Hi, I’m Rebecca! I’m a research scientist working with the Diagnostics Team at ECMWF (the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), and the Climate Intelligence team of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). In diagnostics, we work on providing a physical understanding of forecast performance, working at the interface of research and operational forecasting. For the past couple of years I’ve worked on evaluating forecast performance for tropical cyclones in south-east Africa, including cyclone tracks, rainfall and flooding. The climate intelligence team monitor the evolution of our climate and report on key climate variables and events.
My interest in meteorology and forecasting began in 2004, when my family and I experienced a strong category 4 hurricane, Charley, in Florida. Ever since then, I’ve been fascinated by forecasting the Earth System and natural hazards, how forecasts can be used in decision-making and anticipatory action, and how our climate is changing.
From 2009 – 2013, I studied meteorology at the University of Reading, during which I evaluated ensemble forecasts of tropical cyclones around the world. While hurricanes sparked my curiosity for meteorology, I’m interested in forecasting of any and all weather and climate phenomena and natural hazards, and from 2014 – 2018 I worked on my PhD with the Water@Reading research group at the University of Reading, in collaboration with ECMWF, researching flood forecasting and predictability, including seasonal forecasting and links between El Niño and flooding. My PhD was supervised by Prof Hannah Cloke, Dr Liz Stephens and Prof Steve Woolnough at UoR and Prof Florian Pappenberger at ECMWF. I spent ~2 years working as postdoctoral research scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, on a project looking at prediction of tropical cyclones and their impacts in south-east Africa (PICSEA), working closely with the Red Cross Climate Centre, and the national meteorological services in Mozambique, Madagascar and the Seychelles, before joining ECMWF in 2020.
PS. During my PhD, I also kept a blog on this website (previously the everydayscientist blog), to informally discuss the science I do, and life as a typical, everyday scientist and PhD student. You can still find the blog here, or in the menu bar at the top. Maybe I’ll even update it from time to time, but these days I spend more time collaborating on articles for C3S, or as an associate editor for Meteorological Applications – I love being able to share and showcase the work of scientists around the globe.
Rebecca Emerton 