The Department of Earth Sciences Meteorology Program at California University of Pennsylvania holds a three-credit field course every summer listed as a "Field Course/Methods in Earth Sciences," but students know it simply as: "The Storm Chase". This course is geared toward Meteorology Majors in the program but is not limited to just majors; anyone can take part in this course. The "chase" is accompanied by two meteorology Professors with nearly 20 years of chasing experience in storm chasing collectively. A strong background in meteorology is required by excelling in the Intro to Meteorology (EAS 240) course in prior semesters and attending a SKYWARN Training session(s) to become a certified observer. The maximum number of students availabe to take this class is twenty in a given summer. Two vans set for a twelve-day adventure to wherever the severe weather may take them. Convective weather forecasting is a major focus for this course as students are assigned to groups and required to forecast where the storm chase group should "target" the best severe weather. Students are required to write a field journal while on the trip. This journal, along with other ancillary materials is submitted as a formal AMS-formatted paper to complete the requirements of the course and earn a grade based upon all of the aforementioned assessments.
Chase Archive
2005
2006
2007
