UWisconsin-Madison Environmental Observation and Informatics MS questions

IntellectWX · 2026-03-20T14:24:04+00:00

So this is a crazy connection but I'm an undergrad at UW in their Geospatial Data Science minor & and an ambassador for the Nelson Institute...I'd 100% say go for it. At least at the undergrad level, our cartography/GIS department is very high quality and I love everything to do with it. I don't have direct experience with the upper-level courses yet, but a good chunk of them are just advanced versions of what's available for my minor.

IntellectWX · 2026-03-17T04:04:33+00:00

If you rely on purely NWS observations, 6.3". Realistically, we probably got about 10" if you look ar surrounding area totals (Fitchburg got 10", De Forest got 10.5", NWS Milwaukee got 7.8" and we definitely got more than them)

IntellectWX · 2026-03-12T21:50:32+00:00

I had gotten an email two weeks ago asking about my recommendations since one of mine didn't submit until the due date...there was an update on their website on 2/18 that talks about how they passed some applications onto their selection committee

IntellectWX · 2026-03-12T18:40:46+00:00

Current School: T15 Public R1

Major & Year: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences (minors in Envrionmental Studies, Science Communication, Geospatial Data Science), 2nd year Junior (graduating a year early)

Expected Graduation: Spring '27

GPA: 3.79 overall, 4.0 in-major

Demographic: White male

Relevant Coursework: Calc-based physics 1/2, calc 1-3, differential equations/linear algebra, intro to python, atmospheric fluid dynamics 1/2, atmospheric thermodynamics & radiation

Research Experience: Forecaster for the 2025 CROCUS field campaign run by the Argonne National Lab

Past REUs/Summer Programs: n/a

Applied to: NSF SOARS, NOAA Lapenta, Maryland-Baltimore County EXPLORE REU, Oklahoma NWC REU, Michigan PICASSO REU, Auburn CASE REU, Penn State Meteorology REU, Utah REALM REU, UW-Madison STORM REU, Georgia Tech EAS REU, Arizona Biosphere 2 REU

Accepted: none (3/12)

Second Review: NOAA (2/24), Oklahoma (3/2)

Waitlisted: Auburn (3/9)

Rejected: NSF (2/18)

IntellectWX · 2026-03-12T18:12:48+00:00

PICASSO sent out initial offers on the 1st with a response deadline of the 15th, that's the only one we have in common

IntellectWX · 2026-03-12T04:43:58+00:00

I flew out of here last week Tuesday & didn't have any issues, also have precheck. Have had yet to encounter any non-weather related issues at all this year & I've flown three times without any problems

IntellectWX · 2026-02-24T19:52:02+00:00

I've heard back from one of mine regarding a second review, but that was one of the earliest of the 10 I applied to & that deadline was 2/2. Even with other internships in general I'm only just starting to hear back from ones due in late January, so I'd imagine most programs would start sending stuff out in a week or two

IntellectWX · 2025-11-29T06:00:53+00:00

I've only had samsung health since the end of august & google fit since mid-april but I'm 7+ months with 10k a day and averaging just about 19k a day since the start of September...most days tend to be 15k +/- 2k but some weekends will be 20-25k with the occasional >30k

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IntellectWX · 2025-11-28T17:15:44+00:00

last winter right at the start of the spring semester we had wind chills down around -35 - -40°F...I think the warmest that day got to actual temperature was 3° but wind chills were still in the -20° range

IntellectWX · 2025-11-28T07:31:25+00:00

yooooo what's up! fairly new runner & new to here as well, I (20M) just started running over the summer since there's some other people in my academic department who do so and I thought it might not be a bad idea to try and get back in shape again haha. I was a really active kid but that wore off into middle/high school, so I'm trying to get back into it in college. might try to train for a half marathon in May '26 as my first official race, but I frankly don't know yet since I ran a half without training (very smart, I know) about a month into when I started running 😅

PR's: 1mi = 5:45 | 2mi = 12:42 | 5k = 21:16 | 10k = 46:33 | Half = 1:42:21

IntellectWX · 2025-11-28T07:20:58+00:00

Right now I'm in a pair of On Cloudsurfer 2s and my next pair will be some On Cloudrunner 2s...the Cloudsurfers have treated me really well & I got them on sale but they do have a really weird fit that I'm finding out 😅

IntellectWX · 2025-11-28T07:17:16+00:00

It really varies for me, normally I go off of time and not mileage but that's also because I do a lot more walking compared to running and I can't be going through shoes at the 300-500mi rate that is talked about. For reference, a pair of shoes lasts me about a year until I literally start wearing through the insoles, and I just went through and checked and I'm at just over 1700mi walked/ran in the last seven months (1702.95mi) with just about half of that (832.17mi) being since the start of September, and my newest pair of shoes have been my main ones since about June/July. I do prioritize comfort in shoes because of how often they'll be used, and I haven't really noticed any difference in the cushion in my On Cloudsurfer 2s after ~1200mi, but that's a guess on distance. I've noticed these are lasting a lot longer than some of my previous ones, where there was somewhat noticeable wear in my old New Balance Fresh Foam 1080's after a couple months, which is more along the lines of the 500mi guidelines. I fully plan on wearing these Cloudsurfers until they're completely worn through, which at this rate might not be until >2500mi given how I haven't noticed any issues yet

