current interests
Capitalizing on freely-available data and open-source tools to interrogate past and current tropical cyclone behaviorIdentification and prediction of rapid intensity changes in tropical cyclones
Effects of varying environmental conditions on tropical cyclone intensity and structure
Quantifying tropical cyclone characteristics from remotely-sensed data in the absence of other observations
Investigation of oceanic data near tropical cyclones (e.g., Argo float profiles)
Tropical cyclone climatology and variability
Python applications related to the above topics (click here for a Python resource page I'm constructing!)
research group openings
Thank you for your interest in joining my research group! I am now an associate professor at the University of Arizona, but I am maintaining an affiliation with MSU and expect to advertise an opening for a PhD student at MSU in the near future.science communication
Member of the American Geophysical Union's 2019 Voices for Science cohort (May 2019 - April 2020)The Conversation, 18 September 2020: The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is so intense, it just ran out of storm names – and then two more storms formed
The Conversation, 24 September 2020: What makes hurricanes stall, and why is that so hard to forecast?
Chapter author, Southeast Chapter, Fifth National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (August 2021 - present, MSU news article)
active grants
"Collaborative Research: An Object-Oriented Approach to Assess the Rainfall Evolution of Tropical Cyclones in Varying Moisture Environments." Funded by NSF, July 2020 - June 2024. $203,960. A collaborative project with Corene Matyas (University of Florida) and Stephanie Zick (Virginia Tech). Click here for the NSF award abstract."CAREER: A Comprehensive Assessment of Over-Ocean Tropical Cyclone Weakening." Funded by NSF, August 2023 - July 2028. $529,705. Click here for the NSF award abstract.
current professional service roles
Southeast chapter author, Fifth National Climate AssessmentMember, AMS Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting
Faculty advisor, AMS Board on Student Affairs
Member, Unidata Strategic Advisory Committee
Member, UCAR Membership Committee
publications
* indicates co-lead authorship(2 additional under review or revision)
Stackhouse, S., S. E. Zick, C. J. Matyas, K. M. Wood, A. Hazelton, and G. J. Alaka, 2023: Evaluation of Experimental High-Resolution Model Forecasts of Tropical Cyclone Precipitation using Object-Based Metrics. Wea. Forecasting, in press, doi:10.1175/WAF-D-22-0223.1.
McNeely, I. H., P. Khokhlov, N. Dalmasso, K. M. Wood, and A. B. Lee, 2023: Structural Forecasting for Short-term Tropical Cyclone Intensity Guidance. Wea. Forecasting, 38, 985-998, doi:10.1175/WAF-D-22-0111.1.
Rogers, R., J. Courtney, and K. Wood, 2023: The World Meteorological Organization Tenth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-10): A Summary. Tropical Cyclone Research and Review, 12, 1-9, doi:10.1016/j.tcrr.2023.04.001.
McNeely, T., G. Vincent, K. M. Wood, R. Izbicki, and A. B. Lee, 2023: Detecting Distributional Differences in Labeled Sequence Data with Application to Tropical Cyclone Satellite Imagery. Ann. Appl. Stat., 17, 1260-1284, doi:10.1214/22-AOAS1668.
Klotzbach, P. J., C. J. Schreck, G. P. Compo, K. M. Wood, E. C. J. Oliver, S. G. Bowen, and M. M. Bell, 2023: Influence of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on Continental United States Hurricane Landfalls. Geophysical Research Letters, 50, doi:10.1029/2023GL102762.
Wood, K. M., and C. J. Schreck, 2022: Eastern North Pacific and Central North Pacific basins [in “State of the Climate in 2021”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 103, S229–S231, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0069.1.
Truchelut, R. E., P. J. Klotzbach, E. M. Staehling, K. M. Wood, D. J. Halperin, C. J. Schreck, and E. S. Blake, 2022: Earlier onset of North Atlantic hurricane season with warming oceans. Nat. Commun., 13, 4646, doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31821-3.
Klotzbach, P. J.*, K. M. Wood*, C. J. Schreck, S. G. Bowen, C. M. Patricola, and M. M. Bell, 2022: Trends in Global Tropical Cyclone Activity: 1990–2021. Geophys. Res. Lett., 49, doi:10.1029/2021GL095774.
Klotzbach, P. J.*, K. M. Wood*, M. M. Bell, E. S. Blake, S. G. Bowen, L.-P. Caron, J. M. Collins, E. J. Gibney, C. J. Schreck, and R. E. Truchelut, 2022: A Hyperactive End to the Atlantic Hurricane Season: October-November 2020. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 103, E110-E128, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0312.1.
McNeely, T., G. Vincent, R. Izbicki, K. M. Wood, and A. B. Lee, 2021: Identifying Distributional Differences in Convective Evolution Prior to Rapid Intensification in Tropical Cyclones. NeurIPS 2021 Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning. Link to arXiv version.
Wood, K. M., and C. J. Schreck, 2021: Eastern North Pacific and Central North Pacific basins [in “State of the Climate in 2020”]. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 102 (8), S233–S235.
Mercer, A. E., A. D. Grimes, and K. M. Wood, 2021: Application of Unsupervised Learning Techniques to Identify Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensification Environments. J. Appl. Meteorol. Climatol., 60, 119-138, doi:10.1175/JAMC-D-20-0105.1.
McNeely, T., N. Dalmasso, K. M. Wood, and A. B. Lee, 2020: Structural Forecasting for Tropical Cyclone Intensity Prediction: Providing Insight with Deep Learning. NeurIPS 2020 Climate Change, https://www.climatechange.ai/papers/neurips2020/80.html.
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 in the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific. 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, 30, 1663-1672.
Rodríguez-Herrera, O. G., K. M. Wood, K. P. Dolling, W. T. Black, E. A. Ritchie, and J. S. Tyo, 2015: Objective automatic storm tracking based on the deviation-angle variance method. 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.
Wood, K. M., and E. A. Ritchie, 2013: An updated climatology of tropical cyclone impacts on the southwestern United States. Mon. Wea. Rev., 141, 4322–4336.
Gutzler, D.S., K. M. Wood, E.A Ritchie, A.V. Douglas, and M.D. Lewis, 2013: Interannual variability of tropical cyclone activity along the Pacific coast of North America. Atmosfera, 26, 149-162.
Wood, K. M., and E. A. Ritchie, 2012: The unique behavior and precipitation pattern associated with Tropical Storm Ignacio (1997). Mon. Wea. Rev., 140, 3347-3360.
Ritchie, E. A., K. M. Wood, D. S. Gutzler, and S. White, 2011: The influence of eastern Pacific tropical cyclone remnants on the southwestern United States. Mon. Wea. Rev., 139, 192–210.
(page last updated August 2023)