For the second year in a row, students from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ meteorology department have been named champions of Weather Challenge, emerging victorious over more than 50 universities throughout North America.

Senior Ryan Kramer was named overall national champion for the 2012-2013 Weather Challenge, according to Penn State. Kramer is joined by junior Brad Yehl and graduate students Kyle Imhoff, Josh Boden, and Michael Goss as the top five forecasters for the Penn State team.

Freshmen Michael Priante and Matthew Strauser also received recognition for their performance, ranking first and second respectively in the category for freshmen and sophomore forecasters.

The challenge, which is in its seventh year, brings together thousands of forecasters from colleges and universities within the United States and Canada in a virtual competition that spans the entire academic year. Participants ranging in age from undergrads to graduate students to professors forecast four times a week with cities changing every two weeks.

Ten cities are used throughout the competition, which culminates in April with a March Madness-style tournament featuring the top 64 forecasters within the challenge. Predictions for high and low temperature, maximum sustained wind speed, and precipitation are recorded each day, and points are assessed for how close or far the forecaster is from actual data for the city that day.

The team will continue to hold the Weather Challenge trophy for another year.