Harrah Middle School has developed a specialized group of students called "The Storm Team." The Storm Team is an extracurricular activity for which a multi-grade (6th-8th grade) group of students volunteer their own time to learn about current weather conditions. Past members of the Storm Team that have moved on to the high school, still help in presentations and projects. The function of these students is to promote weather awareness in the school, community and across the state. These members are a lead group of middle school students who are interested in weather phenomena and the collection of data. With the collected data, they can construct maps, time lines, graphs and tables to analyze, interpret and present weather conditions in Oklahoma.
This team instructs other students in our school how to use the software of the Oklahoma Mesonet and the EarthStorm project. Students then post these data daily on the school weather bulletin board. A hard copy of the data is printed and distributed among staff and administration to aid in decision making. This is particularly used during times of extreme conditions such as very low or very high temperatures. Coaches request heat indices as well as wind chill temperatures to decide on practice schedules and bus administrators are always interested in data to support their transportation decisions.
Summarized data are given to the weekly local paper. Maps or graphs are often printed not only to show weather happenings, but also to let the community know of the technology available to our school and students. Local community groups such as the Lions and Kiwanis are recipients of the Storm Team's presentations to show the Mesonet software and its uses in our school. Local police and firemen also have previewed the software. They might someday use it in their stations through a program called OK-FIRST, another outreach program of the Oklahoma Mesonet.
Because the Oklahoma Mesonet introduced meteorology to middle school students, their interest and knowledge of weather has been enhanced immensely. The students respond with commitment and enthusiasm. This is a positive influence that will carry over into high school and college. Many Harrah High School students who have been previous members of the Storm Team are setting their sites on a degree in meteorology. As the Mesonet becomes more accessible, we expect that this number will only increase