Professional photo of Kim Wood, wearing a maroon blouse against a blue background.
Kim Wood: Assistant Professor, Meteorology

Kimberly Wood

Assistant Professor, Meteorology

206 Hilbun Hall
Mississippi State, MS 39762

Dr. Kim Wood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University specializing in tropical meteorology. She obtained her Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of Arizona in 2012. She has participated in two field campaigns (Tropical Cyclone Structure-2008 and Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes in 2010) as well as two international workshops (International Workshop on Extratropical Transition in 2012 and International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones in 2014). Wood has published and presented on research that includes land impacts of tropical cyclones in the eastern North Pacific basin, extratropical transition of tropical cyclones, satellite-derived estimates of tropical cyclone genesis and intensity, and quantification of environmental factors that affect tropical cyclone structure and intensity. She is currently pursuing research related to tropical climatology, land impacts of tropical cyclones, and tropical-extratropical interaction events.

Education

  • Ph. D., The University of Arizona, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, 2009-2012
  • Dissertation: “Evaluating the impacts of eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones on North America utilizing remotely sensed and reanalysis data”
  • M.S., The University of Arizona, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, 2007-2009
  • H.B.S., Oregon State University, Department of Physics, 2003-2007

Experience

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, 2015 – present
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Arizona, 2012 – 2015

Research Interests

  • Tropical climatology, tropical cyclones, tropical-extratropical interactions, remote sensing

Teaching Areas

  • GR 4753/6753 Satellite and Radar Meteorology
  • GR 4943/6943 Tropical Meteorology
  • Research Methods
  • Tropical Dynamics

Honors/Professional Activities

  • Member of the American Meteorological Society
  • Working Group member and Recommendations Committee member, Eighth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones, Jeju, Korea, December 2014

Recent Publications

  • Mercer, A. E., A. D. Grimes, and K. M. Wood, 2020: Application of Unsupervised Learning Techniques to Identify Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensification Environments. Accepted for publication in J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol.
  • McNeely, T., A. B. Lee, K. M. Wood, and D. Hammerling, 2020: Unlocking GOES: A Statistical Framework for Quantifying the Evolution of Convective Structure in Tropical Cyclones. J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol., 59, 1671-1689, doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0286.1.
  • Wood, K. M., and C. J. Schreck, 2020: Eastern North Pacific and Central North Pacific basins [in “State of the Climate in 2019”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 101 (8), S212–S214.
  • Wood, K. M., P. J. Klotzbach, J. M. Collins, L.-P. Caron, R. E. Truchelut, and C. J. Schreck, 2020: Factors Affecting the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season and the Role of the Indian Ocean Dipole. Geophys. Res. Lett., 47, doi:10.1029/2020GL087781.
  • Fuhrmann, C. M., K. M. Wood, and J. C. Rodgers, 2019: Assessment of storm surge and structural damage on San Salvador Island, Bahamas, associated with Hurricane Joaquin (2015). Nat. Hazards, 99, 913-930.
  • Wood, K. M., P. J. Klotzbach, J. M. Collins, and C. J. Schreck, 2019: The Record‐Setting 2018 Eastern North Pacific Hurricane Season. Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, doi:10.1029/2019GL083657.
  • McNeely, T., A. B. Lee, D. Hammerling, and K. Wood, 2019: Quantifying the Spatial Structure of Tropical Cyclone Imagery (No. NCAR/TN-557+STR).
  • Mercer, A., A. Grimes, and K. Wood, 2018: Multidimensional Kernel Principal Component Analysis of False Alarms of Rapidly Intensifying Atlantic Tropical Cyclones. Proc. Comp. Sci., 140, 359-366.
  • Leroux, M.-D., K. Wood, R. Elsberry, E. Cayanan, E. Hendricks, M. Kucas, P. Otto, R. Rogers, B. Sampson, and Z. Yu, 2018: Recent advances in research and forecasting of tropical cyclone track, intensity, and structure at landfall. Tropical Cyclone Research and Review, 7, 85–105.
  • Evans, C., K. M. Wood, S.D. Aberson, H.M. Archambault, S.M. Milrad, L.F. Bosart, K.L. Corbosiero, C.A. Davis, J.R. Dias Pinto, J. Doyle, C. Fogarty, T.J. Galarneau, C.M. Grams, K.S. Griffin, J. Gyakum, R.E. Hart, N. Kitabatake, H.S. Lentink, R. McTaggart-Cowan, W. Perrie, J.F. Quinting, C.A. Reynolds, M. Riemer, E.A. Ritchie, Y. Sun, and F. Zhang, 2017: The Extratropical Transition of Tropical Cyclones. Part I: Cyclone Evolution and Direct Impacts. Mon. Wea. Rev., 145, 4317–4344.
  • Wood, K. M., and E. A. Ritchie, 2015: A definition for rapid weakening of North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 10091-10097.
  • Wood, K. M., O. G. Rodríguez-Herrera, E. A. Ritchie, M. F. Piñeros, I. A. Hernández, and J. S. Tyo, 2015: Tropical cyclogenesis detection in the North Pacific using the deviation angle variance technique. Wea. Forecasting, in press.
  • Rodríguez-Herrera, O. G., K. M. Wood, K. P. Dolling, E. A. Ritchie, and J. S. Tyo, 2015: Objective automatic storm tracking based on the deviation-angle variance method. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 12, 254-258.
  • Wood, K. M., and E. A. Ritchie, 2014: A 40-year climatology of extratropical transition in the eastern North Pacific. J. Climate, 27, 5999-6015.
  • Ritchie, E. A., K. M. Wood, O. G. Rodríguez-Herrera, M. F. Piñeros, and J. S. Tyo, 2014: Satellite-derived tropical cyclone intensity in the North Pacific Ocean using the deviation-angle variance technique. Wea. Forecasting, 29, 505-516.

Kimberly Wood's C.V.

A copy of Kimberly Wood's C.V. is available to download.

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