Active Weather for the West, Warming in the East

The potential for heavy snow at higher elevations in the western U.S. will continue for many spots through the weekend. In the meantime, the eastern half of the continental U.S. will transition to above normal temperatures ahead of a pair of cold fronts next week that will bring readings back to closer to normal as we approach Thanksgiving Day. Read More >

Welcome to our research papers page. Our mission here at the National Weather Service is to protect life and property. We sometimes conduct research here in our office to increase our knowledge of the atmosphere. Our goal is to apply this knowledge to help us better protect your life, lives of others, your property, and the property of others. We hope you find these research papers informative.

Below, we've included links to research paper some of our meteorologists have completed. If you have questions about any of these, please e-mail our Science and Operations Officer, Brian Curran.

Red Flag Threat Index
Greg Murdoch, Ryan Barnes and Chris Gitro (WFO Binghamton)

Red Flag Climatology for WFO Midland's Fire Weather Forecast Area
Greg Murdoch, Ryan Barnes and Jack Ciccone

An Operational Technique Used to Detect "Mountain Wave Signatures":
A Forecast Methodology for Severe Westerly Winds in the Mountains of West Texas
Todd Lindley (WFO Lubbock), Cody Lindsey and Jeffrey Cupo (WFO Mobile)

HI-RISE - Hazardous Incident Rapid In-Flight Support Effort:
Use of Asynoptic Upper-Air Data to Improve Weather Forecasts at Wildland
Fires & Other Hazardous Incidents
Greg P. Murdoch and Seth R. Nagle (WFO San Angelo)

Observations of a Tropical Storm in West Texas
Todd Lindley, Alex Lyster and Rebecca Gould (WFO Boston)

The Pecos County, Texas Hail Storms of 10 May 2002: A Null Tornado Event From a Warning Decision Perspective
Todd Lindley and Greg Morgan

Lightning Fatalities, Injuries, and Damage Reports in the United States from 1959-1994
co-authored by Brian Curran

Positive Ground Flashes Produced by Low-Precipitation Thunderstorms in Oklahoma on 26 April 1994
co-authored by Brian Curran

The Casa Grande Burn - Recognizing Critical Fire Weather Patterns
Alex Lyster and Greg Murdoch

Aspects of Significant West Wind Events Across West Texas and Southeast New Mexico
Jim DeBerry and Greg Murdoch

The Geography/Topography of WFO Midland's County Warning Area and its Influences on Weather and Climate
Doug Cain and Greg Murdoch

A Case Study in Tornado Forecasting: Applying Storm-Relative Mid-level Winds Using the Eta 12 and 24 Hour Forecast
Greg Murdoch

Rotational Velocity Trends in Some Tornadic Supercells over Southwest Texas and Southeast New Mexico
Terry Huber and John Pendergrast

The Association of La Niña on Midland, Texas Precipitation
Rich Naden and Eric Platt

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