Jeral Estupinan
Summer2008 WAS*IS

I am the Science and Operations Officer (SOO) at the Brownsville Weather Forecast Office. I love this job since I love science and teaching. As the SOO, I ensure that the forecast staff of our office uses the best of science in our forecast operations. Prior to my present job, I worked at the Weather Channel behind the scenes working with weather forecasters and developers with the goal of improving the accuracy of the forecasts. My background is diverse and also multicultural. I am originally from the Canary Islands, Spain. I came to the United States to initiate my education in Meteorology. I have always being interested in research and meteorological operations. I initiated my education in Meteorology in North Carolina State University where I completed my B.S. and M.S. in Meteorology. At this time I also had the opportunity to work for the Environmental Protection Agency studying the effects of clouds and haze on solar UV radiation. I continued my education in Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology where I completed my Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences. During this time I worked at the Weather Channel doing forecast verification and researching the best forecast techniques for the Weather Channel forecasters through the development of real-time verification tools. While at the Weather Channel I became very interested trying to understand how the general public consumes weather information (terminology, accuracy, warnings, watches, etc). The combination of living in Brownsville and WAS*IS provides the unique opportunity to study the cultural differences that exist in the consumption of weather information between Spanish speakers and English speakers at the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas. I am interested in attending WAS*IS because of its multidisciplinary goals in understanding the relationships between societies and weather.
View my CV --> SOI