Gary Lackmann
North Carolina State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Hurricanes and other tropical cyclones usually weaken after they hit land. Yet even weakening storms can cause major damage through long-lasting rain and sustained winds.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
tropical cyclones
hurricanes
landfall
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Assess how a warming climate shifts tropical cyclone activity and landfall locations in the North Atlantic, using observations and global climate model simulations that resolve individual storms.
- Test how closeness to the mid-latitude jet stream changes how fast storms weaken after landfall, using idealized and real-storm case studies run under pseudo-global warming scenarios.
- Quantify future changes in post-landfall rainfall, the reach of damaging winds, and the frequency and strength of storm–jet interactions, combining modeling and observational analyses.
More about the research
How fast a storm fades over land depends on local factors such as soil and terrain. It also depends on less-studied interactions with the jet stream, the fast band of winds in the middle latitudes. These interactions may matter more as the climate warms, so understanding them helps predict future storm impacts on inland communities.
Why it matters
Better estimates of how landfalling hurricanes will weaken, and where their heavy rain and damaging winds will reach in a warmer climate, could help coastal and inland communities, emergency managers and state agencies plan for flooding and wind damage. The work could also improve understanding of how storm–jet stream interactions shape future hurricane risk.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Haiyan Jiang
Florida International University, FL·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize how tropical cyclone rainfall distribution and asymmetry change before, during and after landfall, using statistical analysis of long-term satellite observations.
Lantao Sun
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine how much Arctic sea ice loss affects summer atmospheric circulation and the jet stream, and through what mechanisms, using DAMIP and PAMIP climate model simulations.
Gan Zhang
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Earth & Environmental Science
Map the limits of how far ahead high-impact tropical and mid-latitude cyclones can be predicted, using new AI weather forecasting models, and identify the starting conditions that control storm development.
The school
North Carolina State University: 40 labs on PI Pages, $717M a year on research, 603 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.