A family tree of tropical meteorology's academic community and its proposed expansion

Abstract

Countless meteorology students enter college having what can quite accurately be described as a romance for weather. If this adolescent professional relationship could also be equated with a crush, then heartbreak is what follows for many. Those intense-but superficial-childhood feelings for meteorology are often later strained by unexpected but necessary courses in calculus, physics, and computing, partially replacing romance with angst. As is the case with life in general, through reflection and perspective, one will hopefully later find a much more profound appreciation. This critical evolution can be made much more difficult by a poor advisor, or much less painful by an exceptional mentor. The latter explicitly or implicitly reminds us why we fell in love with meteorology as a child. This manuscript is dedicated to those mentors who made that process for students profoundly rewarding, and equally to those students who persevered in the face of adversity and can now look up at the sky or down at a map and smile with a deeper and satisfying understanding. © 2013 American Meteorological Society.