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Top forecaster
Jeremy Grams says he has a knack for predicting the weather.
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Jeremy Grams can't remember a time when he wasn't fascinated with the
weather.
"My mom says when I was six years old I was always watching the weather,"
Grams, a senior meteorology major from North Branch, Minn., says. "I
guess I've always wanted to be a weather forecaster."
Grams is well on his way to making that a reality. Since he began attending
Iowa State, Grams has competed in the National Collegiate Weather Forecasting
Contest.
As a freshman, he finished second in the freshman/sophomore division.
Grams improved the following year, winning his division.
This past year, Grams finished first in the upper division, beating out
more than 1,000 forecasters, including faculty, graduate and undergraduate
students from 38 schools across the U.S. Participants forecast temperatures
and precipitation amounts for selected cities across the country from
September through April.
"After doing so well my first two years, my goal was to win it all
last year," Grams said. "I had a big lead most of the year and
I was just trying to hold onto it at the end."
Participants in the contest, which is supported by the American Meteorological
Society and AccuWeather and organized by Pennsylvania State University,
submit forecasts for eight cities throughout the year. Grams and the other
students forecast the high, low and precipitation amounts Monday through
Thursday (midnight to midnight) for two weeks for each city.
Results are posted for each city. Grams says since he has participated
in the competition, he has finished first in four different cities, including
Milwaukee, Wis., this past year. He also won the competitions in previous
years for Duluth, Minn.; Quillayute, Wash.; and Caribou, Maine.
"Since I'm from Minnesota, I think I have a better handle on the
temperatures in the northern cities than those who are competing and live
in the south," Grams said.
Forecasts are sought from 13 cities during each contest. Participants
can pick and choose the eight cities they wish to forecast for.
Because he lives in Minnesota, Grams says he concentrates on northern
cities, rather than those in the south.
"Most days I'm within two or three degrees of the actual temperature,"
Grams said. "There have been a couple times that I;ve been perfect.
"The goal is to be as accurate as you can be."
To make his predictions, Grams looks at web sites and computer models.
But he says he has always had a knack when it comes to predicting the
weather.
"For some reason the weather makes sense to me and I can tell what's
going to happen," he said.
That ability has made him a popular person.
"I get asked to forecast the weather by friends and relatives,"
he said, "especially if they are planning on doing something outside."
Around LAS
October 7-20, 2002
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