Student storm chasers spot Iola

A troupe of student storm chasers rolled through Iola Wednesday lured by a line of bad weather blowing in from Wichita.
The group, meteorology students at California University of Pennsylvania, came to Iola after spending the night in Rolla, Mo.
“We were woken at 3:30 a.m. by some severe weather,” said adjunct instructor Adam Cinderich. The same thunderstorm swept through Iola earlier in the night. Strobe-light lightning and booming thunder made for fitful sleeping, Cinderich said.
Pennsylvania’s weather is less wild, the students said.
Still, noted recent program graduate Kevin Lowrie, even Pennsylvania has seen a tornado.
“I had to deal with that in 2007,” he said. Lowrie was interning with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh when a small tornado was spotted on the western edge of the city.
In such a situation, “Do you issue the warning to three quarters of a million people?” he asked.
That tornado passed without incident.

THE STUDENTS are spending two weeks on Midwestern roads, gaining real world experience in storm chasing. Most hope to work in climatology or weather research when they complete their studies.
Senior Andrew Milevoj will continue his research with a summer internship at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln after he’s through chasing storms.
Meteorology “is real science,” said professor Mario Majcen. Students — even at the undergraduate level — have a heavy load of courses including calculus and physics.
The group converged on Iola purposely, Majcen noted.
“Today the weather is conducive for severe weather and with Iola being at the intersection of two highways it’s very convenient,” for setting out in any direction, Majcen said.
Two vans carry mobile equipment — primarily laptops — that allow the researchers to track storm systems as they trek across the Midwest. They stay connected to national radar through use of wireless 3G cards, Heather Dominik said.
As the students were talking, their Web master burst from a van to announce that an area east of Wichita spanning to Topeka had just been placed under a tornado watch.
“If the storms move south, we will have to head to Texas,” Majcen said. Otherwise, they planned to bed down in Iola for the night.
“Who knows? Some of my students may end up down here after they graduate,” Majcen said. “It’s beautiful country, and it’s where the weather is.”
The student’s weather Web site is http:sai.calu.edu/weather.