Contact Information
Biography
Dr. Trapp is a Professor and Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining Illinois in 2014, he was a Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University from 2003-2014, and a research scientist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (through the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies) in Norman, Oklahoma from 1996-2003. Four years of his tenure with NSSL were spent as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Dr. Trapp's research interests include the dynamics and observations of mesoscale convective systems, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes; mesoscale modeling and predictability.
Trapp received his B.S. degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, M.S. degree from Texas A&M University, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma. He was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow.
Education
- Ph.D. in Meteorology, The University of Oklahoma, 1994
- M.S. in Meteorology, Texas A&M University, 1989
- B.S. in Agriculture/Atmospheric Science, University of Missouri-Columbia, 1985
External Links
Recent Publications
Borque, P., Nesbitt, S. W., Trapp, R. J., Lasher-Trapp, S., & Oue, M. (2020). Observational Study of the Thermodynamics and Morphological Characteristics of a Midlatitude Continental Cold Pool Event. Monthly Weather Review, 148(2), 719-737. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0068.1
Liu, X., Zhou, K., Lan, Y. U., Mao, X. U., & Trapp, R. J. (2020). On the construction principle of conceptual models for severe convective weather forecasting operations in China. Weather and Forecasting, 35(1), 299-308. https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-19-0026.1
Miller, D. E., Wang, Z., Trapp, R. J., & Harnos, D. S. (2020). Hybrid Prediction of Weekly Tornado Activity Out to Week 3: Utilizing Weather Regimes. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(9), [e2020GL087253]. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087253
Mulholland, J. P., Nesbitt, S. W., Trapp, R. J., & Peters, J. M. (2020). The influence of terrain on the convective environment and associated convective morphology from an idealized modeling perspective. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 77(11), 3929-3949. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-19-0190.1
Sessa, M. F., & Trapp, R. J. (2020). Observed relationship between tornado intensity and pretornadic mesocyclone characteristics. Weather and Forecasting, 35(4), 1243-1261. https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-19-0099.1
