NEW PHD OPPORTUNITY: Pan-African Heatwave Health Hazard Forecasting

New PhD Opportunity: Pan-African Heatwave Health Hazard Forecasting

We are delighted to share an exciting new, funded PhD opportunity: "Pan-African Heatwave Health Hazard Forecasting". The project will be based in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading as part of the SCENARIO Doctoral Training Programme, and will be co-supervised via the Walker Institute and European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

This studentship will investigate the health hazard predictability of the forecasting system at ECMWF for Africa; characterising utility and forecast skill. The student will work in partnership with the RAINWATCH Alliance and our linked networks to the WHO and the Ministries of Health. Focal countries will include Ghana, Senegal, Uganda and Malawi. Using the latest ECMWF weather forecasting and earth system reanalysis datasets, the relationship to the driving weather regimes and how well these are represented in the weather models will be considered. National and global datasets on heatwave disasters and, where available, mortality and morbidity will be used to assess the health hazard impacts of the key heatwave events of the last few decades and test the relationship to the forecast health hazard indicators. From this new scientific understanding the student will develop new parameterisations to use in forecasts of health hazard from ECMWF and assess their potential for improving disaster preparedness.

The student will become an ECMWF Visiting Scientist for the whole period of the PhD and also undertake a 3 month full time placement at ECMWF to work alongside scientists and forecasters.

Lead Supervisor:
Prof Hannah Cloke, University of Reading, Department of Geography & Environmental Science and Department of Meteorology

Co-supervisors:
Dr Claudia Di Napoli, University of Reading / European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

Prof Ros Cornforth, Walker Institute, University of Reading

Dr Florian Pappenberger, European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

Research collaborator:
Prof Aondover Tarhule, University of Binghampton, USA

For full information on this exciting PhD opportunity, check out the information sheet here and other NERC PhD information here