Weather Nerd

40% chance of Thunderstorms panned out. It’s been thundering and raining for about 2 hours now.

This weather blog didn’t end up what I thought it would be. In all honesty, I’m not even sure I enjoy meteorology anymore. After all the crap I went through at UW, I’ve been thrown head first into the wall one too many times. I think UW ruined my love of weather. I’m not one to give up… I’m one of the most tenacious people I know… but I just don’t feel like I have the support from the people I need it from to continue, at least right now.

I don’t know what will become of my passion for meteorology, or this blog for that matter. I’ll probably get all nerdy again when winter storms start brewing, and especially next spring when it gets all stormy again. I need a break from weather to figure out if I can live without it. This is extremely tough for me, as I’ve spent my whole life preparing for a meteorology career. Now I’m at a really tough spot where I can’t go forward. I can’t do anything with my undergraduate degrees. Everything I’m interested in requires a masters degree. I feel that UW ruined my chances of that. With me not being able to maintain a 3.0 GPA my first year at UW, I don’t know if any other grad school would even be interested. It doesn’t matter that I was the sickest I’ve EVER been with the mono from the beginning of February until the end of the semester. I should have taken medical leave… I was coming to class with a 102 fever a lot of days, and I needed help just to get down the stairs a lot of days. I did what I could, and apparently that wasn’t good enough. The first semester was like being kicked in the face and then dragged in the dirt for 15 weeks. It didn’t feel like anyone there cared, except for my adviser, who couldn’t do anything about it. I only missed two classes my first semester. One was a lab, and I was throwing up during class and finally went home when I nearly passed out. The other was when I had strep throat and just felt miserable.

So I guess I’m simply not good enough for UW. I have loved meteorology all my life. I have studied it on my own since I was in third grade. I took all the math and physics courses I could get in college and high school. I killed myself studying for my GREs. I volunteered for two whole summers at the National Weather Service and did a ton of projects on my own. I did an independent study in college with an adviser about numerical modeling and gave several presentations on my findings. But, no, I guess I’m not good enough. I didn’t get a B.S. in atmospheric science. I just got a B.S. in Earth and Space Science, a B.A. in Communication Studies, all while working over 60 hours a week to put myself through college, and pulling off graduating magna cum laude. I’m nowhere near good enough, right?

I don’t want to go back to school. I’m already in a ton of debt from my five years of college, and having just gotten married, we can’t afford it. Granted, we can’t afford me not having a job either. I’m back to applying for retail and clerical jobs that I’ve been doing since I was 16. I swore to myself when I graduated college that I wouldn’t do that again. But, UW broke me. That takes some doing. Granted, the mono had a HUGE hand in it. But, I’m suspicious as to why they decided to drop my entire class, save the PhD student who was always getting As on everything while the rest of us were struggling to even get Cs and Ds. Shouldn’t that say something if the masters students can’t do it? Sure the PhD student can get As! HE HAS SEEN ALL OF THIS MATERIAL BEFORE! Plus, then all the other students are there taunting you (seriously), and saying that you’re basically not smart enough or professional enough to be doing this. Who can shoulder that? I’m only human… I can only take so much.

Maybe I’ll thrive at a different school. CSU is right here in Fort Collins, and I’ve talked to a few people about applying, but I missed all the deadlines for this year. This is the first year in 19 years that I haven’t been in school. I will have to talk to some people of the department and see what there is to do. I’m scared to death because this school is one of the best in the country for meteorology, and they also work very closely with UW. I fear that I’m not good enough, and my bad year at UW will haunt me forever and I’ll never get in. And, if I am fortunate enough to get in, I’ll need a research grant. I can’t do part time work during grad school. When I was at UW, I was doing 80 hours of homework a week, and I still barely got it all done. Maybe it’s better other places. Maybe I’m just not good enough and it’s time I realized that no, you can’t do anything you want.

I’m sorry for turning this post into a long rant about my personal problems. I just wanted to explain the lackadaisical attitude about this blog. I know it started out as a much better meteorological blog, and just turned into a casual one to two sentence summary of what’s going on. I just need more time.

I know I’m not being a big baby about things. Anyone who went through what I did would understand, and I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone.

Til next time,

The Weather Nerd

Wow, I take that back! It’s currently in the 90s! It’s been cooler the last few days, though. The high is supposed to be in the low to mid 80s the rest of the week.

It’s starting to feel cooler. Perhaps there’s a hint of autumn in the air?

30% of thunderstorms tonight. I’m hoping for one… it’s been a while.

Sunny in the 80s today. Most of the weather is happening out east.

10-30% chance of storms between now and Thursday night.

Supposed to be another beautiful, sunny day! I love Fort Collins.

Supposed to be a clear, beautiful day in the low 80s. The wind picked up a little bit earlier, but it’s calm and clear now!

This is taken from the Chicago Tribune (copied only because it’s Chicago and not the local area)

The week’s second outbreak of thunderstorms looms late Wednesday into Wednesday night — and even may linger into portions of Thursday. Not only is the amount of moisture available for thunderstorm formation predicted to surge (doubling from .85 inches at 1 a.m. Wednesday to 1.87 inches at 1 a.m. Thursday), but the surprisingly muscular jet stream is expected to settle into the Midwest. Just how these strong upper-level winds interact with the moisture will have a significant impact on the strength of thunderstorms that spring to life. When thunderstorms tower into the fast winds aloft, they are often fast-movers, capable of tapping upper-level wind energy and transferring it to the surface as strong gusts. The presence of a jet stream also supplies a series of impulses that can lift and cool the air, initiating thunderstorm formation. Summer rain totals are notoriously widely varied, and there is no reason to believe that that won’t be the case with the incoming storms expected to reach the Chicago area later Wednesday, then sweep across the area in several waves Wednesday night into Thursday.

-Tom Skilling, www.ChicagoTribune.com