Can you think of a career that is not impacted by the weather? That’s the question that University of Delaware undergraduate Amber Stokes posed to visitors during her summer internship leading tours at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire. Every time, the visitors were stumped. 

“They couldn’t think of an answer because weather touches everything,” said Stokes. “That's one of the most unique features of being able to study weather: everybody cares about the weather, everybody thinks about the weather and it's incredibly important for everyday life.” 

Stokes is a senior studying meteorology and climate science in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment. With a mother who holds a master’s degree in marine science, Stokes grew up in a household focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). This led to her passion for the environment and, for a while, she considered following in her mother’s footsteps and studying marine science. 

That all changed when she was introduced to the world of atmospheric sciences. 

“It’s kind of a cliche thing to say out loud, but I really do love the sky, and clouds and everything about the atmosphere,” said Stokes. 

It was how UD combined both meteorology and climate science, along with the beauty of the campus, that drew Stokes to UD. She also singled out the fact that UD is home to the Office of the Delaware State Climatologist.

While taking the introduction to meteorology course, Stokes began searching for undergraduate research opportunities. During the summer between her freshman and sophomore year, she got involved with the Center for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis (CEMA) and has been working with the group ever since. 

With CEMA, Stokes studied El Nino and La Nina oscillation trends. El Nino and La Nina are two climate patterns that happen in the Pacific Ocean and affect global weather. El Nino is characterized by unusually warm Pacific Ocean waters, which can lead to more hurricanes, and La Nina is characterized by unusually cold waters that can have the opposite effect. 

Stokes’ role was to determine whether it was an El Nino, La Nina or a neutral year and how that impacted weather patterns around Delaware. 

“We would make El Nino climatology index values and correlate them to storms that passed by Delaware during those different events,” said Stokes. “From there, we created an online database for people to be able to access that information.” 

She also worked on a coastal storm climatology project looking at precipitation and climate data, recording whether there was a tropical storm or mid-latitude cyclone that passed within a certain range of Delaware and what impact those storms had on different weather stations across the state. 

Mount Washington Observatory

Growing up in Maine with the White Mountains not too far from her home, Stokes was familiar with the Mount Washington Observatory and said being able to work there was a dream come true. 

“Of all the different internships that I applied for this summer, Mount Washington was the one that I had my fingers crossed for,” said Stokes.  “Not only did I have the opportunity to do research in a real-world laboratory, but I also got to practice forecasting and operational meteorological.” 

Stokes lived in the observatory during her shift weeks and got close with the observers as well as her fellow interns. She conducted research on the relationship between the North Atlantic Oscillation and snowfall on Mount Washington, including changes that occurred over the decades, and she was able to interact with the public. 

“I love public education especially around things like climate change,” said Stokes. “I also love hearing different people's perspectives on things and learn what they know and what they don't know, which allows me the chance to try and help shift perspectives around things where there might conflicting information. Public education is a passion of mine. Being able to do research, operational meteorology and public education, as well as live at the observatory, was an incredible experience.”