Talea Mayo, University of Texas at Austin • No two days are the same for this student of computational and applied mathematics. She's working to improve hurricane storm surge predictions by focusing on how data gets added, or "assimilated," into a forecasting model.

A team of scientists led by NCAR’s Keith Oleson has incorporated urban areas into a global climate model. The development is important because most models used for predicting future climate change do not account for the urban “heat island” effect.

NCAR's Peggy LeMone reflects on the power of fire in the Rocky Mountain West and on her own encounter with a destructive wildfire that torched more than 100 homes in September 2010.

On December 20, 2008, a Boeing 737 with Continental Airlines encountered a crosswind gust during takeoff at Denver International Airport, causing it to veer off the runway. Simulations done at NCAR indicate that a mountain lee wave amplified over DIA within minutes of the accident.

The wildfire that erupted in the foothills west of Boulder in September 2010 sent a thick plume of smoke right over NCAR’s chemistry labs. Even as their offices smelled of smoke, scientists took measurements from the roof.