If there is one man who is determined to learn the lessons of Hurricane Karen, it's weatherman Mark Guishard.

The 27-year-old is off to Penn State University tomorrow to start a PhD in meteorology researching subtropical storms - the weather system that lead to Hurricane Karen which knocked out power for 20,000 homes last October.

Mr. Guishard, who already has a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree, said of his subject: "It has a direct relevance to Bermuda as we had a subtropical storm in October which turned into Hurricane Karen.

"It will be very useful. Part of my aim is to develop better forecasts, to forecast these events."

"In October, when we had the storm, it wasn't lent the credibility it might have been by the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

"As a result of that, the Bermuda Weather Service has appealed to them to pay more attention to subtropical storms, so they are going to start naming them.

"In the last two years there have been five or so, but they are not as straightforward as cold fronts or hurricanes."

But, he said, a subtropical storm could be just as dangerous as a low level hurricane.

"It's a fairly new area of research. This type of system is not fully understood as yet, which is why we don't which are entirely accurate all the time.

"Anything I can do to pick up knowledge of this type of system will help in forecasting.

"The National Hurricane Centre have experts in looking at tropical storms, but even they don't fully understand what these subtropical storms do."

Mr. Guishard said he was grateful to Government, his employer and the Fossenden-Trott Scholarship for helping to fund his studies.

Bermuda Weather Service Director Roger Williams said he was pleased Mr. Guishard was getting the opportunity to do the research, although it meant they would lose his services for four years.

He said: "We have been encouraging him to do this. It will benefit us and the Island generally."