Regional climate change impact assessments require location-specific information. To be considered useful to decision-makers and stakeholders, information within impact assessments must have sufficient resolution, robust uncertainty characterization, and fit the application’s de…
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The overarching goal of this thesis is to develop methods and models to create better insights in urban weather and climate. The approaches are diverse, ranging from data assimilation of crowdsourced urban weather observations to adjust a complex numerical weather prediction mod…
Accurate and timely precipitation estimates are critical for many hydrological applications, including monitoring and forecasting natural disasters, developing water resources management and planning strategies, as well as conducting climatological studies. Despite having high-r…
A combination of assessment, operational forecast, and future perspective was thoroughly explored to provide an overview of the existing air quality problems in Macao. The levels of air pollution in Macao often exceed those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In …
Over the last few decades, new technologies in the form of observational satellites, measurement instruments, and model simulations have enabled the scientific community to make substantial strides to understand the drivers, mechanics, and impacts of climate change. This dissert…
Extreme precipitation in Illinois contributes to impacts across diverse landscapes, posing threats to agriculture in rural areas and infrastructure in urban centers. Previous studies have reported an increase in the frequency of heavy precipitation in the region and projected it…
The seasonal tree-ring chronologies that recorded discrete moisture signal for warm and cool season have been used to reconstruct the North America Seasonal Precipitation Atlas (NASPA) by the point-by-point regression method, and the results indicated that they can fairly reprod…
Atmospheric rivers (ARs)—long corridors of intense atmospheric water vapor transport—significantly influence the hydrologic cycle and regional hydrometeorological extremes across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Ongoing and future climate change may alter AR characteristics…
Projections of 500 hPa geopotential height (Z500) patterns over the Pacific Northwest of North America and their associated surface temperature, precipitation, and frequency of occurrence are assessed using models from the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (…
I present three essays on the interaction between environmental policy, ambient air quality and human health. The first essay explores how trees in urban areas benefit human health. I provide causal evidence on the elasticity of air pollution and mortality to urban forest loss f…
This dissertation examines the regional and seasonal variability of extreme precipitation and atmospheric rivers (ARs) across the contiguous United States (CONUS) in past, present, and future climates. An extreme precipitation categorization scheme, designed to monitor and track…
Hurricanes and tropical cyclones, in general, are of great interest to weather and climate scientists alike due to their destructive tendency. Though Hawaii has historically avoided being hit directly by hurricanes, it is certain that the islands are uniquely vulnerable to cyclo…
The dispersion of pollutants originating from common sources in an urban environment were modeled. Modeling analyses were developed using AERMOD to evaluate PM2.5 emissions from a fireworks event, PM10 and NH3 from urban traffic infrastructure and H2S from a local water reclamat…
The South American Monsoon System (SAMS) is characterized by a well-defined wet and dry season, which is connected to the reversal of anomalous low-level winds east of the Andes. Driven by local and remote processes, the intensity and duration of the SAMS can vary considerably f…
The agricultural productions in the central and eastern United States are sensitive to springtime freeze events. As a result of global warming, increasing temperatures have led to earlier shifted springs, usually called false springs, which have resulted in disastrous damage on …
Major hurricanes are becoming more frequent due to climate change and the warming of the oceans. Now more than ever, the ability to model hurricanes accurately and provide advanced warning to affected areas is crucial. However, while hurricane track forecasting has greatly impro…
Snowfall forecasting has historically been an area of difficulty for operational meteorologists, particularly in the remote complex terrain of the Western US. Attempts at improving forecasts have been made, but skill is still poor, with snowfall routinely overpredicted. A major …
Cold Air Outbreaks (CAOs) are extreme events that can negatively impact the agricultural industry, human health, and cause widespread power outages from increased energy consumption. A systematic CAO classification was developed using two different climate reanalysis data sets f…
Greenhouse gases’ continuously increasing emissions have a variety of implications for the future of our climate patterns. This includes potential changes in the northern hemisphere jet strength and location, which are influenced by the warming in the subtropics and the Arctic. …
Humans spend more than 90% of their time indoors, yet we know little about the health effects of the indoor environment. A healthy body is one of the founding goals of architecture, and throughout history, architecture responds to both the scientific technology of the era and th…