A new research article has been published in Physical Geography, entitled: Spatiotemporal variations and trends of precipitation events in Kentucky, USA. The research, led by CRL alum Abraham Tekoe, performs a detailed climatological analysis of precipitation from 1949-2022 in Kentucky. Key results include (a) the quantification of three distinct precipitation seasons within the state (wet: Mar-Jul, Dry: Aug-Oct, and Transition: Nov-Feb), (b) the detection of spatial differences in the frequency of heavy and extreme events with western Kentucky being 3 times more likely to experience such an event, and (c) the identification of significant increases in the frequency of heavy and extreme precipitation events over time in the greater Louisville area - the state's largest population center. 

Two graduate students and three undergraduate students began new positions as research assistants in the CRL in August 2025. We are extremely excited to have such a large group joining our team and advancing the mission of the lab!

Graduate student Christopher Tuwor comes to WKU from the Pan-African University and Institute of Water and Energy Science where he recently completed a M.S. in Climate Change. He previously earned his B.S. in Meteorology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Christopher will be conducting research on the atmospheric environments resulting in extreme precipitation across the central United States and how those environments are projected to vary under future climatic scenarios.

 Graduate student Sanskar Adhikari joins the CRL having most recently completed his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tribhuvan University. Sanskar currently serves as a teaching assistant for the Meteorology program's introductory lab. His initial research efforts will involve investigating the spatial variations in turbulent and radiative fluxes during snowmelt events in the Northern Hemisphere.

Preston Wells is currently a sophomore in the Meteorology program with a minor in computer science. Preston is conducting research on the large-scale variability of snowmelt events, including the potential for snowpack depletion and the climatology of precipitation during rain-on-snow ablation.

Zach Fuquay is currently a sophomore in the Meteorology program. He's research will be investigating the synoptic-scale atmospheric environments that lead to rapid snowmelt events within the Ohio River basin, working to differentiate key features that lead to variable hydrological outcomes during similar setups. 

Ryan Hiler is currently Junior in the Meteorology program with minor in Broadcasting. Ryan's research will be assessing the intra-weather type variability of key snowmelt-inducing synoptic weather types, seeking to resolve the physical forcing mechanisms behind observed trends in snowmelt frequeny and intensity in regional climates.

A new research article has been published in Climate Dynamics, entitled: Temporal trends and large-scale atmospheric and oceanic forcings of central U.S. snowfall producing weather systems. The research, authored by Dr. Suriano, Dr. Greg Goodrich, and CRL alum's Charlie Loewy (WKU EEAS) and Jamie Uz (Univ. of Nebraska Omaha Biology), assesses how key weather patterns previously shown to lead to snowfall across the central Great Plains have varied and changed over time with respect to interannual frequency and inherent meteorological conditions such as pressure, winds, temperature, and dewpoint. The research demonstrates that changes in such inherent conditions can explain a meaningful portion of the observed trends in snowfall in the region over the last 75 years.

Effective at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, Dr. Suriano has officially been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, with tenure, in EEAS at WKU. The designation provides the opportunity to be more creative in pursuing new and inherently higher-risk research and service efforts, and represents a major accomplishment for a faculty member. Congrats Dr. Suriano! 

Three current CRL students were awarded special distinctions at the Ogden College of Science and Engineering 2025 Awards Ceremony. Samuel Davidson was awarded EEAS' Outstanding Graduate Student for 2025, while also being identified as the the Honorable Mention for the Outstanding Graduate Student at the college level. Harmony Guercio was awarded the 2025 L. Michael Trapasso Outstanding Senior in Meteorology. Lexi Fugatt was awarded the 2025 L. Michael Trapasso Research Awarded in Atmospheric Science. Congratulations!

