Walker's 'weather weenies' wait for winter's worst

This week, students and professors on the sixth floor of Walker Building were getting excited. And when they are excited, it's time for the rest of State College to get nervous.

There, in the observatory of the University's meteorology department, such excitement can only mean one thing -- a storm is brewing. As the weather patterns develop, both the students and faculty of the nation's premier undergraduate meteorology department watch with anticipation.

"They're the happiest when the weather is bad," said Dennis Thomson, professor of meteorology and head of the department.

Perhaps nobody in the country is better informed on what the weather will be than those in Walker Building -- "weather weenies" -- as they are affectionately called. Not only is it the largest meteorology department in the nation, but also the most renowned for its undergraduate program, Thomson said.

"The department is both loved and hated," Thomson said.

Because its strong reputation attracts so many undergraduates, he said, "it's been referred to as the meteorological Mafia."

The department's world-renowned faculty, combined with a strong reputation and high-tech facilities, make the observatory one of the nation's premier weather prediction outposts.

Along one wall, under a pair of clocks that keep the local time and Greenwich Mean Time, more than 50 United States maps illustrate the latest weather patterns. Each day, four instructors huddle around them to predict the forecast for the New York Times' daily weather page.

Unfortunately for the weather weenies, but fortunately for most of State College, this weekend's potential storm may not hit the area at full force.

"It kind of depresses me," said Bill Syrett, manager of the observatory. He has been keeping an eye on one short-term computer simulation that shows the storm missing State College. "I hope it changes its mind," he said.

Such an attitude is commonplace in the department. Syrett said many of the undergraduates who come to the University have been weather aficionados all their lives.

"I've loved the weather ever since I was a kid," said Adam Breo (junior-meteorology).

The last time snow fell in State College during winter break, Breo said he came back to the University to watch it develop from the observatory. And if a storm hits this weekend, he said he will be here, with a group of at least 30 other students.

"We'll be here until 2 or 3 in the morning," he said.

The student volunteers gain experience by predicting the weather for radio and television stations across the state. While some graduates have gone on to become weather forecasters, many others have entered areas such as studying climate changes or advising various industries or the military.

About 25 percent of all professional meteorologists went to the University, Thomson estimates. And that number seems to be growing -- the incoming class of meteorologists is about twice the size of the class that graduated last May, Thomson said.

Many undergraduates find the University to be the only place they can find others who share their obsession, Syrett said. Syrett, who talks to many of those prospective "weather weenies" with their parents before they decide to enroll, said one question he always asks is whether they got excited about bad weather as children.

"Their parents just laugh," he said.