West Point cadets spent an unforgettable 11 days exploring the Great Plains and Southwest United States to experience and learn about severe weather. Dr. Adam Kalkstein and Maj. James Hughes, U.S. Air Force, from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, led an Academic Individual Advanced Development (AIAD) experience for six cadets: Class of 2023 Cadets Ethan Green, Cammack Shepler, Charles ‘Charlie’ Mills, Timothy ‘Tim’ Rossman, Olivia Skelton and Victoria ‘V’ Timmins.
The Severe Weather Preparedness and Training AIAD was funded through the Academy Scholar Class of ʽ64 gift fund and provided a truly unique educational experience for cadets.
Unlike typical military training, this trip was mostly unscripted to allow the team to follow severe thunderstorm activity across the region. The launching point was Oklahoma City in the heart of Tornado Alley, and the trip commenced the day after graduation to take advantage of the peak of severe weather season in the Great Plains.
The cadets had all completed the required Physical Geography class, which provided the necessary weather fundamentals to allow cadets to further develop their knowledge base through observing severe thunderstorms and meeting with weather teams at Army and Air Force installations.
This trip provided an immersive experience to witness severe weather, while also fostering an appreciation of how severe weather impacts both Army and Air Force installations. Furthermore, the cadets learned about the Air Force’s essential role to provide weather support to the Army, which will inform them as leaders in the Army.
Cadet feedback showed the value of learning in this immersive context, with Shepler noting that “This AIAD helped solidify concepts learned in a classroom environment by providing real-life examples. Also, this helped to contextualize class content in new and personal ways.”
The trip started off in earnest with the observation of supercell thunderstorms in Kansas the day after arriving in Oklahoma City.
That morning the team also made their first base visit to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, where cadets learned about the air refueling mission and received an overview of their tactical weather sensor. The station chief also relayed his experience with this tactical weather sensor in a deployed environment.
The small town of Selden, Kansas, was hit by a tornado on that same day, and a couple days later, the group passed through Selden which provided a sobering example of the destructive potential of severe weather, and further highlighted the need for Department of Defense installations to prepare for these potentially destructive events.
Throughout the trip, cadets learned how Air Force weather teams play a critical role in warning for severe thunderstorms, while also supporting the missions at these installations.
Further travels led through Nebraska, Texas and New Mexico, driving over 4,000 miles. The group also visited weather teams at Vance Air Force Base, Fort Sill, Fort Bliss and Holloman Air Force Base. The visit to Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss, Texas, was particularly relevant for the cadets, as they gained insight on weather support to Army aviation from active-duty personnel.
Throughout the trip, the team witnessed a variety of weather phenomena including supercells, rotating wall clouds, shelf clouds, mammatus clouds, dramatic lightning, large hail, gustnadoes, intense downdrafts, and the varying temperature of warm inflow versus cold outflow.
Each cadet was assigned a distinctive role for the AIAD including photography, morale and documenting the trip. Rossman, who had taken a college-level meteorology course and was especially passionate about severe weather, was assigned to submit storm reports after passing an exam on correctly identifying severe weather features.
These official reports are made available to the National Weather Service to aid in issuing and verifying warnings. The first opportunity to report severe weather arrived on May 29 while tracking a storm near San Angelo, Texas.
Instead of getting ahead of the storm to see the location most likely to produce a tornado, the group instead followed from behind to observe the large hail.
Indeed, a drive through the hail field in the wake of the storm revealed substantial hail, with the team collecting stones significantly larger than golf balls, and as a result, Rossman submitted a conservative official storm report of 1.75” hail.