Splitt Wins Twice at WxChallenge

Michael Splitt, assistant professor of meteorology in the College of Aeronautics, won two awards at the spring WxChallenge, the North American collegiate weather forecasting competition.

In the Challenge, top faculty and student meteorologists forecast the maximum and minimum temperatures and precipitation and maximum wind speeds for select U.S. cities. Over a 10-week period, they compete against one another for honors as the top weather forecaster in North America.

Splitt won a Tournament Final Four award for his Wichita Falls, Texas, forecasting, and a Runner Up award in the Faculty/Staff category for his forecasting of Baltimore, Maryland’s conditions.

Scoring of forecasts is done by assessing error points based on the degree of accuracy between the forecasts and the verified meteorological measurements.

The web-based, online competition was hatched in 2005 by a faculty member at University of Oklahoma. The first WxChallenge began official operation in the fall of 2006 with 55 participating universities, 41
classrooms and nearly 1,600 participants. Currently, the WxChallenge has been used at over 150 universities, in 175 classrooms, and by over 14,000 participants.