March 2023
In our most recent paper, we examine a couple of extreme rainfall events over the West African Sahel and find that these events are not necessarily associated with highly unstable environments (e.g., CAPE>2500 J/kg). These two events occurred in association with the dynamics of cold-pool outflow boundaries and interactions with local topography (in this case, related to a southwesterly flow surge).
December 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Harisankar Manoj on completing his M.S. degree!
November 2022
Graduate student Siyu Zhao is the lead author on our paper, How Shrinkage of Lake Chad Affects the Local Climate, in Climate Dynamics (10.1007/s00382-022-06597-3). Convective-permitting (high-resolution) modeling resolves precipitation processes explicitly, and indicates that a large Lake Chad is associated with reduced vertical mixing and lower rainfall amounts. Shrinkage of the lake increases regional rainfall.
July 2022
Graduate student Patrick Andrews traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to attend the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program Workshop on the Lake Victoria Drilling Project. He presented a talk on the Climate of the Lake Victoria Basin. We are interested in studying the potential for Lake Victoria to dry in the future, as it has in the past.
June 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Patrick Andrews for a strong performance on his qualifying exam. Patrick is now a PhD candidate. Well done!
February 2022
"Distribution of extreme rainfall events and their environmental controls in the West African Sahel and Soudan" is our observational analysis of the top 100 most intense rainfall events in the region. We show that the primary large-scale environmental support for these storms comes from the low-level moisture environment, with vertical shear is less influential in extreme storm development than atmospheric moisture preconditioning. Vizy EK, Cook KH (2022) Distribution of extreme rainfall events and their environmental controls in the West African Sahel and Soudan. Climate Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06171-x
December 2021
Our paper, Hydrodynamics of Regional and Seasonal Variations in Congo Basin Precipitation, examines the fundamental processes that control the seasonality of rainfall in the Congo Basin. Despite strong recycling of moisture in the region, seasonality in the evaporation field is quite small. Seasonality in the atmospheric circulation (column moisture convergence) dominates the seasonality of rainfall in this region. Climate Dynamics - 10.1007/s00382-021-06066-3
October 2021
Our paper shows that the Arabian Peninsula is warming at a very high rate, and this amplified warming causes higher rainfall over Ethiopia in summer when the zonal branch of the Somali jet is strengthened. Cook KH, Vizy EK, Liu Y, Liu W, 2021: Greenhouse-gas induced warming amplification over the Arabian Peninsula with implications for Ethiopian rainfall. Climate Dynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05858-x.
Full text available on Research Gate Cook et al 2021
August 2021
Welcome to Allysa Dallmann, new PhD graduate student for Fall 2021
January 2021
Welcome to Harisankar Manoj, new PhD graduate student for Spring 2021
August 2020
Welcome to Patrick Andrews, new PhD graduate student for Fall 2020
May 2020
Congratulations to Kerry Cook for receiving the Simpson Research Award in Tropical Meteorology, American Meteorology Society
April 2020
Our new paper in Climate Dynamics, Interannual variability of East African rainfall: Role of seasonal transitions of the low-level cross-equatorial flow, is now published.
January 2020
Best wishes to Dr. Rory Fitzpatrick as he completes his postdoctoral appointment.
December 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Weiran Liu on completing her PhD!