Meteorology

About Us

The Meteorology program is housed in the Earth and Atmospheric Science Department at the Metropolitan State University of Denver located on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.  Our program offers a meteorology major and minor as well as a new Climate Change Minor.  The meteorology program is unique in Colorado in that the Professional Meteorology concentration fulfills all the U.S. federal government civil service requirements for classification as a meteorologist and the American Meteorological Society‘s recommendations for undergraduate meteorology programs.  We are excited to announce that Meteorology students can now choose an Applied Meteorology concentration that has more flexibility and does not require a math minor, but any minor on campus.

Why MSU Denver?

MSU Denver students have the advantage of the following opportunities:

• Enjoy attending classes on a vibrant and diverse downtown campus.
• Benefit from small classes and individual interaction with faculty.
• Learn from a professional, diverse faculty with real-world experience.
• Access real-time weather data and analysis software in our lab.
• Intern with various organizations, and jump-start a successful career.
• Join our active student chapter of the American Meteorological Society.

Remodeled Meteorology Lab

The Meteorology program is located in the Science building on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, just a bus or light rail ride to the surrounding suburbs and towns.  The MSU Denver Meteorology computer laboratory is a state-of-the-art computer lab with a giant 11-monitor weather wall that displays the current weather and forecasts using the same software as the National Weather Service.  Students use the lab to create weather visualizations for analysis.  The lab was remodeled in 2021 to include widescreen curved monitors, fast computers, new desks and chairs.  Alumni weather art is featured on the walls.

Colorado Weather and Field Courses

Located on Colorado’s high plains, the MSU Denver campus offers you the opportunity to observe Colorado’s extreme weather patterns first-hand. From severe weather to heavy snowfalls and blizzards to Chinook wind events, the Front Range is a fascinating place to study the weather and climate.

Watch:  Taken by Storm

Location, Location, Location!

Beyond the exciting Colorado weather, we are also located in close proximity to some of the largest concentrations of atmospheric scientists in the world at national labs such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service (NWS), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). This gives you the opportunity to begin working with world-renowned professionals through internships, part-time jobs and summer experiences.  This also means our part-time faculty are drawn from this community.

Meteorology Student Club

The Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society goes to the national AMS meeting each year, tours the national labs, helps at the local news stations for holiday forecast hotlines, hosted an eclipse booth, and more.  The more senior students help other students with their coursework and the club helps build a sense of community.

AMS 100 year anniversary in Boston in 2020, Dr. Ng took a large group of students

Alumni at Work

Meteorology Mission

The mission of the meteorology program is to provide students with an understanding of the chaotic atmosphere.  Meteorology is an applied science that combines the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science into an application of understanding the atmosphere.  The program exposes students to all of these disciplines, while in parallel applying these hard science concepts to mesoscale, synoptic, and global scale phenomena.  Students will be prepared for careers in a wide range of atmospheric science vocations, as well as further studies in graduate school.  Students will be prepared to communicate forecasts verbally and in written form using their own imagery, explain the reasoning for the forecast as well as the uncertainty and the reasons for uncertainty involved to a wide range of audiences.

Upon completion of this program, students will be able to:

1. Describe the general characteristics of the atmosphere, including physical processes and weather systems.
2. Select and interpret appropriate weather and climate data, including in-situ and remotely sensed information, for different situations.
3. Synthesize multiple types of weather and climate data to formulate short, medium, and long-range weather forecasts.
4. Organize, analyze, and prepare written scientific reports.
5. Create and deliver scientific presentations using multimedia techniques.
6. Apply mathematical and statistical techniques to the analysis and interpretation of atmospheric dynamics, thermodynamics, and radiation processes.
7. Apply scientific computing skills using appropriate software and structured programming.

Meteorology Faculty

The meteorology faculty at MSU Denver have complementary expertise, but all have one thing in common, they love teaching!  The program has three full time professors (below) and several part-time professors including Chris Spears, the weatherman on Denver’s CBS; Dr. Scott Landolt, an NCAR researcher with instrumentation expertise; Mike Chapman, a forecast expert with experience in the public and private sector; and Bob Glancy, former NWS-Boulder forecaster.  Because of our proximity to several national labs and some of the highest density of meteorologists on the planet, there is never a shortage of excellent professors.  Our class sizes are manageable at MSU Denver and you’ll find yourself in classes of 32 or less, ensuring the faculty can work more closely with you, removing the anonymity you might feel in introductory courses at other types of universities.

Sam Ng, Ph.D.

Professor Sam Ng teaches a fieldwork course called Observations of Severe Weather and is an expert on weather forecasting, winter weather, convective storms and Mesoscale meteorology.

Keah Schuenemann, Ph.D.

Professor Keah Schuenemann teaches about the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, large scale weather systems like mid-latitude cyclones, and climate change. Her climate research includes the large-scale weather pattern climatology of Greenland and changing weather patterns due to a warming climate.

Rich Wagner, Ph.D.

Professor Rich Wagner is a MSU Denver President’s Award-winner and has been deeply involved in MSU Denver life and in promoting Meteorology to students who lack access or are unfamiliar with opportunities in the field. He is active in the community promoting sustainability and K-12 science education.