About us
We love all things climate. Our lab is interested in the hows and whys of climate and weather, but also the so whats. Our work spans many topics - from addressing questions on climate variability, to understanding climate impacts on natural resources and society, to developing climate datasets and tools to inform decision-making. We work to better connect climate information and science to a variety of disciplines and improve the accessibility of climate information to assist decision-makers, scientists, and the public.
our work
Recent news
Summer 2025
- Dmitri published a papers in JGR Atmosphere's and Earth's Future on ML-based lightning models and projections for the western US, including changing risks of lightning coincident with dry fuels.
- Emily published a paper in Earth's Future showing that human-caused climate change has increased evaporative demand and hastened water resource issues in the western US
- Adam advanced to Candidacy and had his first paper published that highlights the role that COVID had on human-caused fire starts during 2020 in the western US
- Ashwin advanced to Candidacy and we received a grant from CalFire for work on fire management in California
- We welcomed Madhu Gurazada and Precious Ebiendele as PhD students to the lab. Madhu will be working on topics related to agriculture and water sustainability, while Precious will be focused on dust and heat extremes in California.
- Abby published the last chapter of her dissertation work showing decreased viability of rock glaciers in the mountainous West with continued climate change.
- Emily published a paper in Nature Communications E&E showing that climate change has already decreased drought recovery odds in much of the western US.
- We welcomed Drs. Dmitri Kalashnikov and Cong Yin as postdoctoral scientists working with us. Dmitri will be working on an NSF fellowship on lightning and precipitation in the western US. Cong will be working on climate-hydrology analytics relating to agricultural impacts.
- Congrats to Ken for passing his qualifying exam and becoming a PhD candidate.
- Dr. Emily Williams joined the Climatology Lab as a postdoctoral scientist. She will be working on understanding drought, drought impacts, and wildfire in the West.
- Adam Jorge joined the Climatology Lab as a PhD student. He will be working on fire science and policy as well as carbon ramifications.
- Ashwin presented his work on the drivers of lightning ignition efficiency at the Fire and Climate conference in Pasadena.
- Katherine presented on the Climate Toolbox on Climate Solutions day hosted by the North Central Climate Science Adaptation Center.