Thesis Defense Announcement for Tiffany DeBoer
The Geography and Environmental Planning graduate program invites the university community to a thesis defense for Tiffany DeBoer on November 22, 2019 at 2:00 pm in LA 2317.
Thesis title: Relationships between teleconnections and tornado activity in the Southeastern United States
Committee members: Dr. Todd Moore, Dr. Paporn Thebpanya and Dr. Martin Roberge
Abstract: In the last couple of decades, tornado activity and societal exposure in the Southeastern United States has been increasing. Given the vulnerability of this region, it is important to explore the possible contributors to tornadogenesis in order to develop predictive models of seasonal and subseasonal tornado activity. Such outlooks are useful to forewarn communities of potential tornado threats and to implement safety plans. Studies have considered large-scale teleconnections such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as a predictor of heightened tornado activity. While ENSO holds predictive skill in determining heightened tornado activity in some seasons, there is noted sub-seasonal variability in ENSO as well as other teleconnections that interact with ENSO. This study examines the relationships between monthly tornado counts and four teleconnections: ENSO, North Atlantic Oscillation, Pacific-North American Oscillation, and the Arctic Oscillation. Through descriptive statistics, spatial distributions, and predictive models, this study finds that there is sub-seasonal variability between single teleconnections and tornado activity as well as inconsistencies in the “best” predictor for tornado activity.
Categorised in: General
This post was written by Walczak, Robin