It was the strongest cyclone to hit land in recorded history. On November 8, 2013, Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, whipping the low-lying and densely-populated islands with 200 mph winds and sending a two-story-high storm surge flooding into homes, schools, and hospitals. It wiped villages off the map and devastated cities, including the hard-hit provincial capital Tacloban. Estimates count more than 5,000 dead and millions homeless.

The Unidata Program Center's Jeff Weber is one of the scientists who looks into what made Typhoon Haiyan so destructive in the NOVA documentary Killer Typhoon, which will air on PBS Wednesday, January 22, 2104 on PBS. Weber uses the Unidata Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) to look at the storm.

Check your local PBS listings to see when Killer Typhoon is showing in your area.

Do you use Unidata software packages? Do you love to write code? The Unidata Summer Internship program is looking for you!

The Unidata Summer Internship offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to work with Unidata software engineers and scientists on projects drawn from a wide variety of areas in the atmospheric and computational sciences. Unidata's mission is to support the Earth Science research and education community with data and tools for data access, analysis, and visualization. As a Unidata intern, you'll pursue the goal of adding innovative enhancements to data access, analysis, and visualization tools developed within Unidata.

The majority of data streams made available via the Internet Data Distribution (IDD) system currently remain available to Unidata community members despite the closing of US government facilities. As a UCAR facilitiy, the Unidata Program Center itself has not been directly affected by the shutdown, although if the budget impasse continues for more than a few weeks there could be reductions in staff time.

As of 2 October 2013, only one data stream normally available via the IDD is affected; a portion of the Suominet data that flows through NOAA servers (part of the CORS network) will be unavailable until the servers are restarted.

Currently, the CONDUIT data streams from NCEP are still functioning. We have not been notified about whether they will continue to operate.

UPC staff are currently unaffected and available for support questions and all normal activities.

Flooding on the UCAR campus

Between September 12-15, 2013, Colorado's front range experienced a weather event that caused some of the worst flooding in the region's history. More than 17 inches of rain fell in Boulder over the course of the storm; the average annual precipitation in the city is roughly 20 inches.

Communities along the front range, in the mountains to the west, and on the plains to the east are busy responding to the event. Numerous mountain roads were washed away by the floodwaters, leaving residents stranded; airlift operations are still underway to bring people to safety. Twelve helicopters from the National Guard and Red Cross are using Boulder's Municipal Airport (located very near the Unidata Program Center office) as a base for the largest aerial rescue effort in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Sheri Ruscetta

The Unidata Program Center is pleased to welcome Sheri Ruscetta to our staff. Sheri joined us as an administrative assistant on June 17th, 2013; in addition to other administrative duties, she'll be serving as our Workshop Coordinator.