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Justin Baldizón Stark is a senior at Florida International University where he is majoring in Atmospheric Science. His interest lies in tropical cyclones.

Justin's summer research was right up his alley. He writes,
"During my 10 weeks at CMMAP my research was Examining Intensity Trends During Extratropical Transition. Extratropical transition is the transition which a tropical cyclone makes once it starts to interact with upper-level trough called shortwave (winds at 30,000 feet called the Jet Stream) as this happens, the tropical cyclone will turn in to a extratropical cyclone that can do damage to shipping lanes out in the open ocean as well as coastal damage, example Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

"Predicting these transitions and if these systems will weaken or intensify is a big problem for forecasters since forecasting models do not do a good job at catching these transitions.

"During my research, we looked at tropical cyclones that went through this transition, identifying the ones that weakened and intensified and looked at the storms track and environmental variables to see if a difference could be found. However, none were found. For the future more things would have to be looked at to see if a difference can be found, if so, hopefully it can improve forecasting. "

Justin presented this poster at our summer team meeting, Examining Intensity Trends during Extratropical Transition.

When not looking at tropical cyclones, Justin enjoys watching documentaries on netflix, looking at and reading about the weather, and "video games to relax the mind".

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