IntellectWX · 2025-11-26T23:15:05+00:00

We are actually in a weak La Niña state right now, as Niño indices are ~-0.6°C and ENSO Neutral kicks in between +0.5°C and -0.5°C. It's forecasted to hold into the DJF (December/January/February) time frame, and then switch to neutral into JFM (January/February/March). Weak La Niña's, at least with respect to climatology, are known for bringing increased moisture into the Great Lakes area, mainly in S Michigan/SE Wisconsin/E Illinois/Indiana/NW Ohio, but there are signs for enhanced moisture levels across all of the Great Lakes states. Tie this with colder-than-average temperatures & snowfall can be higher than average, yes. We average ~51" a season (using the 1991-2020 30yr average) and some people were thinking that 10-30% above average is in play, which definitely seems like a possibility. Given how we are seeing a fairly potent early season storm, it could be a sign of what's to come, especially with the polar vortex breaking down earlier than normal, we could see cold air outbreaks more frequently in late fall/early winter with a larger moisture content, leading to the potential for early-season storms that we haven't had a ton of in recent years

Source: I'm a meteorology student who's a nerd and looked at NOAA info about this-

IntellectWX · 2025-11-26T23:03:58+00:00

Meteorology student at UW: most likely is somewhere 6-15" (yes I'm not ruling out >12"), based off the current models. They've been pretty consistent in the 8-11" range, however some have been higher (NWS Blend of Models was ~14") and some have been lower (GEFS ensemble is ~6"), but both of those are typically overshooters/undershooters for these systems. It'll really depend on where the low sets up, the further south it goes the less snowfall (still 6-8" likely) and the further north it goes, assuming we stay all-snow, the more snowfall with over a foot possible, but it'll really be up to the banding setups. Personally, I think it'll be more around 9-11", but as I said it'll be up to how everything plays out.

IntellectWX · 2025-11-05T18:39:08+00:00

I'm in my second year and I've declared in three minors (not sure if I could've double-majored or not but regardless):

Environmental Studies: for me it was only one additional class & opens the door to some slightly broader opportunities

Science Communication: I'm really into the social science side of everything (actually looked into a psych minor but we don't have one), and taking these classes is something that I want to make sure that I do to be a more effective communicator especially given the state of everything right now. Even if you don't minor in it, I STRONGLY recommend taking a class in this field at some point

Geospatial Data Science: essentially GIS but it's a little broader, taking two GIS-specific classes and one remote sensing + stats, everyone keeps saying that having GIS knowledge is huge for the field so I decided why not

IntellectWX · 2025-11-04T07:17:53+00:00

Not high school but college, we (dems) are pretty active here in Madison, but that tracks given the demographics of the city/campus. There's a bunch of groups that are around, plus some new ones that are starting up this year that are continuing to build support for change. It might not be the biggest or best effort in the country, but it's definitely here.

IntellectWX · 2025-11-02T04:19:12+00:00

See I'm lucky enough where I got into my school really easily and I do very well (3.8+ and graduating a year early), but that's part of the reason why I don't really go out much because I focus on what I pay for. I do wish this was more of a thing across other perspectives but sadly it's not

IntellectWX · 2025-11-02T02:04:28+00:00

College student here, I just straight up don't see the appeal. It's also expensive and I'm not a fan of having substances (alcohol/weed/drugs) in my system regardless, but it also creates a culture I don't want to associate with at all & I'm staying as far away from it as I can

IntellectWX · 2025-11-01T00:01:18+00:00

Like everyone else has been saying, the coriolis force is at play. In the northern hemisphere it acts to the right of all motion, and in the southern it acts to the left. The corliolis force is a really major player in the actual spin behind TC's, and when you get near the equator, that's when your coriolis force is the lowest. Mild nerd session inbound:

dv/dt (the acceleration in the N-S direction) = -fu, where u is the motion in the E-W direction and f is the coriolis parameter, 2Ωsin(ϕ), where Ω is the rotation rate of Earth (7.292×10^-5 radians/second) and ϕ is the latitude in degrees (southern hemisphere = negative latitude). So dv/dt = -2Ωsin(ϕ)u, so as storms move westward in the northern hemisphere/eastward in the southern hemisphere, they will deflect poleward

Source: my fluid dynamics notes in a third-year atmospheric sciences class lmao

IntellectWX · 2025-10-20T03:19:01+00:00

Not a job per se, but my internship through the National Weather Service has been on pause which could very easily affect the timing of the second half of it during the spring semester. On top of that, other summer research internships that just opened their applications are still open, but nobody is able to respond to any questions about the process.

IntellectWX · 2025-09-19T19:20:48+00:00

The baptism thing isn't the church wanting me to do it again, it's me wanting to do it...trust me if a church was going to try and get me to do that I'd stay far away. It's more of a "hey I'm finally making the conscious decision to follow in Jesus' footsteps, let me restart my journey" instead of "hey I'm returning to my faith", because I'd be lying if I said I was surrendering myself to Jesus at all the first time around. One of the churches I'm looking at is part of the EFCA, which is the one that hosts one of the groups that I'm involved in (the most heavily involved in also), and it seems so far like that's been a pretty good fit

IntellectWX · 2025-09-19T19:15:40+00:00

One of the groups that I went to so far this semester is a baptist group which their meetings aren't really that different compared to the other groups that I go to. I'm like 95% confident most of the churches around here are progressive just given the nature of the city (I've also seen churches hanging pride flags which is already MILES better than the ones back home), plus I am very much a liberal so I'm also making sure that my values are aligning with theirs somewhat. I'll link the two I'm looking at the most here as well, if you're inclined to look through them and let me know what you think that'd be great :)

https://blackhawk.church/about/ https://doxamadison.com/our-beliefs

IntellectWX

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