Global warming has been a major concern over the last decade, and climate change goes hand in hand with severe weather disasters.

“Climate change is actually making the frequency of extreme weather events more common. New York state, just as an example, has seen a 75% increase in extreme rainfall events over the last 50 years,” said Chris Thorncroft, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center.

UAlbany has been selected as partner in the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Severe Weather Research Institute. This comes with up to $208 million in research funding.

UAlbany will be looking at severe weather across the country and trying to improve how it’s predicted and handled.

“Improving our understanding of extreme weather, be it tornadoes or hurricane or winter storms,” Thorncroft said.

UAlbany is one of five universities nationwide partnering on this research initiative. They have the largest concentration of atmospheric, climate and environmental scientists in New York and one of the largest in the country.

Their research could help people prepare for severe weather well in advance.

“Not only will it be on the hours or days, but it also includes a component on seasonal predictions," Thorncroft said. "So we’ll be predicting weather up to two weeks, three weeks, even months."

UAlbany is not only focusing on forecast enhancement, but also emergency preparedness and keeping the public and emergency responders informed in an effort to save lives in a severe weather situation.

“Many people think of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Maria," said Eric Stern, UAlbany professor and chairman of faculty at the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. "These are events where many people lost their lives, and in some cases, steps can be taken before, during and after a disaster to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability."

This grant is a minimum of five years. Research will start at UAlbany in the fall.