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Katy Christian

Katy Christian

Katy Christian.

Research
Associate

Education

  • MS, Atmospheric Science, University of Wyoming
  • BS, Meteorology, University of Oklahoma

Affiliated CIWRO Team

  • Operations Training Unit 

About

Katy has been working at CIWRO since 2019. Within the Operations Training Unit, she works on several different teams developing in-residence and online training as part of the Radar & Applications Course and Warning Operations Courses covering severe weather, flash flooding, and human factors in NWS warning operations. Katy works on training wherever her team members need it and enjoys learning about and teaching new topics.

Research Focus

  • Flash Flooding & River Flooding
  • Radar Interpretation
  • Dual Hazard Events & Messaging
  • Tropical Cyclone Tornadoes
  • Data Fusion & Lightning

CIWRO Research Themes

  • Weather Radar and Observations
  • Social and Socioeconomic Impacts of High-Impact Weather
Honors and awards
  • National Weather Service Isaac Cline Award for “Implementing Hazard Services capabilities in the Radar & Applications Course, providing a more operationally accurate training experience for forecasters in the course in the new era of warning operations” (August 2022) 
  • National Weather Service Isaac Cline Award for “Collaborating across OCLO divisions and creating the Post-Storm Damage Surveying training series” (August 2022) 
  • NWA Larry R. Johnson Special Award for “Providing an innovative solution to continue training NWS operational meteorologists during the COVID-19 pandemic with the cloud-based warning decision-making workshops” (August 2021) 
  • National Weather Service Isaac Cline Award for “Filling Staffing Gaps to Develop and Deploy Timely WSR-88D Build 19 Training” (October 2020) 
  • National Weather Service Isaac Cline Award for “Providing Hands-On Experimental Warning Experience to Hundreds of Attendees of the National Weather Center Festival" (October 2020)
Publications
  • Porter, M., and Coauthors, 2024: Expanding the Concept of Knowledge Transition through Social Science Research. Bull. Amer.Meteor.Soc., 105, 816-824, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0310.1. 
  • Christian, J., K. Christian, and J. B. Basara, 2015: Drought and Pluvial Dipole Events within the Great Plains of the United States. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 54, 1886-1898, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0002.
Conference presentations
  • Christian, K., “When TORFF met WDTD: An R20 Story”, Research to Operations (R2O) & Compound Hazards: Facilitating Social Sciences Applications and Perspectives for the Weather Community, Virtual, June 11, 2023. 
  • Christian, K., and Hardy, J., Climate Session, “A Climatological Geospatial Analysis of Storm-Based Flash Flood Warnings across the CONUS,” National Weather Association, Tulsa, September 13, 2020. 
  • Christian, K., Hardy, J., 34th Conference on Hydrology, “A Climatological Geospatial Analysis of Storm-Based Flash Flood Warnings across the CONUS,” American Meteorological Society, Boston, January 13, 2020. 
  • Christian, K., Christian, J., Basara, J., 28th Conference on Climate Variability and Change, “Drought and Pluvial Dipole Events within the Great Plains of the United States,” American Meteorological Society, New Orleans, January 11, 2016.


 

Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO)
120 David L. Boren Blvd.
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Norman, OK 73072
Updated 4/24/2026 by Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO): ciwro@ou.edu