The U of T Physics team consisted of graduate students Melanie Cooke (team manager), Russell Blackport, Oliver Watt-Meyer, Stephanie Hay, Xuesong Zhang, and Robert Fajber, and postdoctoral fellow Neil Tandon. Our team competed with weather forecasters from colleges and universities across Canada and the U.S. in this annual competition with around 2000 participants. Russell Blackport won the Overall Individual Champion and our team took 2 ^nd place – a stunning achievement!

Participants in the WxChallenge spend 20 weeks predicting high and low temperatures, maximum sustained wind speed, and total precipitation from select locations across the United States. Scoring of forecasts is done by assessing forecast accuracy compared to verified meteorological measurements.

Our team members will also get individual trophies for the following cities this year:

Russell Blackport: Wilmington, NC -  Category 2 (graduate students) Winner; Abilene, TX - Category 2

Runner-Up; Long Beach, CA – Category 2 Runner-Up

Stephanie Hay: Springfield, IL – Category 2 Runner-Up

Xuesong Zhang: Laramie, WY – Category 2 Runner-Up