Potential Forecast Contest in the Works - Looking for feedback on Interest

[tornadojay]

Hello my fellow NYC Metro gang. I wanted to start this discussion here in this subforum and see what kind of interest there is first before potentially spreading word any further.

As some of you may or may not know from past posts, I have been working in I.T. for quite some time and had worked on web application development many years back. Though I did work as an operational forecaster for a short time, my passion for weather has never gone away.

Back when I was a student at SUNY Albany, we had a department-run forecast contest every semester to go along with our schools participation in the National Weather Challenge, which I'm sure many of you know about. This fall, I decided to try to devote some time to playing Albany's contest again and it's been a very enjoyable experience.

Over the last couple of days, I had an idea. I've seen some forecast contests run locally on the boards and I'm sure a lot of folks on the boards play in the Weather challenge, however, I thought it would be nice to get a formal contest where we can get a lot of young enthusiasts involved as well, who may be thinking of majoring in Meteorology and want to work on their forecasting skills. So, I was thinking of possibly designing and developing a forecast contest on my personal website... then I decided to take the idea even a little further.....

I decided to run the idea by an Atmospheric Science faculty member at UAlbany to see if there might be a potential partnership that could be established where they would sponsor the forecast contest I would potentially build and be willing to fund a prize to the winner. The response I got was very positive and they have asked me to keep them in loop on ideas and my progress... and although not a guarentee.. I have been told that a sponsorship was a real possibility.

As far as the format of the contest.. that is TBD.. Utlizing a similar format to that at UAlbany is one possibility, but there are others. The idea is to make it fun, challenging, and addicting, where you'll want to put in time and effort to try to make the very best forecasts you can.

I just wanted to get some feedback from folks here first. If this idea came to fruition and becomes real, would you be interested in participating?? There would not be a fee to participate. Myself... I wouldn't be playing, but would be hosting and administrating.. and of course, if the partnership were to work out, there would be a prize incentive to participate.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks all!

[Dark Energy]

Sounds cool. I would be all for it. I did the wx challenge when I was in college and did pretty good. Keep us posted man!

[tornadojay]

Sounds cool. I would be all for it.  I did the wx challenge when I was in college and did pretty good.  Keep us posted man!

Cool! thanks for your reply.. Definitely will keep you posted

[tornadojay]

Bumpity bump!! No interests??? Do I need to offer a 20 dollar dunkin donut gift card as an incentive??? It wouldn't take up too much of your time.. I'm thinking something just once a week...

[Scotty Lightning]

I'd be interested. I loved the WxChallenge in high school because a)I was great at forecasting and b ) I had a funny username.