It was a beautiful day for a team of six San José State University meteorology students when they learned that they came in second in the nation in the National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Contest, sponsored annually at Penn State University. Out of 29 college teams participating in the 10-month project, only the University of Missouri at Columbia did better at accurately predicting the weather for two weeks for a series of designated U.S. cities.

Led by assistant meteorology professor Scot Rafkin, the first-ever SJSU team included Ken Craig, Yuri Faber, Michael Krch, Matt Haughlan, John Snyder, and Mike Voss. "Since many of our graduates go into weather forecasting," says Rafkin, "this competition is a great field exercise. It allows students to test their skills against a variety of weather conditions in a variety of locales."

San José State is the only California State University school that offers a meteorology degree and the only college or university that offers the program in the Bay Area.