Andrew Janiszeski and Troy Zaremba blow up a weather balloon in a dark hotel lobby. The weather was calm last night when they drove into Plymouth, Massachusetts, but this morning a blizzard is raging outside. Snow is piling up in the hotel parking lot, wind gusts are near 70mph, and the power is out – but they have a job to do.

During the worst of the blizzard, a group of Stony Brook University students and their professors braved the high winds and pummeling snowfall for the greater good - to improve winter storm forecasting.