A Summer Of Flash Flood Disasters In 2021

Dr. Jeffrey Halverson
Department of Geography and Environmental Systems
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Major flash flood events in the U.S. in recent months (Tennessee, New York City), in Germany, and now Italy as well, have led to significant loss of life and property.  This talk briefly looks at the causes of these events, examining them through a multifactorial lens with focus on how global warming may be contributing to the frequency and magnitude of these disasters.

Dr. Jeff Halverson is currently Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems and Associate Dean in The Graduate School.  As an expert on severe storms, in 2001 he helped pioneer a new aircraft-based, upper atmospheric measuring system to take direct observations in the eye of hurricanes for NASA.  He and his team of grad students conduct research on thunderstorm electrification, Nor'easters and severe weather warnings.  Halverson teaches GES courses on Weather and Climate, Climate Change, Severe Storms, and Natural Hazards.  He is presently working with scientists at NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center to study extratropical and tropical transition of ocean cyclones, and is a regular writer for the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang.  He worked with researchers in GES and CUERE to understand the generation and impacts of the Ellicott City flash floods in 2016 and 2018.