Weather watch at choir school

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Photo courtesy of Madeleine Choir School

SALT LAKE CITY — The Madeleine Choir School students participated in revolutionary science this November. The students were the beneficiaries of a visit from the Doppler on Wheels, which was temporarily provided to the University of Utah by The Center for Severe Weather Research, a nonprofit based in Boulder, Colo. The truck-mounted radar, called DOW, was provided to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences for several weeks. About a half-dozen schools received visits from the rig and Professor Jim Steenburgh, who was interested in getting students excited about atmospheric science.

The rig, one of three traveling the nation, is designed for measuring tornadoes. However, Dr. Steenburgh and graduate students Christy Wall and Jon Zawislak were using the rig to measure lake-effect snow. While radar measures a storm in only the horizontal plane, the DOW is oriented in both the horizontal and vertical fields. This allows Steenburgh’s team to accurately measure rain and snow particles.

The Madeleine Choir School students were allowed to access the cabin of the rig, watch storms on the various monitors, and ask questions of Dr. Steenburgh and the graduate students about meteorology and atmospheric science. "It was a terrific opportunity for our students to have this hands-on experience with a very special scientific tool," said Choir School Principal Jill Baillie.