Photo by John Cross
Mark Seeley, a weather guru known statewide, stopped by the WALTER weather lab at Minnesota State University Wednesday. He toured the lab, met a handful of graduate students who work there and told weather buffs and reporters about the highlights of his new book on Minnesota weather.
MANKATO — There's nothing quite as Minnesotan as shooting the breeze about ... well, the breeze, really.
And the rain. And snow and sleet and hail and sunshine and other atmospheric goings-on. Wednesday morning at Minnesota State University's WALTER Weather Lab, there was a whole lot of weather talking going on. And with a Minnesota weather celebrity, no less.
Weather guru, author and radio personality Mark Seeley visited MSU's impressive weather lab Wednesday morning. He met several ambitious students, talked about his recently published book on Minnesota's climate and got an up-close look at a storm-chasing car partially funded by MSU.
Seeley's visit, while ostensibly set up to give Seeley a chance to talk about his book, turned out to be more of a chance for MSU to show off its facilities.
At one point, after Seeley had seen the car, been treated to the basics of the department's Radon Project and given a peek at the forecasting equipment, Seeley, who appears regularly on Minnesota Public Radio, turned to WALTER founder Cecil Keen and said, "Has public radio done a story on this place?"
"Not yet," says Keen.
"They're going to," says Seeley, and promises to mention to his people at MPR how interesting a scene it is at WALTER.
Seeley was intrigued by graduate student Elizabeth Sedgwick's work with the Radon Project, an ongoing endeavor that aims to give people a way to determine whether they have high levels of the cancer-causing gas in their homes and how to get rid of it.
Graduating senior James McGrath clicked through the lab's series of satellite images, lightning-strike monitors, forecasting maps and dozens of other forecasting tools. He also showed Seeley a flight simulator.
And Joshua Jans, who has made a name for himself as a storm chaser, showed Seeley the custom-built storm-chasing car he says contains more electrical power than the most souped-up stereo on campus.
Jans began his storm chasing days with a smaller, red car. But after a stop-sign runner totaled it, he upgraded to a Ford Taurus. He sought help from the automotive engineering students, who installed flashing strobes, an insanely tightly mounted rack for the roof-riding gadgets that measure wind speed, barometric pressure and other elements crucial to keeping tabs on severe weather.
Seeley hopped in and checked out the interior, complete with a laptop computer tapped into the latest in satellite weather tracking.
"It's a terrific facility," he said. "Being from the University of Minnesota, we don't have any analogy. I'm envious ... This surpasses St. Cloud State."
Seeley's book, "Minnesota Weather Almanac," was published by the Minnesota Historical Society, and is available in most bookstores and at Amazon.com.
Email this article | Permanent link | Topstories news | Topstories news archives
Minnesota State
University, Mankato
Mankato, MN 56001
1-800-722-0544
© 2005-2013 Minnesota State University, Mankato. Minnesota State University, Mankato is a member of
Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system and an affirmative action/equal opportunity university.
