather low; another day with ominous non-tornadic supercell thunderstorms at sunset with intense inflow winds; a day with some emotional challenges when a tornado outbreak occurred close to home, threatening friends and family, and where careful navigation was needed due to the presence of multiple strong tornadoes within just a few miles of the group; a “bust” day when the cap did not break; and finally, an unexpected encounter with a nighttime tornado. Throughout, students were strengthening their forecasting skills and gaining experience launching weather balloons and analyzing real-time sounding data. With such an active week of severe weather, there were not many periods of “down time” for the group, but we were able to visit several memorials related to prior tornadoes as well as the National Weather Center and the Storm Prediction Center. Detailed information was collected at the end of the course through student evaluations. Some of this information was surprising, such as the value students found in having a bust chase day, how meaningful they found the weather balloon launches, and the importance they placed on some of the visits to memorials. This presentation will share our lessons learned, both through some of the unexpected consequences of such an active severe weather week and from the student feedback.