A new research article has been published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology, entitled: Atmospheric Circulation During Kentucky Heavy and Extreme Precipitation. The research, authored by Abraham Tekeo and Dr. Suriano, identifies and describes the types of atmospheric setups that lead to heavy and extreme precipitation across the Commonwealth and assesses the large-scale forcings of their variability. Digging further, the recent April 2025 system that lead to over 10 inches of rain was correctly classified as one of the main weather types from this research!

At the 2025 Ogden College of Science and Engineering Faculty & Staff Awards Ceremony, Dr. Suriano was highlighted for his efforts in pursuit of external research grants by Associate Dean for Research Dr. Webb and by Dean of the College Dr. Brown for his recent NSF CAREER award, the first such award in WKU's history.

A new research article has been published in the International Journal of Climatology entitled: Climatological Context of the Severe Rain-on-Snow Flooding Event of March 2019 in Eastern Nebraska. The research, authored by Dr. Suriano, Samuel Davidson, and two collaborators for University of Nebraska Lincoln, examines how unique the case study event was from the perspectives of snow ablation and precipitation magnitude, synoptic-scale circulation, and antecedent conditions over a multi-decadal period. While some areas experienced their largest rain-on-snow event on record during the event, there was precedent for an event of this magnitude for the majority of the region within the climatological record.

The five-year project, entitled Historical and Projected Atmospheric and Energetic Forcings of Eastern U.S. Snow Ablation, is slated to begin July 2025 and will support research into the causes of rapid snowmelt and rain-on-snow within the observational past and model simulated future. The CAREER award also supports education initiatives to enhance service- and experiential-learning opportunities for EEAS students and to develop Open Educational Resources and Climate Services in Kentucky. This is the first NSF CAREER award in WKU's history and is the first major award issued in association with the CLIMBS initiative!

WKU meteorology major Lexi Fugatt has recently joined the CRL as a part of the NSF CLIMBS project. Building on her efforts to secure external funding for snowfall-related research, Lexi will be conducting a regionalization of snowfall phenology variables across the central US while exploring the role of temperature and precipitation variability on observed trends. Lexi is currently a part of WKU AMS/NWA Student Chapter leadership and is a Teaching Assistant in the METR 121 laboratory. Welcome Lexi!

CRL undergraduate students Harmony Guercio and Jackson Powers, and Dr. Suriano, traveled to New Orleans, LA, to present recent research at the 2025 AMS annual meeting. Presentations included the assessments of numerical simulations during different types of hydrometeorological events, climatological and atmospheric analyzes of snowfall, and the development and implementation of climate services. Projects are funded, in part, by NOAA, NSF, and NCEI. S315, S029, 10A.1, J8B.3 The team was able to meet up with some recent WKU alum!

CRL graduate student Samuel Davidson and Dr. Suriano traveled to Washington D.C. to present research at the AGU annual meeting. The presentations were all related to different aspects of rain-on-snow precipitation events as a part of our current NOAA-funded project evaluating the climatology, energetic forcing mechanisms, and model representations of these events. A53R-2382, C21D-0383, H14B-03

Excited to announce that AT&T Kentucky is supporting efforts in the WKU Disaster Science Operations Center (DSOC) to build climate and hazard resilience through the Climate Resilient Communities Initiative. The $42,000 contribution to DSOC will facilitate community preparedness with the Barren River Area Development District and leverage ClimRR model outputs in enhancing local hazard mitigation plans. The CRL is collaborating on this effort, with the full press release here.

Congratulations to CRL's Samuel Davidson on his grant award from WKU Graduate Studies! This award will help support his travel to the AGU Fall Meeting in Washington DC.

Excited to announce the addition of two new undergraduate student researchers to the CRL team! Carly Crockett is currently a sophomore within the WKU Meteorology program and is conducting research on Kentucky disasters in association with a Consortium of Disaster Science and Management TOP funded grant. Spencer Chafin is a senior in the WKU Meteorology program. His research is being supported by NOAA as he evaluates the spatial variability of energetic fluxes during rain-on-snow events in the eastern US. They will join existing researcher Harmony Guercio for the 2024-25 academy year as she shifts her research focus onto the seasonality of snowfall across the central US, funded by the NSF.

