Historical Meteorological Events
Weather Phenomena
Ithaca Weather
Weather Instrumentation
Meteorologists
100
The 2013 Moore Oklahoma Tornado marked the most recent EF5 tornado until the streak was broken in 2025 by this one...
What is the Enderlin Tornado (ND)?
100
This weather phenomenon, characterized by unusually warm waters in the equatorial Pacific, is capable of dramatically altering weather patterns around the globe.
What is El Niño
100
What three lakes can act as sources of Lake Effect Snow for Ithaca?
Ontario, Cayuga, Erie
100
These two instruments pictured here are used to measure the strength and direction of wind at the surface.
What is an Anemometer and Wind Vane?
100
Completing his PhD at the University of Oklahoma in 2015, This storm chaser is well known for driving his "Dominator" storm chasing vehicles into tornadoes.
Who is Reed Timmer?
200
The storm pictured below was the largest Hurricane in the Atlantic Basin. It's diameter measured at a whopping 1150 miles and it's heaviest impacts were concentrated in the Northeast Corridor 
What is Hurricane Sandy?
200
This damaging type of Thunderstorm is known for its straight line winds that exceed 58mph and a damage path of at least 240 miles
What is a Derecho?
200
Ithaca is located in the 'Finger Lakes' region of Upstate New York, but it also sits in a region that is sometimes referred to as the following by Meteorologists
What is The Southern Tier?
200
The National Weather Service launches this instrument package twice daily worldwide to measure temperature, humidity, pressure, and winds throughout the atmosphere.
What is a Radiosonde (Weather Balloon)
200
Arguably the most famous meteorologist on The Weather Channel, this Meteorologist is known for standing in brutal severe weather events while live on air
who is Jim Cantore?
300
Occurring in 1925 and killing an estimated 690 people, this tornado was the deadliest in U.S. history and is widely accepted to have contained F5 winds exceeding 300mph
What is the Tri-State Tornado (1925)?
300
This type of cloud often appears when fast moving wind encounters sharp or steep terrain, thus causing a gravity wave motion resulting in a distinct appearance of a saucer or UFO.
What are Lenticular Clouds?
300
According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, Ithaca's receives the following amount in average annual snowfall. (+ or - 3 inches accepted)
What is 62.9 in?
300
At airports across America, this automated observing system reports METAR observations including visibility, ceiling, wind, and temperature.
What is ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System)?
300
After completing his education at MIT, this Meteorologist founded the Dopper on Wheels project in 1995 at The University of Oklahoma
Who is Josh Wurman?
400
During the 1930s century, the Great Plains were plagued with a period of drought and dust storms in an event later known as the Dust Bowl. Name the five states with land that was most heavily impacted by this event
What are Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, & New Mexico?
400
This phenomenon is a large scale electrical discharge high above the Troposphere (Stratosphere and Mesosphere). It typically occurs just after powerful cloud to ground lightning in a strong thunderstorm
What are Red Sprites?
400
On calm, clear nights, Cornell's North + Central campus is often warmer than downtown Ithaca, despite being several hundred feet higher. What local meteorological phenomenon causes this?
What is cold-air drainage (cold-air pooling or a temperature inversion)?
400
this instrument is used to measure the drop size distribution and velocity of falling hydrometeors. Some of them can distinguish between rain, graupel, and hail 
What is a Disdrometer?
400
After receiving her PhD from The University of Chicago, she was the first woman in the United States to earn a doctorate degree in Meteorology.
Who was Joanne Simpson?
500
Ireland was hit by their strongest extratropical cyclone on record in January 2025. The storm was named the following by the UK Meteorological Office.
What is Storm Éowyn
500
In Western North America, prevailing warm winds that blow eastward over the leeward side of mountains are known as "Snow Eaters" but also by the following term
What are Chinook Winds?
500
Cayuga Lake's surface is known to stay unfrozen during the winter due to the lake's depth, volume, and thermal mixing from wind. In 2015, the lake came exceptionally close to freezing over entirely, an occurrence not seen since which year.
When was 1979?
500
This pressure measuring device present on aircrafts is used to calculate the relative velocity of the aircraft 
What is a Pitot Tube?
500
This person is arguably the first person ever to publish a written work on the subject of Meteorology, publishing a treatise by the name of "Meteorologica" circa 350 BC
Who is Aristotle or Hippocrates? (Both acceptable)