Extreme Weather

Unprecedented summer warmth and flooding, destructive hurricanes, forest fires, drought and torrential rain — extreme weather events are occurring more and more often. Penn State experts look at the causes behind extreme weather, how we can better prepare for these events and the impact on the world around us.

The recent arrival of El Nino could lead to new record temperatures and an increased risk for heavy rainfall and drought in certain locations around the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. On top of El Nino, data show that the past eight years have been the warmest in modern history, leading to an increase in extreme weather events. From hurricanes to catastrophic flooding, weather disasters cost the U.S. more than $165 billion in 2022, according to NOAA.

  • From using big data to establish long-term models to pairing hurricane patterns with sounds, Penn State is using a multidisciplinary approach to tackling the increasing threat of hurricanes.
  • Penn State researchers work to better understand extreme weather occurrences in order to better predict, track and establish warning systems for these events.
  • Penn State experts can speak to the impact of climate change on wildfires and how their increasing occurrence is impacting ecosystems and landscapes.
Jenni Evans

Jenni Evans

Professor of Meteorology,
Director for the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences

Expertise:

  • Earth Science

Focus Areas:

Contact Jenni Evans with questions about: The impacts of climate change on tropical cyclones, statistical methodologies for forecasts of tropical cyclones, the relationships between organized convection and tropical cyclone intensity with sea surface temperature, and the implications of these relationships in a warming climate

Erica Smithwick

Erica Smithwick

Distinguished Professor of Geography,
Director of the Center for Landscape Dynamics,
Associate Director of the Institutes of Energy and the Environment

Expertise

  • Sustainability & Environment
  • Earth Science

Focus Areas:

Contact Erica Smithwick with questions about: The impact of climate change on people and environments, and how to address forest sustainability under climate variability.

Yvette Richardson

Yvette Richardson

Professor of Meteorology

Expertise:

  • Earth Science

Focus Areas:

Contact Yvette Richardson with questions about: The impacts of climate change on the formation and evolution of severe storms, tornadogenesis, radar observations of tornadic thunderstorms, convective initiation, and numerical modeling.

Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor

Director of Vegetation Dynamics Lab

Expertise

  • Sustainability & Environment
  • Earth Science

Focus Areas:

Contact Alan Taylor with questions about: landscape ecology, fire ecology, disturbance and climate effects on vegetation and wildfires, biogeography, biological conservation, environmental management and paleoecology.

Expertise:

  • Engineering & Technology

Focus Areas:

  • Hydrology
  • Water Resources

Contact Alfonso Mejia with questions about: water resource management, impact of climate change on droughts and floods

Need help finding an expert?

Penn State expertise spans far beyond those that we have currently featured on the site. Call us at 814-865-7517 or contact a member of the media relations staff

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