On Campus Blog

St. Cloud meteorology students' new toy

MPR's Ambar Espinoza has this piece on St. Cloud State University meteorology students getting a rare opportunity to use a $1 million "Doppler on Wheels" radar unit.

The Center for Severe Weather Research, with help from the National Science Foundation, makes it available free to small universities that don't have their own radar facilities.

As you can see just by looking outside, there's not much storm action to monitor. But that hasn't put off the students, who are monitoring other things. Junior Leandro Ribeiro tells Espinoza:

"We happen to be in the right class at the right time. Not all of the meteorology students get to have this same experience and training that we're getting here."

The device went to two universities last year for the first time. This year, it's visiting St. Cloud State and four other schools.

You can read the full report here.