Water, Water Everywhere for Meteorology Graduate

Oswego weather is one of the things meteorology major Matthew Kelsch ’83 appreciated most as an undergraduate.

By diving head first into his program at Oswego, Kelsch says he discovered exactly what he wanted to do with his future.

He is a hydrometeorologist in the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, or UCAR’s, cooperative program for operational meteorology, education and training. The program, known as COMET, offers courses and computer-based learning to professional meteorologists and students.

Kelsch spends a lot of time developing training materials for professionals in the natural sciences. As a hydrometeorologist, his expertise is in water related weather events such as floods, droughts and precipitation. One of his tasks is to take measurements of precipitation and temperature for the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colo. He also takes the measurements for the Boulder Daily Camera, whose reporters often interview him for stories about drought or snowfall. He was widely quoted during Boulder’s record-breaking flood in September 2013.

“Given that I have worked on these issues for nearly 20 years, it was very interesting to see it happen in my backyard,” Kelsch says. Most of the floods he studies are in various far-flung places throughout the world.

As a coordinator for the Colorado Climate Center’s Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow study, known as CoCoRaHs, Kelsch also trains volunteers from the community to take measurements of rain, hail and snow throughout the state to help gather data for research purposes. Kelsch said Oswego’s meteorology program enhanced by Oswego’s weather, was the perfect launching pad for his career.

—Brittany Hoffmann ’14

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