We are planning a public outreach event featuring RaXPol at Imagination Station in Lafayette, IN on Saturday, 30 May 2026. Watch this thread for details!

Time for the reveal! #SPOTTR 2026 course will feature OU’s RaXPol radar! This is the first time since 2019 that we’ve had a mobile radar come out. Thanks to NSF for sponsoring this educational deployment to Purdue!
arrc.ou.edu/radar_raxpol...

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Thanks to the National Science Foundation, #SPOTTR 2026 will feature a special MYSTERY GUEST. Can you guess who it is???

This year's application deadline is 10 days away!

Congratulations to these two outstanding former #SPOTTR students!

Summer 2026 www.eaps.purdue.edu EAPS 43500: Severe Storms Field Work Real Storms. Real Forecasting. Real Field Work. [Storm photo] Description This 4-week summer course will focus on prediction, field observations, and case study analysis of severe storms. Students will receive instruction in severe storms forecasting, real-time radar interpretation, safe observation of severe storms, and careers in research meteorology. Students will assist with research data collection using radiosondes, disdrometers, and portable weather stations. Field work can be physically and mentally challenging. Students should expect to help deploy instruments and operate equipment in difficult conditions. Students with valid U. S. or Canadian drivers’ licenses are expected to help drive university vehicles. Details: Meeting times: MTWRF 9:00-11:00 a.m. 18 May - 12 June 2026 Field trip dates: 30 May - 6 June 2026 (Students may be continually off campus.) Credits: 3 Prerequisites: Junior or higher standing, plus instructor permission by application only. Enrollment limited to 12 students. Additional $250 fee required (refunded if field trip does not occur). Transportation and lodging are provided for the trip. Students cover food and incidental expenses. The instructors are committed to inclusive course design. Students requiring accommodations are encouraged to contact instructors as early as possible. How to apply: instructors your responses to the following questions: Why do you want to participate in this course? What will you contribute to this course? What do you expect to learn? How will this course benefit you in your future career? Admissions decisions will be released by 21 March 2026. If applications exceed available spots, priority will be given to students who have not previously taken this course. Questions? Contact the instructors: Robin Tanamachi, rtanamachi@purdue.edu Dan Dawson, dandawson@purdue.edu Watch videos from the 2025 class! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M…

Applications for #SPOTTR 2026 are officially open! Deadline: 3/13/26. Questions? Email or DM the instructors, @tornatrix.bsky.social and @meteodan.bsky.social.
A PDF version of the flyer below can be found here: drive.google.com/file/d/19iLu...

A group of people in a field watching a thunderstorm

We know many of you are waiting for the application cycle to open for #SPOTTR 2026. We’re working out some last-minute adjustments to the budget and instrument suite (all good!). When applications open, you’ll read it here first! Watch this space!

My Education Conference talk (11.2), "First-generation students gain more from atmospheric science field work experience," coauthored by L. Parker, @meteodan.bsky.social, and M. Couillard, will be in Room 350D at 2:00 p.m. Wednesday. #AMS2026 @eaps-spottr.bsky.social
ams.confex.com/ams/106ANNUA...

2025 SPOTTR EAPS 43500 Thank you! YouTube video by EAPS Purdue

The accompanying video for this story has #SPOTTR students speaking about the impact of the course in their own words: youtu.be/PxF5LB2f4LA @paige-ashlyn-h.bsky.social @maliyah-wx.bsky.social @tornatrix.bsky.social @morgancrows.bsky.social @willow-w25.bsky.social @lgrose24.bsky.social

We want to take a minute or two, and give much respect to the anonymous donor who helped make #SPOTTR 2025 a fantastic experience for all our participants! Read about the difference their support made in this year’s class:

Willow shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student @willow-w25.bsky.social: "I think the #SPOTTR course is a great way for me to really hone in on the forecasting skills that I'll need for [a military weather officer] career" youtu.be/M7yuVs4cVIM
Fun fact: Willow came to Purdue after meeting a previous SPOTTR class out in the field!

