Welcome to the website for the Climate Research Lab (CRL) in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences at Western Kentucky University, led by Dr. Zachary Suriano. As a research group, we investigate high-impact meteorological and hydrological phenomena from climatological and geographical perspectives, creating a greater understanding of the climate system. Primary research interests include understanding the role of atmospheric circulation in forcing hydroclimatic variability in regional climates, the impacts hydroclimatic variability has on people and the environment, and how these interactions are varying and potentially changing over time. Research efforts in the CRL include those of WKU collaborator Dr. Xingang Fan. The CRL additionally works closely with the Kentucky Climate Center in support of climatological applications across the state.

Students interested in working in the lab should explore the “Research” and “Join Our Lab” sections for more information.

Recent News and Events

May 2024: 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.

April 2024: 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.

April 2024: 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.

March 2024: 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.

February 2024: 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.

December 2023: 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.

December 2023: 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.

November 2023: 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.

October 2023: 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. Keep an eye out for the final component in the coming months!

October 2023: 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.

September 2023: 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.

September 2023: We are pleased to welcome two new undergraduate students to the Climatology Lab 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.

September 2023: I am excited to welcome a new graduate student to Research Lab this semester: Samuel Davidson. Samuel is 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.

August/September 2023: WKU News did two press releases about the Research Lab over the last few weeks. One focused on a recent publication in the lab (here) and the other about our efforts with collaborators at UNL on a NOAA-funded project on improving rain-on-snow modeling (here).

July 2023: The Climate Research Lab in EST 355 received a facelift over the summer with a new configuration, dedicated graduate student office space, large meeting table, and multiple new Mac Studio computer workstations. Check out the photos below!

June 2023: 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.

June 2023: 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.

May 2023: I am excited to announce I am now 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!

May 2023: 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”.

Mar 2023: Research paper was presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Denver with undergraduate students Charlie Loewy and Jamie Uz. Talk focused on the spatiotemporal variations and changes in intra-annual snowfall in the central U.S.

Mar 2023: 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.

Jan 2023: I have been accepted to the 2023 cohort of the Inclusive Teaching Academy, sponsored by WKU CITL. The primary program goal is to cultivate a mindset of continuous growth through praxis and reflection as a way to foster DEI advocacy at WKU. These practices will begin to be incorporated into coursework starting in the Spring.

Dec 2022: Grant proposal was funded by WKU’s CITL to redevelop the laboratory associated with METR 121, Meteorology, in the form of a Teaching Development Grant. Development will occur during the Spring and Summer of 2023 for implementation Fall 2023. Any former METR 121 student is encouraged to provide feedback on how the lab could be further revised during this process.

Nov 2022: Members of the Climatology Lab will be presenting two different research projects next month at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Chicago, IL. Abstract IDs are: 1174102 and 1172891, corresponding to presentations on Dec 13 at 2:45pm and Dec 14 at 9am (CST), respectively. We hope you’ll stop by!

Nov 2022: The Climatology Lab is pleased to welcome Mr. Charlie Loewy to the team! Charlie is an undergraduate student at WKU in EEAS and is working on a new research project evaluating snowfall variability and atmospheric forcing mechanisms in the Central U.S.

Oct 2022: Honored to visit Kent State University’s Department of Geography to share some of our forthcoming work about snow ablation and discharge in the Chesapeake River Basin as a part of their colloquium series. More information coming forth soon about this research!

Sep 2022: New research published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine evaluating two different metrics of environmental conditions as a means to predict medical stress during marathon running. Research was conducting in collaboration with A. Schroeder (Mayo Clinic), S. Kliethermes (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison), C. Asplund (Mayo Clinic), and W. Roberts (Univ. Minnesota Medical School).

Jul 2022: I recently took a new academic position at Western Kentucky University in the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences. Archives of information from the University of Nebraska at Omaha can be found here.

Feb 2022: New research published in Frontiers in Water with Drew Ellis from Virginia Tech presenting a hybrid climatology of lake-effects in the Great Lakes region from both air mass modification and atmospheric configuration approaches.

Dec 2021: Research poster presented at the AGU Fall Meeting examining the spatiotemporal trends in snow ablation across North America over the last half-century and the various forcing mechanisms that contribute to variations in frequency. Poster

Dec 2021: New research published in Climate Research that presents a climatology of rain-on-snow (ROS) ablation across the North American continent, specifically quantifying the relative contribution of all ablation events due to ROS, and identifying regions of significant temporal changes.

Oct 2021: Research on the climatological nature of rain-on-snow ablation in Nebraska and specific conditions associated with a March 2019 event was presented at the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting of the AAG.

Sep 2021: A new Open Educational Resource (OER) textbook was formally published by University of Nebraska at Omaha Publishing. The textbook is designed for use as a laboratory manual in human-environment geography courses. It is publicly available at University of Nebraska Pressbooks.

Jun 2021: Part two of the companion papers stemming from the NSF-funded NEWRnet project has been accepted by the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres. Effects of Atmospheric Circulation on Stream Chemistry in Forested Watersheds across the Northeast United States: Part 2. Interannual Weather Type Variability. with C. Siegert, D. Leathers, A. Gold, K. Addy, A. Schroth, E. Seybold, S. Inamdar, and D. Levia.

Mar 2021: New paper was published by the International Journal of Climatology that detailed the spatial and temporal changes in snow ablation events across North America over the last 60 years. Part of the NOAA-funded project with D. Robinson, T. Mote, G. Henderson, D. Leathers, T. Estilow, and L. Wachowicz.

Feb 2021: A new article was accepted by the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres: Effects of Atmospheric Circulation on Stream Chemistry in Forested Watersheds across the Northeast United States: Part 1. Synoptic-scale Forcing. The collaborative effort was a part of the NSF-funded NEWRnet project.