Hugh Willoughby

Hurricane Dynamics: For most of my career. I’ve been interested in the dynamics of hurricane motion, structural evolution and intensity change. The main tools that I use are simple theoretical models and analysis of observations---generally radar and in-situ data from instrumented aircraft. I’ve made more than 400 research and reconnaissance flights into the eyes hurricanes and typhoons.

Hurricane Impacts: During the last few years I’ve also become interested in tropical cyclones’ human and economic impacts. I’m in the late stages of an analysis of statistical distributions and trends in hurricane caused damage and mortality. I’m also interested in temporal and geographical changes in the climatology of hurricane landfalls.

Grid Enabled Hurricane Modeling: I am working with colleagues in FIU’s School of Computing and Information Sciences and at IBM to develop a framework for massively parallel ensemble simulations of hurricanes using the advanced Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.