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Stephen Corfidi

Stephen Corfidi

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Research Associate

stephen.corfidi@ou.edu
stephen.corfidi@noaa.gov
National Weather Center 2640


  • MS, The Pennsylvania State University
  • BS, The Pennsylvania State University

  • NWS Warning Decision Training Division (WDTD)

Stephen worked for many years as a forecaster with the NOAA-National Weather Service  Storm Prediction Center, the NOAA-National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center, and the NOAA-National Weather Service Baltimore-Washington Forecast Office.  He also served as a research assistant with the former NOAA-National Weather Service Techniques Development Laboratory, and serves as an online instructor with Penn State's Weather Certificate Program


  • Severe local storm dynamics and forecasting
  • Thunderstorm behavior and motion
  • Cloud formation and dynamics

  • Forecast Applications Improvements R&D

  • U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal, 1982 (with colleagues at the National Severe Storms Forecast Center)
  • Centennial Fellow, The Pennsylvania State University College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, 1996
  • Editor's Award, American Meteorological Society, 1998
  • Exceptional Specific Prediction Award, American Meteorological Society, 2001
  • U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal, 2001
  • T. Theodore Fujita Research Achievement Award, National Weather Association, 2004 
  • Fellow, American Meteorological Society, 2004
  • Alumni Achievement Award, The Pennsylvania State University, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, 2009
  • National Weather Association Lifetime Achievement Award, 2017
  • Ferguson, E. W., F. P. Ostby, P. W. Leftwich, Jr., W. E. Carle, S. F. Corfidi, R. G. Cundy, and W. D. Hirt, 1985: The tornado season of 1983.  Mon. Wea. Rev., 113, 395-404
  • Corfidi, S. F., and H. Brandli, 1986: GOES views aircraft distrails.  Natl. Wea. Dig., 11, 2, 37-39 
  • Corfidi, S. F., and K. A. Comba, 1989: The Meteorological Operations Division of the National Meteorological Center.  Wea. Forecasting, 4, 343-366
  • Corfidi, S. F., and G. A. Gayno, 1990: Some visual aspects on the development of a Plains mesoscale convective system.  Wea. Forecasting, 5, 172-180
  • Uccellini, L. W., S. F. Corfidi, N. W. Junker, P. J. Kocin, and D. A. Olson, 1992: Report on the surface analysis workshop held at the National Meteorological Center.  Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 73, 459-472
  • Corfidi, S. F., 1993: Lost Horizons - The nature and origin of warm-season haze over the eastern United States.  Weatherwise, 46, 3, 12-17
  • Corfidi, S. F., 1996: The colors of twilight.  Weatherwise, 49, 3, 14-19
  • Corfidi, S. F., 1996: The development and movement of warm-season haze over the central and eastern United States.  Natl. Wea. Dig., 20, 3, 2-14
  • Corfidi, S. F., 1999: The birth and early years of the Storm Prediction Center.  Wea. Forecasting, 14, 507-525
  • Corfidi, S. F., 2003: Cold pools and MCS propagation: Forecasting the motion of downwind-developing MCSs.  Wea. Forecasting, 18, 997-1017
  • Rabin, R. M. S. F. Corfidi, J. C. Brunner, and C. E. Hane, 2004: Detecting winds aloft from water vapour satellite imagery in the vicinity of storms.  Weather, 59, 251-260
  • Corfidi, S .F., S. J. Corfidi, D. A. Imy and A. L. Logan, 2006: A preliminary study of severe wind-producing MCSs in environments of limited moisture. Wea. Forecasting, 21, 715-734
  • Gasbarro, M. R., R. P. Lowther, and S. F. Corfidi, 2006: Forecasting mesoscale convective complex movement in central South America.  Natl. Wea. Dig., 30, 68-76
  • Coniglio, M. C., H. E. Brooks, S. J. Weiss, and S. F. Corfidi, 2007: Forecasting the maintenance of quasi-linear mesoscale convective systems.  Wea. Forecasting, 22, 556-570
  • Corfidi, S. F., S. J. Corfidi, and D. M. Schultz, 2008: Elevated Convection and Castellanus: Ambiguities, Significance, and Questions.  Wea. Forecasting, 23, 1280-1303
  • Corfidi, S. F., S. J. Weiss, J. S. Kain, S. J. Corfidi, R. M. Rabin, and J. L. Levit, 2010: Revisiting the 3-4 April 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes.  Wea. Forecasting, 25, 465-510
  • Coniglio, M. C., S. F. Corfidi, and J. S. Kain, 2011: Environment and early evolution of the 8 May 2009 derecho-producing convective system. Mon. Wea. Rev., 139, 1083-1102.
  • Coniglio, M. C., S. F. Corfidi, and J. S. Kain, 2012: Views on applying RKW theory: An illustration using the 8 May 2009 derecho-producing convective system.  Mon. Wea. Rev., 140, 1023-1043.
  • Kessler, E., A. E. Cohen, S.F. Corfidi, and S. J. Corfidi, 2013: Easing into Norman: Ed Kessler on the Origins and Growth of the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94, 1645-1648.
  • Corfidi, S.F., A. E. Cohen, M. C. Coniglio, and C. M. Mead, 2016: A proposed revision to the definition of “derecho.” Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 97, 935-949.
  • Corfidi, S.. F., R. H. Johns, and M. A. Darrow, 2016: The Great Basin derecho of 31 May 1994.  Wea. Forecasting, 31, 917-935. 
  • Corfidi, S. F., 2017: Forecasting severe convective storms.  The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. H. van Storch, Ed., Oxford University Press, DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.59.
  • American Meteorological Society
  • National Weather Association