Lauren shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student @lgrose24.bsky.social: Watching storms “definitely reminds me, and I'm sure it reminds everyone else, why we chose this major.”
youtu.be/V66lmQoA3mc

Mia shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

Two-time #SPOTTR student @maliyah-wx.bsky.social: "I had an amazing time the past year, and I really wanted to experience it again, because I feel like there's a lot more I can learn from it still. You can never learn too much." youtu.be/Nu7Mun3BlXs

Morgan shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student @morgancrows.bsky.social: "As a kid, I definitely loved the sound of thunder most, not like the really angry thunder, but more the gentle rolling. I always thought it was very relaxing." youtu.be/_RB0hMSUvnQ

Ben shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student Ben M.: "There were times where radar was indicating rotation not too far from us... and you get that adrenaline rush through that." www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpSt...

Daniel shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student Daniel S.: "If you had asked me a year and a half ago, 'Do you think you'd like doing fieldwork?', I would have said, 'Absolutely not.' Now having done it once I can say, I enjoy it quite a bit!" youtu.be/BKqBWixphsM

Paige shares their experience as a student in a Storm Spotter Class YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

#SPOTTR student @paige-ashlyn-h.bsky.social: "Looking at a radar is one thing, and a case in the past that might have happened, but when you're there, and you get to compare it, it's so much different."
youtu.be/rCv-OmcDjbo

What's it like to take a Severe Storms Field Work Class? YouTube video by Superheroes of Science

Our department, Purdue EAPS, is releasing a series of video interviews with #SPOTTR students through their Superheroes of Science channel! The first video features Prof. Tanamachi @tornatrix.bsky.social describing SPOTTR's origins and ethos.

I haven’t processed that such an amazing experience is already over 💛🖤

Paige’s SPOTTR review coming soon…

Some highlights from Purdue’s SPOTTR course :) special thanks to @tornatrix.bsky.social and @eaps-spottr.bsky.social for an amazing week on the plains ☺️

A topographic map annotating all the places SPOTTR traveled over the 7 days of the trip, circling westward from Indiana to Wyoming and back again.

#SPOTTR 2025 wrapped up its trip on Saturday!
Miles driven: 3,442.

Thanks to @paige-ashlyn-h.bsky.social for the wonderful graphic of our trip!

SPOTTR has returned to West Lafayette!
Here's a video from our last chasing day (July 4) between Bismark and Fargo, ND. Thunderstorm outflow provided a rather ominous sight in our rear view mirrors with a shelf cloud and blowing dust.

Skew T log p diagram showing a deep well mixed layer, and hodograph with very little deep layer shear.

People on a dirt road watching distant showers

A bell shaped wall cloud

Same wall cloud as before, in the process of morphing into a shelf cloud

After Devils Tower, we worked our way up to Buffalo, SD, where we launched a sonde that revealed multiple small inversions and rather underwhelming 0-6 km bulk shear (19 kts). Ended the day with a fat wall cloud near Belfield, ND. #SPOTTR

A group of people in front of Devils Tower in Wyoming

Earlier today, on our way to a North Dakota target, we stopped and did a little sightseeing! #SPOTTR

A backlit rain shaft with a tapered dark tendril in the middle

Your Fake-nado of the day #SPOTTR

A group of people standing under a stormy sky.

Our group in front of a nonsevere storm near Spotted Horse, WY yesterday!

Impressive lightning show on our drive back from dinner to the hotel in Wyoming.

July 2, 2025: We drove from Nebraska through South Dakota to Gillette, Wyoming. Students enjoyed a slow-moving, photogenic storm northwest of Gillette. Driving west in the evening, we saw the sunset with storms over the mountains and on either side of the highway.

Driving to Alliance, Nebraska on July 1.

Storms started to get much more photogenic day 3 of the chase!

Cumulonimbus cloud with a white waterfall of hail spilling out the left side.

We interrupt your utterly justified rage fest to bring you some meteorological eye candy: a brilliant #hail shaft east of Alliance, NE. #newx #SPOTTR