Q&A: UW’s Shuyi Chen on hurricane science, forecasting and the 2017 hurricane season

Shuyi Chen and graduate student Adja Savarin, who is also now at the UW, flew June 21, 2017, on a NASA DC-8 research aircraft into Tropical Storm Cindy. They measured temperature, moisture, pressure and winds using “dropsondes” deployed from the aircraft.
NASA
Shuyi Chen and grad student Adia Savarin on a NASA DC-8 research aircraft during Tropical Storm Sandy in 2017.

The United States just suffered the most intense hurricane season in more than a decade, and possibly the costliest ever. Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in mid-August. Hurricane Irma struck Florida in early September, followed just two weeks later by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

Now, with the close of hurricane season on Nov. 30, new UW faculty member Shuyi Chen, professor in the UW’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences and an expert on hurricanes, answered a few questions about the state of hurricane forecasting and the 2017 storm season.

Read the Q&A at UW Today »