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A team of Ball State students and staff have hit the road to forecast and experience severe weather first hand — and will earn college credits while they do it.
The Ball State geography department offers an immersive learning initiative that allows interdisciplinary student teams to work with faculty in high-impact learning environments to face real-world topics and situations. In this case, the initiative is storm chasing.
Under the guidance of meteorology professor David Call and geography professor Reuben Allen, a group of students left campus May 13 and have been driving around the Great Plains area in Kansas chasing severe weather.
The field study will last a total of two weeks, but it didn’t take long after it began before the team got a big surprise.
On their first chase day, May 16, the team saw and had the opportunity to cover a tornado just west of Felt, Oklahoma.
“It was crazy,” Call said. “This my 12th year doing this field study and to have a tornado on our first chase is something really amazing.”
The weather can be hard to predict, and storm chasing is different day by day, but Call said he predicts the students will have a great experience because of the weather patterns of the Great Plains.
“We come out to the Great Plains because the storms are bigger and they tend to be better defined and really textbook with all the things we learn about,” Call said. “Indiana storms tend to be messier and a little less organized, but the ones [in the Great Plains] are more photogenic and more defined. And of course there are more tornadoes out here, too.”
It’s not all about tornadoes, though, he said.
“A lot of times the students before the trip just think about tornadoes but then you realize when you come out here and you actually are chasing the storms, that’s not what it's all about,” Call said. “There are some storms and lightning that are pretty amazing too. There is a lot more out there than just tornadoes. … Mother Nature puts on quite a show for us every day.”
For Ethan Rosuck, a junior meteorology/climatology major, the field study is exciting.
“I work as one of the weather forecasters for NewsLink Indiana, and it’s great to actually see all the weather that I forecast,” Rosuck said. “I get to see what it's all about and where everything originates. This is the most hands-on you can get.”
This is his first time ever storm chasing, and although he said it can be very stressful, Rosuck said the experience is unlike anything he has ever done.
“I don’t know if I will like storm chasing in the future, but regardless, this is going to build my knowledge [of] ... not just weather and how it works, but the process of storm chasing and everything that comes to it as well,” Rosuck said. “I’m having a great time so far and it's just going to get better.”
This is also a first-time storm chase for Hannah Carpenter, a junior meteorology/climatology major.
“This whole experience has been so cool to actually apply everything we have been working on in the classroom to real-world situations,” Carpenter said. “I have been in charge of navigating and communications between the two vehicles as well as watching the radar as a spotter to look for the storms and tornadoes.”
When the team members are not storm chasing, they get the chance to explore.
“I have not been to most states west of Missouri, so it has been amazing to have the opportunity to travel and explore and experience all of the new food and terrain and meet some new people along with the storm chasing,” Carpenter said.
While this experience might help the students get jobs in their fields after graduation, Carpenter said being a part of the field study is more than just a résumé builder.
“When you get into meteorology and storm chasing, you are getting the chance to help prepare for weather and help save lives, and I find that very rewarding,” she said.
The team will be returning to Muncie next week, and a second team will hit the road on June 3.
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