The Ogden College of Science and Engineering has funded a QTAG proposal to support undergraduate student Harmony Guercio's research for Summer 2024. The project entitled "Assessment of Snowfall-Inducing Weather Conditions over the Ohio River Basin" is expected to be completed by the end of August and result in the submission of a research manuscript with Harmony as the first author.

The Kentucky Climate Center (KCC) and the State Climate Office held the 2024 Kentucky Climate Services Summit in Frankfort, KY. The two-day event brought together industry and state partners, community members, scientists, and KCC personnel to identify and discuss state needs for climate data and information. The event was sponsored by an American Association of State Climatologists grant.

New research published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology entitled A Snowfall Climatology of the Ohio River Valley, USA with WKU undergraduate student Harmony Guercio. The main finding was that seasonal snowfall has significantly decreased in central TN into eastern OH by as much as 55% since the late 1940s, with evidence of a compressing snowfall season to just core winter months.

New research published in Hydrological Processes entitled Ohio River Basin Snow Ablation and the Role of Rain-on-Snow with WKU graduate student Samuel Davidson, and Ross Dixon and Tirthankar Roy from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Some of the primary findings were that rain-on-snow represents approximately 40% of all ablation events within the basin, rain-on-snow events melted 24-25% more snow than non-rain-on-snow events, and the magnitude of precipitation during rain-on-snow significantly increased for much of the basin over the last 40 years.

The NSF's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) has funded our Research Infrastructure Improvement Program Track-1 grant The Climate Resilience through Multidisciplinary Big Data Learning, Prediction & Building Response Systems (CLIMBS). The research will advance scientific understanding of Kentucky weather and climate over the coming century to inform community risk management strategies, among other areas of emphasis. We will receive $2.1m over the period 2024-2029 on the project as a sub-award. WKU collaborators include Jerry Brotzge, Josh Durkee, Xingang Fan, Greg Goodrich, David Oliver, and Jason Polk. Press release.

Congratulations to Harmony and Abraham on their new honors as the 2024 winners of the L. Michael Trapasso Research Award in Atmospheric Science and the L. Michael Trapasso Outstanding Senior in Meteorology Award, respectively. Harmony will be a senior next year in the Meteorology program while Abraham is graduating from WKU and will attending Florida State University in the Fall as a graduate student on an AMS Graduate Fellowship.

A new Open Educational Resource (OER) Laboratory Manual was published by the WKU Libraries Press. Introduction to Meteorology: An OER Laboratory Manual can be accessed and adopted freely under a CC-BY-NC license. This effort was supported by a 2023 WKU Libraries Affordable Textbook Program Grant.

Harmony, Abraham, and Samuel all presented their research at the 2024 WKU Student Scholar Showcase on April 6th. In total, there were 41 different Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric students presenting! Abraham further presented some of his research from Summer 2023 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) in Hawaii.

CRL's Abraham Tekoe was selected to present his research on the Variations and Trends in Heavy and Extreme Precipitation in Kentucky between 1949-2022 at the 2024 Kentucky Posters at the Capitol March 7th! Abraham was one of only 100 students across Kentucky selected for this event. Due to travel obligations, Harmony Guercio presented on Abraham's behalf. Four of the 10 WKU students were from the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences.

New research published in Physical Geography entitled "Temporal and spatial patterns of hydroclimate variability related to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in Michigan, USA" with Todd Grote at the University of Indiana Southeast. A key finding is that Michigan streamflow is significantly greater during PDO+ phases compared to PDO- phases, particular from August through February. This is partially driven by increases in precipitation and groundwater recharge during PDO+ phases.

