Faculty Advisor: Dr. Gary M. Lackmann(Professor; Ph.D. SUNY Albany, May 1995) | |
| At first glance, my hometown
of Seattle Washington is a meteorological bore. And I don't mean an
undular bore, which would
actually be quite exciting to a weather geek like me.
However, despite its reputation for extended periods of stratus and light rain,
the meteorology of the Pacific Northwest is characterized by
a rich interaction between complex topography and active synoptic-scale
systems. The weather extremes that captivated my interest as a child can result:
95-degree heat in the Seattle summer, rare but occasionally heavy winter snows,
gusty winds during winter rainstorms,
or thundery springtime occurrences of the Puget Sound Convergence Zone. Even modest snow over the hilly terrain of Seattle, coupled with a lack of snow removal equipment, can bring the city to a standstill. The ability of nature to halt human activity is a continuing source of my fascination with weather. Indeed, the massive Pacific Northwest snows of January 1969 stand out as one of my earliest memories. Growing up, I would despair when a forecasted snowstorm failed to materialize; other times, I would celebrate the unexpected snowstorm, marveling at the ability of nature to defy human attempts to predict it. I struggled to understand why forecasts that had sounded so confident could go awry. My interest in this topic continues to this day, and a primary focus of our research in this laboratory is to improve the understanding and forecasting of various meteorological phenomena, including winter weather. In August 1999 I joined the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at NCSU here in Raleigh. I teach graduate- and undergraduate-level synoptic-dynamic meteorology and numerical weather prediction. I am currently the primary advisor for five graduate students. For biographical details including where and with whom I have worked, and where I have studied, click here.
|
| For more information, see my Home Page.
Email: gary@ncsu.edu
| |
Megan Gentry(B.S. Meteorology; North Carolina State University, May 2005)(M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, August 2007) | |
| Megan worked as an undergraduate research
assistant in the Forecasting Lab during the summer of 2004 as well as during
the academic year, studying tropical cyclones. Specifically, Megan analyzed
dropsonde and aircraft data from Hurricane Lili, and compared these data
to output from numerical weather prediction models to establish the extent
to which these models could properly represent the structure of the storm.
More recently, Megan has begun her graduate study, and she continues to work on improving model representation of hurricanes using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. She defended her M.S. in June 2007, and has begun working towards her doctorate. |
| Email:
msgentry@unity.ncsu.edu
| |
Kevin Hill(B.S. Meteorology; SUNY College at Brockport, May 2004)(M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, December 2006) | |
| Kevin was born and raised near Buffalo, New York in the small town of Clarence. Clarence is located in a favorable location for heavy lake effect snow, and it was these lake effect snow storms (and the days off of school that they brought) which inspired Kevin to pursue a career in meteorology. After graduating from Clarence High School in 2000, he decided to major in meteorology at SUNY Brockport, and graduated magna cum laude in 2004. In August 2004, Kevin decided he was sick of cold weather and came to NC State to pursue an M.S. degree in Meteorology. Upon completion of his M.S., he decided that he loved graduate school so much that he is staying on for his doctoral degree.
Outside of meteorology, Kevin is interested in sports, music and spending time with friends. |
| Email:
kevin1182@yahoo.com
| |
Kelly Mahoney(B.S. Meteorology; North Carolina State University, May 2003)(M.S. Atmospheric Sciences; North Carolina State University, August 2005) | |
| Kelly was born in Baltimore, MD and
raised in nearby Ellicott City, MD. She headed south to NC State in
1999 and completed her B.S. in Meteorology in 2003 and M.S. in
Atmospheric Science in 2005. Kelly was fortunate enough to
participate in the CSTAR project for her master's work, doing
collaborative research with National Weather Service forecasters
to study the effects of upstream convection on downstream precipitation
forecasts in the Southeast U.S. Kelly is now working toward her Doctoral degree, researching the impact of convective momentum transport in mesoscale convective systems. Outside of work, Kelly enjoys traveling, running, hiking, cooking, and spending time with friends. |
| Email: kmmahon2@unity.ncsu.edu
| |
Christian Cassell(B.S. Meteorology; North Carolina State University, May 2006) | |
| Christian has been working on a COMET project to study the effects of upstream convection on downstream precipitation. He is extending earlier work by Kelly Mahoney through the development of a climatology of events, using composites and composite-initialied WRF model simulations. Late in the summer of 2008, Christian accepted a job with the National Weather Service in Anchorage, Alaska; he is continuing his graduate studies on a part-time basis. |
| Email:
cmcasse2@unity.ncsu.edu
| |
|
|
|
