Machine learning meets mesocyclones: Ian Shank’s summer of storms

Meteorology senior Ian Shank was featured in this week’s Niner Insider Story about his summer internship in Norman Oklahoma. A piece of the article is linked below, but for the full article click on this link.

Ian Shank, a senior meteorology student, was driving a packed car to Norman, Oklahoma, to be a student researcher at the National Weather Center for the summer, when the skies above him started to darken. 

Shank and his mother were on one of the final legs of their journey when a moderate risk for severe weather was issued in Arkansas. 

After trying to outrun the storm, they stopped in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on the border of Oklahoma. However, the hotel they planned to stay at lost power, forcing them to wait in a nearby diner. Suddenly, they were surrounded by massive storm clouds.

“My meteorology senses were tingling,” Shank said. 

Suddenly, nearby phones started going off — a tornado warning had been issued. As the storm grew, Shank worried the diner would lose its roof or softball-sized hail would dent his car. 

“Oh, so this is what the next three months are gonna be like,” thought Shank, as he and his mother huddled with other diner patrons in the women’s bathroom. 

From his studies, he knew the space offered safety, but he didn’t feel the need to share that information in such an overwhelming moment.

“I knew that after the squall line and the leading edge came through, we were safe because there was no warm air to help produce a tornado or cause tornadogenesis,” Shank recalled of the storm. 

However, his mother took the opportunity to tell the others what her son studied and where he was headed. Reluctantly, Shank explained how the group was scientifically safe, there, inside a women’s bathroom, in Arkansas.

For the full story, click this link.