Research: Colorado Weather and Climate

As Colorado State Climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center, Prof. Schumacher tries to integrate the activities of the research group and CCC when possible. This has led to numerous interesting studies. Former student Sam Childs conducted his PhD research on severe weather risk in eastern Colorado, resulting in these publications:

Childs, S.J., and R.S. Schumacher, 2019: An Updated Severe Hail and Tornado Climatology for Eastern Colorado. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 58, 2273-2293.

Childs, S.J., R.S. Schumacher, and S.M. Strader, 2020: Projecting end-of-century human exposure from tornadoes and severe hailstorms in eastern Colorado: Meteorological and population perspectives. Weather, Climate, and Society, 12, 575-595.

Childs, S.J., R.S. Schumacher, and J.L. Demuth, 2020: Agricultural perspectives on hailstorm severity, vulnerability, and risk messaging in eastern Colorado. Weather, Climate, and Society, 12, 897-911.

We have also been analyzing the destructive macroburst that took place in eastern Colorado in June 2020, and was observed by a unique set of instruments at a USDA research farm in Akron:

Childs, S.J., R.S. Schumacher, and R.D. Adams-Selin, 2021: High-resolution observations of a destructive macroburst. Monthly Weather Review , 149, 2875-2896.

In the CCC, we conduct research on drought, which has affected Colorado and the western US in recent years; agriculture is one of the economic sectors most affected by drought. As part of this research, CCC researcher Peter Goble led a study to develop a crop-specific drought index for the US:

Goble, P.E., R.A. Bolinger, and R.S. Schumacher, 2021: A CONUS-wide tandardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index for major US row crops. Journal of Hydrometeorology, in press.

The CCC also serves as the headquarters for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow (CoCoRaHS) network. CoCoRaHS was founded by Nolan Doesken after a major flash flood in Fort Collins in 1997, and has expanded across the US, Canada, and the Bahamas. The data from volunteer observers provide a great resource for studying heavy precipitation, as summarized in this article led by Peter Goble:

Goble, P.E., N.J. Doesken, I. Durre, R.S. Schumacher, A. Stewart, and J. Turner, 2020: Who received the most rain today? An analysis of daily precipitation extremes in the contiguous US using CoCoRaHS and COOP reports. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, E710-E719.

Be sure to check out the many other resources on the CCC and CoCoRaHS websites!