Congratulations to Prof. Sen Chiao, who has been selected to serve on the Unidata Users’ Committee! Unidata is a “a diverse community of over 250 institutions vested in the common goal of sharing data, and tools to access and visualize that data.” It is supported under UCAR and by the National Science Foundation. As a member of the committee (which spans the US), Dr. Chiao will help steer the future work of Unidata.

In fact, most of us serve (or have served) on national-level committees. Prof. Alison Bridger is currently a member of the American Meteorological Society’s Board of Higher Education, and is currently part of the organizing team for the upcoming 23rd Symposium on Education at the 94th Annual AMS Meeting in Atlanta, GA.

For several years now we’ve had an annual rain forecasting contest. FYI in the Bay Area (and maybe the rest of CA?), the “rain year” starts on July 1. Why? Probably because we have a Mediterranean Climate which produces zero rain during summer (or just the occasional trace amount). So July 1 is a convenient and dependable date on which to start with zero precipitation.

Our contest is to guess the date by which our cumulative rainfall has passed a certain level. Last year it was 4″, and Prof. Sen  Chiao won with a guess of December 8. The year before (2011-12) was so dry that nobody really won (we gave the prize to Prof. Clements, who picked the latest date of Jan 30).

So this year – in the spirit of trying to get this wrapped up by Christmas! – we are going with an amount of 2.75″ of accumulated rain. As I write this blog, the front range region of Colorado is reeling from historical floods induced by over 10″ of rain in many locations in just a couple of days. Compared to this, 2.75″ is peanuts – but that’s California for you!

I picked an early date of Nov 6 – you can take this (the winning pick) to the bank!

Here are all the picks.

Our annual Welcome Back party was a blast, as usual! A good crowd gathered in DH 614 to enjoy a good repast. The grand prize winner this year was junior Chris Camacho, who took home a brand new SJSU sweatshirt. We are all looking forward to a good year!!!

Here’s the gang:

Some of Dr. Clements’ team took the lidar to the fire yesterday (all with proper authorization etc.) to gather data. Along the way the took some photos. Here are some courtesy of Richard Bagley:

And here is a link to a time lapse video, thanks to Braniff Davis!   ====>   RimFireTimeLapse0826

Slowly but surely, faculty are stating to get ready for the Fall 2013 semester. Starting to work on their greensheets (syllabi), and working on lecture notes. Thinking about what to teach, and about new ways to teach.

At the same time, we are all busy working on our various research projects – both faculty and grad students! These include: a lightning climatology for California; running the WRF model to simulate the Arizona monsoon and other phenomena; using GRACE satellite data to validate IPCC models; setting up instrument systems to measure wildfires; and examining future impacts of climate change. Although campus is quiet in summer, it’s a hive of activity up here in Duncan Hall!!!