The Trans-disciplinary Opportunity Program (TOP), sponsored by the WKU Provost's Office, has funded our WKU Consortium of Disaster Science and Management (CDSM) proposal for the next two years. The CDSM serves as a central hub of trans-disciplinary disaster science and management research, education, and outreach at WKU and includes participatory programs and researchers across multiple WKU colleges. Collaborators include PI-Josh Durkee, Tania Basta, and David Oliver.

Members of the research lab gave a total of three presentations at the Fall Meeting of the AGU in San Francisco. Presentations included "Climatology and Composite of Synoptic Winter Storms across Western New York" by Abraham, "Snow Ablation in the Ohio River Basin: Climatology and Role of Rain-on-Snow" by Dr. Suriano and Samuel, and "Is wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) or physiological equivalent temperature (PET) a better predictor of medical stress in a marathon?" by Dr. Suriano.

The entire research lab attended and presented research at the 2023 annual meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science, hosted by Northern Kentucky University. Harmony and Samuel each presented a poster and then Dr. Suriano, Abraham, and Jackson Powers (advised by Dr. Fan) presented oral talks.

New research published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology entitled "Synoptic Climatology of central United States Snowfall" with WKU undergraduate student Charles Loewy and UNO undergraduate student Jamie Uz. This is the second of a three part series of papers evaluating the variability and atmospheric forcing mechanisms of snowfall conditions in the US. 

New research published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology entitled "Atmospheric drivers associated with extreme snow ablation and discharge events in the Susquehanna River Basin: A climatology" with collaborators at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Delaware.

New Pedagogical research has been published by the Journal of Geography in Higher Education entitled, "Impact of Open Educational Resources on Student Performance in an Introductory Geography Course". A key finding of the research was the detection of significant increases in academic performance and a significant reduction in student withdrawal rates once Open Educational Resources were implemented in a course compared to previous for-cost materials.

We are pleased to welcome two new undergraduate and one graduate students to the CRL for the 2023-2024 academic year: Abraham Tekoe and Harmony Guercio. Abraham is a senior within the WKU METR and ESGS programs and will be working on a RCAP-funded project evaluating precipitation intensity and forcing mechanisms within the state of Kentucky. Harmony is a junior within the WKU METR program and will be working on a OCSE-funded project examining snowfall processes across the Ohio River basin over the last 80 years. Samuel Davidson enrolled in the EEAS MS Geoscience graduate program having formerly completed his BS in Meteorology with certifications in Emergency Management Disaster Science and GIS at WKU. He is supported by a NOAA-CVP grant as he works on his thesis related to rain-on-snow ablation within the Connecticut River Basin in New England.

NOAA has funded a recent grant proposal for two years "The Impact of Surface Fluxes on rain-on-snow events in the U.S. and improving their representation in climate models." WKU serves as lead with collaborators Ross Dixon and Tirthankar Roy at University of Nebraska at Lincoln. The grant will support a M.S. graduate student at WKU and a post-doc at UNL.

New research published by the International Journal of Climatology entitled "Intra-annual snowfall variability in the central United States". UNO undergraduate student Jamie Uz and WKU undergraduate student Charlie Loewy are co-authors on the paper. Key findings include significant decreases in March snowfall across the region, indicating a shortening of the snowfall season with time.

As of May 2023, Dr. Suriano is serving as the Assistant Kentucky State Climatologist within the Kentucky Climate Center at WKU. The Center is under the direction of State Climatologist Dr. Jerry Brotzge. Keep a look out for forthcoming communications about the new work we will be doing to benefit KY!

The Office of Research and Creative Activity has funded a new research proposal through RCAP to support infrastructure and an undergraduate research assistant for the 2023-24 academic year. The project is entitled "Extreme Precipitation Events in Kentucky: Analysis of Variations, Weather Conditions, and Implications".

The WKU Libraries has funded my Open Educational Resources (OER) grant via their Affordable Textbook Program. The project will create new learning materials and a laboratory manual for Introductory Meteorology courses and will be implemented in METR 121 in Fall 2023.