I'm going to the big dance!!!

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Gotta blow my own horn a little bit here...

While the college basketball tourney is over, us weather geeks are just starting up our own tourney. The journey began August of last year and the tournament bracket will be set up sometime in the next 48hrs.

Approximately 2000 students, grads, and professors/PhD holders from schools around the US competed against each other, prediciting high and low temps, highest wind speed, and precipitation amounts during two-week stretches for various cities within the US. 32 of the final 64 received automatic bids, while the remaining 32 spots were determined this past week. I managed to barely get in the 'final 40' (at #33) in my category to compete for one of the final 8 spots to make the tournament field of 64, and as of right now I'm in the #4 spot. It is possible I could drop a few places before the day is over, but I'm locked in the top 8 which means I will continue on.

I am the only person (out of 25) at UNC-A to make it this far! Wish me luck; starting next week, the field of 64 will be cut in half every 2 days until there is a champion.

[lji372]

Good luck!!!

Can you fix out weather up here??

[bill64]

awesome, best of luck to you !!

[WhatsUpDOHC]

Where can I pick you in my bracket?

Good luck if you get the Delaware Valley/Philadelphia area - Forcasters haven't gotten anything right for months:

Call snow, we get sun
Call sun, we get snow.

Good luck!

[Baaad GN]

Good Luck!!!!!!!

[PonyUP]

So what are the predicted upsets, I mean did anyone call for 20 inches of Snow in the dakotas last week? What are the stats of those involved, on the court tendencies. When I gamble, I like to know the info

Good Luck Kyle

[Mebot]

sweet Kyle good luck man!

sent from space

[Roadwarrior]

Good luck Kyle. :beer:

[fastblackmerc]

Good Luck Kyle!

Do the Carolina Marauders proud!!!!!!!!

[martyo]

Very cool!!!

[GAMike]

Good luck the rest of the way Kyle:banana2::rock:

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Thanks everyone.

I think I finished in the #7 spot; hard to tell because the scoring system got jacked up the other day, then it looked like it was fixed yesterday, now its all jacked again...wish they'd fix the damn thing already. It's not that dfficult...just take the high/low temps, highest wind and precip total from the daily climo report and jam those numbers into the scoring system....DUH! Brackets have yet to be set because of this, so I have no idea who I'm going up against in the first round.

On a sidenote, UNC-A finished #7 out of 52, which was best amongst schools in NC (NC State #11, UNC-Charlotte #40, East Carolina #39) and allowed us to retain the 'Tobacco Cup' for another year. I know there's a picture of this trophy somewhere...when I find it I'll post it up. Meteorology powerhouses such as Florida St, Purdue, Ohio St, and Oklahoma finished 42nd or worse. Penn St finished #1, but they have been accused of cheating...no, I'm being serious.

The forecast city for the remainder of the tournament is Wichita, KS. Each round consists of a 2 day forecast and whichever person has the least error points after day 2 goes on to the next round.

Since last August, we have forecasted for the following cities:

Pensacola, FL
Billings, MT
Louisville, KY
Astoria, OR
Syracuse, NY
Austin, TX
Burbank, CA
Newark, NJ
Duluth, MN
Des Moines, IA

Oh yeah, one final thing. All players have to create a screen name that's limited to 6 characters....mine is 03MMSB.

[IwantmyMMnow!]

They finally got the scoring issue fixed....yaaaay....but haven't set the brackets yet...boooo.

I finished in the #6 spot (out of 40) to get in the field of 64.

Also, I was incorrect stating I'm the only one from my school to make it to the final 64...there is one other person; she finished in the #5 spot in her category.

There are 4 categories; Freshman/Sophomore, Junior/Senior, Graduate, & Professor. People from all 4 categories are in the final 64, and with only 2 days per round to forecast for at a time, there's little room for error....you need to be dead-on or you're getting bounced.

I hope to do well, but am happy to make it this far considering after the fall semester last year I was ranked in the high 700s; finished the regular season ranked 481 out of ~2000.

[Haggis]

Prediciting the weather you only need to be right less then 50% of the time. J/K


Good Luck!!!

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Brackets finally set up this morning. I got a #16 seed, going up against a #1 in the first round...a Graduate from Penn St.

Forecast has to be in by 8pm the night before. Below is what my opponent and I submitted (High/Low/Max wind/Precip total) for Wichita tomorrow:

Me--48/41/21/0.15
Opp--51/43/23/0.00

If no rain or very little rain falls tomorrow, I'm in deep doo-doo....:depress:

[IwantmyMMnow!]

No rain today and unless something develops in the next 4 hours, looks like I'll be working with a 7pt deficit heading into tomorrow. Usually that is very hard to overcome in just one day, but looks like lots o' rain for KS tomorrow. I gambled a bit and put in a precip total of 1.75 inches for tomorrow and it may pay off; my opponent forecasted a total of 1 inch. If the actual amount is close to my forecast, it just might be enough to pull out an upset.

C'MON RAIN!!! I WANT BUCKETS AND BUCKETS!!!

[guspech750]

Man. How did I miss this thread. This is some cool **** Kyle. Good luck man.

I predict a sht storm and lots of brown sleet from a high pressure of Slidders.

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Well, my cinderella story is over. My gamble didn't pay off....should've gone the other direction and predicted just a little bit of rain. It was close, though, a large area of heavy rain passed just west of Wichita by 20-30 miles...that was my gully-washer I was hoping for. Some rainfall reports west and northwest of Wichita were in the 1.5 - 2" range.

I'll get 'em next year...

[guspech750]

I predict you will do this next year.


Sent from my iPhone 4S

DTR + 4.10's + Eaton swap = Wreeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom

[Haggis]

Well, my cinderella story is over. My gamble didn't pay off....should've gone the other direction and predicted just a little bit of rain. It was close, though, a large area of heavy rain passed just west of Wichita by 20-30 miles...that was my gully-washer I was hoping for. Some rainfall reports west and northwest of Wichita were in the 1.5 - 2" range.

I'll get 'em next year...

You turned into a pumpkin. You suck. :stupid:

[Mebot]

sorry to hear Kyle. I think you should request an investigation into the Penn State person... I hear PSU cheats a lot

sent from space

[Haggis]

sorry to hear Kyle. I think you should request an investigation into the Penn State person... I hear PSU cheats a lot

sent from space

He was probably molested, Kyle not the Penn St. Dude.

[IwantmyMMnow!]

sorry to hear Kyle. I think you should request an investigation into the Penn State person... I hear PSU cheats a lot

sent from space

Ironcially, they were accused of cheating in the contest this year. They have 21 people in the competition and 18 made the tournament, 15 of those with automatic bids. People that are in the contest are not supposed to collaborate with others when determining their forecast. It was also noted that individuals at PSU who were doing poorly either dropped out of the competition after the fall semester or forecasted bad on purpose so that their scores wouldn't be counted (if you have a cumulative score of 10 or higher, it does not get included with your school's overall score).

I think in 2008 or 09 Mississippi State was accused of cheating when they won the challenge...turns out they were and got busted for it.

It's not difficult to 'cheat' because of the way the scoring system is set up and each school is supposed to be on the 'honor' system (no collaboration)...I guess some schools/people may put more emphasis on winning this competition (that doesn't carry any weight in real life) than others.

[L.Mark]

Here's wishing all their cars gets hailed on...;)