User:Runningonbrains

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I never get sad when people abandon Wikipedia. It probably means they got a girlfriend.

My policies, beliefs, and principles

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)

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This week in weather history...

May 8

2009: A severe derecho blew across a large part of the United States, spawning 39 tornadoes and killing six people.

May 9

2002: Cyclone Kesiny made landfall near Antsiranana, Madagascar, killing 33 people. Kesiny was the first tropical cyclone on record in the South-West Indian Ocean to make landfall in the month of May.

May 10

2002: A tropical cyclone struck the coast of Oman, causing severe damage and several deaths due to drowning in flash floods.

May 11

1970: Seventeen years to the day after the deadliest tornado in Texas history, another tornado struck downtown Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 people. It was the only F5 tornado in history to strike a skyscraper, which had its steel infrastructure twisted by the storm.

May 12

1970: Severe floods began in Romania, eventually killing more than 200 and leaving more than 250,000 homeless.

May 13

1998: The NOAA-15 weather satellite was launched into a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Originally planned for just a 5 year mission, as of early 2020 the satellite was still returning useful atmospheric and space data from several instruments.

May 14

2007: Cyclone Akash made landfall in Bangladesh, causing almost $1 billion in damage.

See a new, random set
Other days in history...

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

— See all my essays

My academic background

To-do: (completed tasks)

Clear the perpetual backlog
Review Physics GAN
Get Connecticut tornadoes to featured topic status
Get Tornadoes in New England to featured topic status
Get Severe weather to GA-class
Get Tornado to featured topic status
Work on articles to improve

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.

Here's what I've done:

What I do/Who I am:

Were this admin to act in a foolish, trollish, or dickish way, he is open to being slapped with a large trout.

This user has a sense of humor.

This user actively participates in WikiProject Severe weather.

This user is a member of WikiProject Meteorology.

This user participates in
WikiProject Tropical cyclones.

This user is a newpage and recent changes patroller.

This editor is a Veteran Editor IV and is entitled to display this Gold Editor Star.

21,000

This user has made more than 21,000 edits.

This user rejects your reality and substitutes his own!

WPI

This user attends or attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

This user is a current or former student of Texas A&M University. Gig 'em Aggies!

This user is a SKYWARN spotter.

vn-4

This user page has been vandalized 4 times.

rvb

This user is a Red vs. Blue fanatic.

This user has written or expanded 11 articles featured in the Did You Know section on the Main Page.

This user has helped promote 4 good articles on Wikipedia.

This user has written or significantly contributed to 2 Featured articles on Wikipedia.

This user has written or significantly contributed to 1 featured list on Wikipedia.

This user helped to promote Portal:Weather to featured status.

FPCs needing feedback view edit

Featured Articles

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.

Tornado articles

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

Working on these

Tornado lists

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)

Working on these

Articles re-written

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

WikiProjects

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

Portals

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

Milestones

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.

Other Contributions

Gallery of my images

Recognition for accomplishments

All contributions...

Works in progress

List of North American blizzards

My ongoing Featured Topic projects

List of Connecticut tornadoes

5 articles

Four-State Tornado Swarm

1989 Northeastern United States tornado outbreak

1878 Wallingford tornado

Windsor Locks, Connecticut tornado

8 articles

Tornado intensity and damage

Tornado climatology

Tornado records

Tornado myths

Unlikely articles:

Funnel cloud

Me

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.

My randonimity*

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

Jump in. Fool around.

My directory...

Peer reviews with no or minimal feedback

September 20 Jona discography October 26 Campbell's Soup Cans December 7 Arena Corinthians December 11 Social identity threat December 13 List of landmarks of St. Louis December 20 List of Johnson solids February 20 The Sims Online May 1 We Don't Trust You May 2 Nuclear clock
If your review is not in the list of unanswered reviews, add it here.
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