Date: 04/24/2006

For the first time, San Jos?? State University's Department of Meteorology's senior forecasting team has won the top award in the National Collegiate Weather Contest, reports Alison F. C. Bridger, chair of the department. The five-member SJSU team, which also achieved an individual title and the coveted Top Five Forecasters award, competed against long-time nemesis MIT and other teams with up to as many as 40 forecasters each. SJSU student forecaster Massoud Fazal won the overall individual title of National Forecasting Champion out of 1,066 contestants. Mike Voss, meteorology instructor, says, "Our program has been working toward this goal for eight years. What this team has achieved is really amazing. To my knowledge, this is the single best season of forecasting ever completed by any team in the 20-year history of the NCWFC. No team has ever swept the team title, the top individual and the top five forecasters title in the same year. We are certainly proud of our tradition of forecasting excellence, and this year has really solidified our national reputation." SJSU has the only Department of Meteorology in the entire CSU system. For more, see http://www.met.sjsu.edu/victory.html.