Rebecca Emerton

Scientist (Earth System Diagnostics)
Forecast, Evaluation, Climate Intelligence

Summary:

Rebecca is a scientist in the Climate Intelligence team at ECMWF, working on climate monitoring and forecast diagnostics. She has an interest in the forecasting, predictability and long-term evolution of all aspects of the Earth system and in particular extreme weather and climate, with a background and expertise in forecast evaluation and predictability of extremes such as tropical cyclones and flooding. Her time is shared between climate monitoring and forecast evaluation. She is the lead editor and coordinator of the C3S-WMO European State of the Climate (ESOTC) reports since ESOTC 2022, and contributes to a range of C3S climate monitoring and reporting products including the monitoring of heat stress. She contributes to and develops forecast diagnostics and evaluation across a range of topics, timescales and systems, with a recent focus on the monitoring and predictability of tropical waves in ECMWF's forecasting systems.

Professional interests:
  • Climate monitoring
  • Forecast evaluation and diagnostics
  • Extreme weather and climate (tropical cyclones, floods, heatwaves)
  • Predictability (ENSO, MJO and other teleconnections)
  • Tropical waves and related high-impact weather
  • Ensemble forecasting
  • Climate change and trends 
  • Heat stress monitoring and forecasting
Career background:
  • January 2023 - present: Scientist, Climate Monitoring and Forecast Diagnostics, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK
  • August 2020 - December 2022: Scientist, Earth System Diagnostics, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Reading, UK
  • December 2018 - July 2020: Postdoctoral Researcher, NERC PICSEA project 'predicting the impacts of cyclones in southeast Africa', National Centre for Atmospheric Science, UK
  • September 2014 - November 2018: PhD in Hydrometeorology, Title: 'Extending the predictability of flood hazard at the global scale', University of Reading, UK, in collaboration with ECMWF
  • January 2015 - July 2020: Visiting scientist, ECMWF
  • July 2013 - August 2014: Internships on tropical cyclone tracking and evaluating the skill of ECMWF tropical cyclone forecasts, BMT ARGOSS, The Netherlands and University of Reading, UK
  • September 2009 - June 2013: MMet Meteorology with a year in Oklahoma, University of Reading, UK and University of Oklahoma, USA
External recognitions

Awards

  • Meteorological Applications Editors' Award 2021
  • Shortlisted for Times Higher Education (THE) Award for Research Project of the Year: STEM 2019*
  • University of Reading Research Impact Award 2019*
  • SAGES Best Postgraduate Research Publication Award 2017
  • PhD Researcher of the Year - Environment Theme, 2017
  • Doctoral Research Conference Poster Award - First Prize, 2016
  • Congressi Stefano Franscini Research Poster Award, 2015
  • The Met Office MMet Undergraduate Dissertation Award, 2013

*For the provision of real-time emergency flood hazard reports to the UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) and humanitarian organisations during and following Cyclones Idea and Kenneth in Mozambique in 2019, a collaboration between the University of Reading, ECMWF and the University of Bristol. 

Membership and external duties

  • HEPEX, the hydrological ensemble prediction experiment
  • Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS)
  • Associate Editor, Meteorological Applications, 2019-2024