Anson Tippie: Senior Anson Tippie will study atmospheric science to potentially become a climatologist

If you asked Anson Tippie in first grade what the United States looked like, he could draw a full detailed map from memory with ease. By third grade, he could draw you that same map — complete with complex weather patterns. 

Anson got his first weather activity set from his grandparents when he turned 5 due to his interest in it. As Anson got older, he became more and more fascinated with weather patterns, and currently operates his own weather station website where he constantly tracks, logs and updates local weather patterns.

“I take readings in my backyard and [the weather station] takes temperature, precipitation and all sorts of things, then I log it,” Anson said. “It just celebrated its fourth birthday, so I have been doing four years of readings and collecting real time data.”

Now-senior Anson is heading to the University of North Dakota in August to study atmospheric science with the goal of becoming a climatologist studying long-term weather patterns in the future.

The climatologist field and Anson’s major are both uncommon, with only 11 people studying atmospheric science alongside Anson next year at UND. When deciding on a college, Anson knew UND specialized in winter weather like snowstorms, an intriguing factor to him considering he loves learning about unstable, cold weather patterns. 

“For cold weather the winter time is full of unstable weather, one week in Jan. [the temperature] is in the 50’s, while one week it’s below 0,” Anson said. “I’m also just a snow lover, so winter is always a great time.”

In order to receive his bachelor’s degree, Anson will have to take classes for some things he already knows how to do like data interpretation, learning how to read a radar and some weather safety classes since many people head straight into the National Weather Service once they graduate. While Anson wouldn’t be unhappy working for the NWS — due to the stable salary and job — he wants to do work towards understanding the climate and its consequences on human life and society.

Other weather-related jobs have stood out to Anson like being a meteorologist.

“A meteorologist is the main one that has stood out if I don’t want to continue [to get] my masters,” Anson said. “Right now I’m really thinking of being an atmospheric scientist, but from there [I might] go into the weather service and do my own research on climatology.” 

The reactions from his family and peers about going into climatology have been super cool, according to Anson. While people always inevitably come up and ask him “Is climate change real?” — he never hesitates to say yes.

According to his brother, freshman Christian Tippie, he never has to worry about what the weather is going to be that day because Anson will tell his family.

“I just hope he can find his group of people and he gets to do cool weather stuff, which I have no doubt about,” Christian said. “I got to go with him to tour North Dakota and it’s a great place and they have lots of great resources [for studying weather].”