The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved a new bachelor's degree in meteorology on Monday.
Approval from leaders in Richmond is the last step in securing the state's first meteorology degree program.
"It's a great opportunity for us and for the students, and some of the experiences they can have here at the national Weather Service learning what the career is all about," said Steve Keighton of the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.
"The weather service wants interns, they want folks to come out and learn," said Bill Carstensen, Head of the Geography Department at Virginia Tech.
The push to add the degree comes from leaders in the geography department, which already provides all but two of the necessary courses for a meteorology degree.
"We're adding those last one or two this year, and so we're hoping in January when the degree is official, we can switch the GEA majors that want to, over to meteorology," said Carstensen.
Weather experts say the recent severe weather patterns we have experienced in Southwest Virginia, such as the Washington County and Pulaski County tornadoes, have certainly generated an interest in the field of meteorology.
"That certainly generated my interest when I was in high school, but we've always know that there's been quite a bit of interest among high school students in Virginia," said Keighton.
If the program is approved, students looking to major in meteorology will no longer have to leave the state to get a degree.
"They're the only National Weather Service office in the United States that has a university in town, that doesn't have a meteorology degree. So they're going to get rid of that distinction," said Carstensen.
Officials in the Geography Department at Tech say the program, if approved, would begin in January.
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