Kelton Halbert
Undegraduate Research Assistant
Student Volunteer - NWS Norman, OK
Director of Development for the Oklahoma Weather Lab


I am originally from Nashville, Tn, and had a keen interest in weather from a very young age. I came to the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2013 to begin my undergraduate degree. I started work for the School of Meteorology at that same time, working for the Arctic and Antarctic Atmospheric Research Group (AAARG) under Dr. Cavallo and Dr. Parsons.

My research consists of running, maintaining, and evaluating a real-time hemispheric WRF centered at the North Pole, with a focus of Tropopause Polar Vortices (TPVs). We are hoping to improve weather model reliability and performance beyond 5 days by better resolving TPVs and their impact on mid-latitude weather. This is because TPVs have a lengthy lifespan and can be easily traces along the dynamic tropopause. In addition, I am providing a WRF comparison to a new generation of atmospheric modelling known as the Model for Prediction Across Scales - MPAS, with the aim to bring MPAS on the same level as WRF and beyond.

In the Spring of 2014, I became a student volunteer at the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma, and was also elected as the Director of Development for the Oklahoma Weather Lab (OWL). I now run the development side, known as HOOT - providing OWL members with quality and timely weather data, maintaining computational systems, and teaching members how to program and create their own projects.

I am also an avid Python programmer, and am currently working on many programming projects, including a comprehensive sounding analysis and research program originally conceived by folks at the Storm Prediction Center. I've also written a package for surface objective analyses of METAR stations called AWIDS, and a package of tools for post-processing WRF model output called wrftools.

In my spare time, I enjoy archery and observing thunderstorms.