Amid new students on campus and excitement for a new year, LSU will offer a new oceanography and coastal science course focused on extreme coastal weather this fall. Steve Caparotta, a broadcast meteorologist for WAFB, will teach OCS 2013.
With two decades of experience in meteorology and a master’s and Ph.D. in Climatology from LSU, Caparotta will teach about natural disasters, weather’s impacts on the coast and the basics of meteorology.
According to an LSU blog post, “Caparotta’s classes are not just about textbook learning; they’re about sharing his firsthand experiences and insights from the broadcast side of meteorology.”
The course is open to all students and requires no prerequisites. It will serve as an introduction to meteorology for anyone interested.
This class contrasts with the one Caparotta taught in the spring by being a much broader, entry-level look at meteorology.
“I am really excited about the opportunity to teach the course. I taught a class in the spring semester called Mesoscale Meteorology, which goes deeper into meteorology, but this one should have a broader appeal,” he said.
According to WAFB‘s website, Caparotta is a “4-time Suncoast Emmy nominee” and received two awards from the Associated Press.
In 2009, it was for “best weathercast in Louisiana.” He also won a General News Award for his Hurricane Katrina “NOPD Looting” story.
Caparotta said Paul Miller in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences taught the class before asking him to teach it.
He also believes his class is uniquely important for Louisianians.
“I think this class is great for where we are. The coast is so important in Louisiana,” He said. “There is a big aspect of meteorology involved when we talk about our coast, especially when we talk about things like hurricanes.”
Hurricane season is from June to November, which mostLouisiana residents are well aware of and used to. Because LSU students regularly interact with these kinds of natural disasters, Caparotta said they should understand how the storms will affect the future of the state.
In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the state in rapid succession, and Hurricanes Gustav and Ike did the same in 2008. According to the Smithsonian Ocean, these pairs of storms caused Louisiana to lose around 328 square miles of coastal land. And with the loss of coastal land, also comes a loss of habitat and biodiversity.
Caparotta also said class would spend time discussing floods, lightning, tornados and other forms of severe weather.
The course’s weather broadcast project is a remnant of Miller’s tenure teaching the class that Caparotta said fits well with his background.
For this project, students will work throughout the semester to create a weather broadcast by the end of class. From finding the right graphics to figuring out the right words to say, the students will work to create their very own completed broadcast.
“The department actually has a meteorology lab with a mini weather studio, so the students get to do that at the end of the semester. Which I think is a pretty cool part of the class,” said Caparotta.
