Douglas Parker

Professor of Meteorology, University of Leeds

Doug is a Meteorologist, with interests in the prediction of high-impact weather in our changing climate. He has led, and participated in, some large projects and field campaigns in the UK, Africa and India. He has used a range of research tools to solve practical problems, including field measurements, satellite remote sensing, computer models and mathematical theory. He is particularly interested in weather forecasting, both scientifically and as an operational challenge. He was part-funded by the UK Met Office for 9 years, and he has collaborated closely with national weather services in West, East and Southern Africa. Weather prediction is a transdisciplinary challenge which requires us to understand social and economic factors in addition to the mathematics, physics and data science needed to make a prediction. He is leading an initiative to bring short-term weather predictions to Africa: the FASTA project provides real-time data to smartphones. Doug holds an adjunct position at NORCE in Bergen, where he is working mostly on weather and climate services for Africa.

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