The National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Contest, or NCWFC, was a yearly competition among colleges and Universities in the US run by Penn State

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

. There were over 1000 participants from about 45 institutions. In 2006, the competition was transferred to the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

 and run as the WxChallenge

WxChallenge

The WxChallenge is a weather forecasting competition between colleges in North America. The competition is run by the University of Oklahoma. In its first official semester, fall 2006, there were 1,262 participants from 53 institutions...

.

Organization

Entrants in the contest must be affiliated with a college or university, but they range in age and knowledge from undergraduates to professors. Each year, 13 cities are picked for forecasting; the current city changes every 2 weeks. Contestants forecast

Weather forecasting

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...

 4 days per week for the following day's high temperature

Temperature

Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

 (in Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...

), low temperature, and precipitation

Precipitation (meteorology)

In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...

 (forecast by category).

The precipitation categories are:

• 0 -- no precipitation or trace
• 1 -- trace - 0.05", liquid water equivalent, inclusive
• 2 -- 0.06-0.24", inclusive
• 3 -- 0.25-0.49", inclusive
• 4 -- 0.50-0.99", inclusive
• 5 -- >=1.00"

One "error" point is given for each degree of error on temperature, and 4 error points are given for each error in precipitation category.

Winners

• 2001-2005: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
  
  
• 2006: San Jose State University
  San José State University
  San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...