California Meteorologist Wins $50,000 in Aquila/AMS Forecast Competition.Business Editors ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2002 Erwin K. Kauper, the owner of the California-based Metro Monitoring Service, today was awarded $50,000 as the second winner of The Aquila Prize, a three-year weather forecasting competition. The award was presented by the Aquila subsidiary of UtiliCorp United (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :UCU UCU University and College Union (UK) UCU Ucore Uranium Inc (stock symbol) UCU University College Utrecht (The Netherlands) UCU University Credit Union ) during an award luncheon held at the annual conference of the American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. (AMS AMS - Andrew Message System ). Kauper won the forecasting competition for preparing and making the most accurate probabilistic temperature forecast for six, three-month periods from March through October 2001 covering 13 cities across the United States. Kauper has provided weather consulting services to the U.S. government and the movie and television industry for more than 30 years. The first phase of the competition was won by Andy Weingarten, a meteorologist for APB APB See Accounting Principles Board (APB). Energy, a Louisville, Ken., energy brokerage firm. Both Kauper and Weingarten received checks for $50,000 today at the special luncheon. Kauper's forecast was evaluated by Aquila, one of the largest energy wholesaling and risk management companies in North America. The contest results were independently verified by the AMS through its subcontractor, the University of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. . Kauper's career in weather started in World War II, in which he served as a weather officer for the U.S. Army Air Corps in both the United States and the Pacific region. After retiring from the armed services The Constitution authorizes Congress to raise, support, and regulate armed services for the national defense. The President of the United States is commander in chief of all the branches of the services and has ultimate control over most military matters. as a lieutenant colonel, Kauper returned to his home in the Los Angeles area and founded Metro Monitoring Services, a company that operated U.S. weather observation stations for the federal government. In 1984 he acquired Allied Weather Consultants, which provides forecasting and climatologic services to the movie and television industry. For both the first phase and second phase of the scientific competition, participants submitted probabilistic forecasts of heating-degree or cooling-degree days for Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , Dallas, Philadelphia, Portland, Tucson, Des Moines, Las Vegas, Nashville, Minneapolis and Sacramento. Heating-degree or cooling-degree days are weather parameters used by the energy industry to project consumption. Competition participants posted their forecasts on GuaranteedWeather.com, Aquila's one-stop weather risk management portal. The Aquila Prize competition is open to all private-sector corporations, university groups and university or federally affiliated laboratories. Rules for the contest were developed in collaboration with the AMS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and . Aquila plans to award $300,000 over the three-year competition. "The Aquila Prize has been designed to meet three objectives," said Ravi Nathan, general manager of Aquila's weather business. "We wish to clearly quantify the current state of the art with respect to long-term forecasting skill, encourage the development of applied research in the field and recognize and reward the best forecasters in the business. We intend to continue the contest for four more seasons and extend it to international locations as well." Aquila, based in Kansas City, is one of the largest wholesalers of natural gas, power and coal in North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. and a leading provider of risk management services. The company offers energy wholesaling and risk management service in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Aquila is wholly-owned by UtiliCorp United (NYSE: UCU), an international energy company with more than 4 million customers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. and Australia. More information is available at www.aquila.com. Founded in 1919, the AMS is the preeminent scientific and professional organization for scientists and practitioners in the atmospheric sciences and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. The society publishes well-respected scientific journals, sponsors scientific conferences and supports public education programs across the country. Additional information on the AMS is available on the Internet at http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion