My 2005 and 2006 summer internships Andy Hagen

Table of Contents  2005 internship- Hurricane Research Division- Miami, FL -Worked for Dr. Chris Landsea on the Atlantic Hurricane Reanalysis Project (HURDAT)  2006 internship- NWS Charleston, SC -8 week volunteer internship at the NWS office  Got 3 credits of Meteo 496 for both

Hurricane Research Division  The Hurricane Research Division (HRD) is part of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which is part of the Department of Commerce (DOC).  HRD is located at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories building on Virginia Key, FL, near downtown Miami.  HRD contains some of the most prominent hurricane researchers in the world, and they collaborate closely with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) located 10 miles away in Miami.

HRD continued…  HRD accepts 10 to 15 student interns each summer- it may be paid or unpaid  HRD does research on all aspects of hurricanes, including:  Hurricane intensity change and storm structure  Hurricane track research  Hurricane impact models  Climate variation

My HRD research  HURDAT is the official record of tropical storms and hurricanes for the Atlantic basin from 1851 to present put together by John Hope in the 1970s.  Dr. Landsea has been in charge of the reanalysis of the database because more data from old storms are now available from multiple sources.  I helped out with the hurricane seasons  Made necessary changes to existing storms  Looked for new storms not seen by John Hope to add into the database (averaged adding 1 storm per year).

Open Atlantic Ocean Differences 1911 Hurricane Season 2000 Hurricane Season

NWS Charleston, SC  Volunteered for 8 weeks at NWS office for Meteo 496 (internship) credit.  If you want to work for NWS someday, it is a great experience to spend a summer volunteering at an NWS office.

My duties at NWS  Launched the 00Z Rawinsonde/Weather Balloon 3 days per week- preflight preparations, launch, and data processing  During severe weather events, made calls to emergency managers and spotters  Wrote Local Storm Reports (LSRs)  Wrote short term forecasts (NOWCasts)  Performed daily climate summary  Issued several other routine products  Made sure everything on NOAA Weather Radio was acting properly

Various Pictures

Contact  If you would like to find out about volunteering at the Hurricane Research Division in Miami contact  Howie Friedman at or Frank Marks at   You can visit HRD’s website at