Runningonbrains

No situation needs the drama that humans bring to it.

I'm actually a really nice person. If you disagree with something I have done, I will be willing to discuss and reconsider my actions. I do not tolerate assuming bad faith or being overly harsh to new editors. But I am also slow to block and quick to forgive honest mistakes.

• My administrative policies

Essays

• Drive-by voting
• Presumptuous voting
• Wikipedia: We Discriminate!

      — See all my essays

I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the spring of 2008. I completed my Major Qualifying Project around the same time: a search for sand dune movement on Mars. I hope to turn it into an article at some point (see User:Runningonbrains/Aeolian processes on Mars if you'd like to help).

My main interest, however, is in meteorology, and I do a lot of research on the topic. At Texas A&M University I received my Master of Science in atmospheric science in August of 2011. My research involved baroclinic waves the Martian atmosphere, and my results were published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

I currently work as an Associate Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), working in the Research Applications Laboratory. I work on a bunch of different projects, including work on the operational NWP models, HRRR and GFS-FV3.

As far as my time on Wikipedia, my contributions will mainly be towards meteorology articles (especially tornadoes and other meso- to microscale phenomena), Mars, computer modeling and related subjects. I am the primary maintainer of Portal:Weather, however, I am currently fairly inactive due to my continuing adult responsibilities and recreations. I may become more active one of these days, but I'm probably kidding myself: there's too many things to do in this world that don't involve sitting behind a computer.

My first two major projects

• Tornado: Nursed this article from a sloppy stub-like mess to an FA in about 9 months
• Eye (cyclone): My first FA created from scratch, this one took about 9 months as well, and had major help from User:Thegreatdr and User:Titoxd.

During and after my project to improve Tornado, I created a long list of tornado-related articles.

• Codell, Kansas
• Enhanced Fujita Scale  
• Four-State Tornado Swarm  
• List of tornadoes causing 100 or more deaths
• 1899 New Richmond tornado  
• 1989 Northeastern United States tornado outbreak   
• Power flash
• Rear flank downdraft
• Severe weather
• Skipping tornado
• 1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes  
• Tornado intensity and damage
• Tornadoes in Bermuda
• Tornadoes in New England
• Tornadogenesis  
• TOtable Tornado Observatory
• 1878 Wallingford tornado   

• /Aeolian processes on Mars
• /List of North American blizzards
• /1986 New England tornado outbreak
• /Tornado prediction and detection

Later on, I began a very ambitious effort to make a series of nation-wide lists of tornadoes by state (currently, I've only done two + DC)

• List of Connecticut tornadoes   
• List of Rhode Island tornadoes
• List of District of Columbia tornadoes  

Working on these

• User:Runningonbrains/Tornadoes in Israel
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Maine tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Massachusetts tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of New Hampshire tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Vermont tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Utah tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Idaho tornadoes
• User:Runningonbrains/List of Wyoming tornadoes

Big surprise, more weather-related articles!

• List of weather records  
• Mid-latitudes
• Rapid deepening
• Snow flurry
• Solenoid (meteorology)
• The Great Snow of 1717  
• Zonal flow
• Trace (precipitation)  

• All created articles

• Annular hurricane: Before and after
• Tornadoes of 2001: Before and after
• Windsor Locks, Connecticut tornado: before and after  
• Tornado myths: before and after  

Was highly active in restarting WikiProject Meteorology, and created a new sub-project WikiProject Severe Weather.

Overhauled the Weather Portal, eventually improving it into a Featured Portal. I am currently actively maintaining this portal.

• First edit: Hurricane Katrina talk page
• First mainspace edit: Very silly vandalism Although this was my friend, not really me.
• First constructive mainspace edit: List of Atlantic hurricanes
• First edit under my username: You're not going to believe it, but I started an article in my userspace
• 100th edit: Working on userspace version of my first from-scratch featured article
• First whack-a-vandal: Hurricane Gilbert
• 1,000th edit: Discussion on Hurricane Camille's importance
• First appearance on WP:MOSTEDITS: 5097 edits!
• First Huggle rv: Quonochontaug, Rhode Island
• 10,000th edit: Tagging/categorizing new article "Rough Wood"
• I am most proud of this edit.
• Admins make mistakes too.

Gallery of my images

Recognition for accomplishments

All contributions...

• List of North American blizzards

So, about me, huh?

As I said, I have a BS in Physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. After graduating, I attended Western Connecticut State University part-time for a year, taking atmospheric/oceanic science courses, before transferring to Texas A&M University's atmospheric science program. I graduated with a MS in atmospheric science in 2011, and in 2012 got a job at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. I've been obsessed with nature, especially meteorology, since I was very young. My first storm experience was in utero, when my mom was in the eye of Hurricane Gloria. At 10 a tornado skipped over my house, downing several trees in my back yard. Among my craziest childhood experiences were sitting outside with a -40ºF wind chill to watch blowing snow, climbing a mountain during a Nor'easter with 60 mph winds at the top, and getting caught in a hailstorm which formed right on top of me. As an adult, I now am lucky enough to live right next to tornado alley, and have been on dozens of storm chases that have yielded so many tornadoes I have lost count.

I also enjoy skiing, hiking, camping, and rock climbing.

Hopefully, someday, I'll get to sit through a good hurricane.

*No, randonimity is not a word, but it sounds cool

• Jump in. Fool around.