Group members

Dr Matt Priestley - PDRA on EMERGENCE NERC-funded project
Dr Packard Chan - PDRA on EMERGENCE NERC-funded project
Dr Stephanie Hay - PDRA on ArcticConnect project
Dr Phil Sansom - PDRA on STORMY-WEATHER project
Dr T Davies-Barnard - PDRA on KaLi project
Dr Ju Liang - PDRA on IMPRESS project
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Laura Owen - PhD student - Compound precipitation and wind events associated with extratropical cyclones
Yi Wang - PhD student - Precipitation types over China using machine learning
Tim Lam - PhD student - Climate drivers of Borneo Drought 
Hao Yu - PhD student - Impact of Arctic sea ice loss on European extreme precipitation events
Lizzy Galloway - PhD student - Holistic approach to impacts forecasting

Current Projects

STORMY-WEATHER: Plausible storm hazards in a future climate (2020-2022)

KaLi - Drought and peatland fires in Indonesian Borneo: Understanding drivers and impacts to build resilience through sustainable development (2020-2024)

EMERGENCE - Emergence of climate hazards (2019-2022)

Lifecycles of atmospheric fronts, associated circulation and impact (2020-2022)

ArcticConnect: CONsequences of Arctic WarmiNg for European Climate & ExTreme Weather (2020-2023)

Research Topics

Extratropical Cyclones and Storm Tracks
I am interested in extratropical cyclones and the associated fronts, and the aggregated storm tracks at the global and regional scale; their dynamical structure, their variability in time and space, how they are represented in climate models, and how they may change in the future.
Most recently, following my review of cyclone classification techniques (see Catto 2016) I developed a simple automated method of classifying extratropical cyclones that can produce groups of cyclones that are very similar to those seen using manual classification techniques (Catto 2018).   


Midlatitude Precipitation
Extratropical cyclones and their associated fronts are hugely important for the day-to-day variability of precipitation in the midlatitudes.  I used an automated front detection algorithm and linked the fronts to observational estimates of precipitation to quantify for the first time how much of the global precipitation is associated with fronts (Catto et al 2012). I then found that up to 90% of extreme precipitation events in the midlatitudes are associated with fronts (Catto and Pfahl 2013). I have performed similar analysis on climate models to investigate the representation of these processes and how they may change in the future.
I am interested in understanding the physical processes responsible for extreme precipitation events to answer the following questions:

Why do some fronts produce extreme precipitation and others do not? 
What are the spatial and temporal scales of extreme precipitation from cyclones and fronts that are important for flooding events?
How will midlatitude precipitation events change in the future?    


Climate model evaluation
Climate models are our main tool for understanding how our weather and climate may change in the future as the planet warms.  In order to have confidence in their projections, we must evaluate their ability to represent present weather and climate.  I have developed a number of novel process-based evaluation techniques related to extratropical cyclones, fronts, precipitation, and the El Nino Southern Oscillation remote impacts. Continuing this type of work is an important goal of my research. 


Other research interests
Tropical-extratropical interactions
Other cyclone-related hazards (e.g. extreme winds and waves)
Air-sea interactions (particularly within extratropical cyclones)
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