Gab at the Lab: Patrick Skinner

Patrick Skinner, NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate

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Background:Ph.D., Wind Science and Engineering, Texas Tech, 2014
M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, Texas Tech, 2009
B.S. Earth Sciences - Meteorology, U. of Northern Colorado, 2003
Experience:Patrick had an interesting journey to becoming a meteorologist, which included a few stints at Dominos pizza! From those experiences, he learned patience and perseverance that helped propel him through a doctorate degree program and, ultimately, to a position with NSSL. Since December 2013, Patrick has been a member of the Forecast Research & Development Division here at the Lab. He works on the Warn-on-Forecast project. Starting in December 2015, he will join OU CIMMS as a Postdoc, researching applications for Warn-on-Forecast in the upcoming VORTEX-SE project.
What He Does:As a contributor to the Warn-on-Forecast project, Patrick focuses on verification, optimizing observation density, and EnKF analyses of supercells. He uses data assimilation to study supercell dynamics. He ensures that the density of observations is not degrading the quality of the forecast. He also uses object- and optical flow-based verification for Warn-on-Forecast. The project aims to increase tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flash flood warning lead times and offers a new approach in which probabilistic guidance is provided by an ensemble of model forecasts. Learn more: http://nssl.noaa.gov/projects/wof/
Trivia: Patrick was recently married and enjoyed a trip to Innsbruck, Austria with his wife in September!
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