And Here’s What’s Happening in Your Neck of the Woods
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Cornell students hoping to become the next Al Roker have the option of majoring in Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. However, not all students majoring in AS, Cornell’s term for meteorology according to Cathy Radonic ’08, dream of becoming weathermen. Some AS majors hope to become storm chasers or weather forecasters, while others will go on to research issues such as global warming.
Since there are only about 15 people in each year, AS students become very close-knit. Pat Meyers ’08 said, “It’s not very competitive within the major. Everyone helps each other out.”
Radonic agreed saying, “If one kid is good at programming, he’ll help us out, and then the other kid who’s good at forecasting will help whoever needs help with that.”
AS majors also have the occasional unique assignment. In an introductory class in meterology, students learn to analyze maps and can often be seen drawing with colored pencils for homework. Other projects involve measuring the radius of raindrops and observing the percentage of the sky that is covered in clouds from the top of Bradfield Hall, the location of many AS classes.
What unites all AS majors is their love of weather. Meyers said, “We’re all weather dorks. Once during a storm we all climbed onto the roof of Bradfield Hall to watch the storm approach for 45 minutes because you can see all the way to Cayuga Lake. But we weren’t sitting there analyzing the storm from an academic point. Really, we were just excited by the lightning.”