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October, 2000

ULM forecasters best in the nation

Students and faculty from The University of Louisiana at Monroe's Atmospheric Sciences Program recently finished first in forecasting among 18 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada at the National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Contest (NCWFC).

Among the students, Lee Robertson, a ULM sophomore from Baton Rouge, finished first among the freshmen/sophomore forecasters.

The NCWFC pits teams of students and faculty in a contest to forecast the amount of precipitation and the maximum and minimum temperatures for a given city during a two-week period. ULM's team finished first forecasting for Mobile, Ala. The forecast city is changed every two weeks and forecasts from each individual on the team are averaged to provide the team score.

Among the other institutions competing in the contest were the State University of New York at Albany, the University of Arizona, Florida State University, Iowa State University, McGill University, the University of Miami, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mississippi State University, the Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

ULM's Atmospheric Sciences Program is located within the Department of Geosciences in the College of Pure and Applied Sciences. It is the only such program in the state and has been selected as a unique area of excellence in the University of Louisiana System. Its graduates earn a Bachelor of Science degree and are employed within the private sector as well as with the National Weather Service.

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