Weather and Climate

CCRUN’S cross-cutting weather and climate team provides the cities in the urban Northeast with the latest information on weather, and climate extremes, and offers recommendations on adaptation and resilience strategies. The team researches a variety of climate hazards including: extreme temperatures and humidity, heavy downpours, droughts, and sea level rise and coastal flooding. This cross-cutting theme addresses communities’ and decision-makers’ need for relevant, useful, and timely weather climate information, working with regional stakeholders to build resilience to extreme events.

Peer-reviewed publications have focused on impacts of, and adaptation to, short duration events. We have advanced understanding of the dangers of humid heat waves The Group has assessed heat impacts on aviation, human health, infrastructure and agriculture. Our researchers have also investigated the relationship between cold air outbreaks and forest pests, and between extreme precipitation and agriculture .  Other applied research topics have included regional sea level rise and coastal flooding projections and review articles on emerging topics such as 1) compound extreme events and their impacts , and 2) science and legal dimensions of climate attribution. 

Current Research:

Stakeholder engagement and research findings have pointed us to two areas for future research. 

Continuing applied research on climate extremes:

Much of this research will support the Integrated Project #1 (Compound Extremes), and associated Compound Extremes
work across the RISA network. For example, the Group will assess sequences of extreme events that stakeholders have identified as most impactful, such as heat waves after storms. Another likely applied research topic is how extremes and cascading impacts may contribute to changing settlement patterns in the Northeast.

Additional Projects:

  • Town+Gown: Climate Vulnerability, Impact, and Adaptation Analysis (VIA)
  • New York State Climate Impacts Assessment (NYSCIA) Climate Methods and Projections
  • Managed Retreat Conferences
  • Consolidated Edison Climate Change Vulnerability Study 

Recent Publications: 

Lesk, C., Csala, D., Hasse, R., Sgouridis, S., Levesque, A., Mach, K. J., Horen Greenford, D., Matthews, H. D., & Horton, R. M. (2022). Mitigation and adaptation emissions embedded in the broader climate transition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(47), e2123486119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123486119

Horton, R. M., de Sherbinin, A., Wrathall, D., & Oppenheimer, M. (2021). Assessing human habitability and migration. Science, 372(6548), 1279–1283. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi8603

Karmalkar, A. V., & Horton, R. M. (2021). Drivers of exceptional coastal warming in the northeastern United States. Nature Climate Change, 11(10), 854–860. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01159-7

Key Stakeholders:

  • NYSERDA
  • Consolidated Edison

Team Members: