Robert Trapp

About

Dr. Robert Trapp is the Director of the School of Earth, Society and Environment and a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on severe convective storms, including their dynamics and associated hazards, as well as their connection with climate change and variability. He conducts research on climate variability and change, thunderstorm dynamics, and weather and climate risk. Prior to joining Illinois in 2014, Dr. Trapp was a Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University from 2003 to 2014, and a research scientist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) through the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies in Norman, Oklahoma from 1996 to 2003. He also spent four years as a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Dr. Trapp is the author of the textbook “Mesoscale-Convective Processes in the Atmosphere,” published by Cambridge University Press. His educational background includes a B.S. in Agriculture/Atmospheric Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an M.S. in Meteorology from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma, where he was also a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow.

Research topics

• Climatology
• Geography
• Geology
• Meteorology
• Political Science
• Geodesy
• Physics
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Atmospheric sciences

Selected publications

• The effects of climate change on hailstorms

  Nature Reviews Earth & Environment · 2021-02-09 · 212 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• A Storm Safari in Subtropical South America: Proyecto RELAMPAGO

  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2021 · 116 citations

  Abstract This article provides an overview of the experimental design, execution, education and public outreach, data collection, and initial scientific results from the Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign. RELAMPAGO was a major field campaign conducted in the Córdoba and Mendoza provinces in Argentina and western Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil in 2018–19 that involved more than 200 scien…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Convective-Storm Environments in Subtropical South America from High-Frequency Soundings during RELAMPAGO-CACTI

  Monthly Weather Review · 2021 · 41 citations

  Abstract During the Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations-Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (RELAMPAGO-CACTI) field experiments in 2018–19, an unprecedented number of balloon-borne soundings were collected in Argentina. Radiosondes were launched from both fixed and mobile platforms, yielding 2712 soundings during the period 15 October 2018–30 April 2019. Approximately 20% of these soundings were collected…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multiple-Platform and Multiple-Doppler Radar Observations of a Supercell Thunderstorm in South America during RELAMPAGO

  Monthly Weather Review · 2020 · 34 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract On 10 November 2018, during the RELAMPAGO field campaign in Argentina, South America, a thunderstorm with supercell characteristics was observed by an array of mobile observing instruments, including three Doppler on Wheels radars. In contrast to the archetypal supercell described in the Glossary of Meteorology , the updraft rotation in this storm was rather short lived (~25 min), causing some initial doubt as to whether this indeed was a supercell. However, retrieved 3D winds from dual…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Prediction of Potential Tornado Damage Intensity Using Machine Learning

  Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems · 2025-07-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This study uses nine classification machine learning algorithms to examine their skill in making short-fused, storm-based predictions of significant or nonsignificant tornado damage intensity, conditioned upon tornadogenesis, using pretornadic mesocyclone characteristics and the near-storm environment. Radar predictors are from approximately 30 min before tornadogenesis, while environmental predictors are from the model-analysis hour nearest but before the time of tornadogenesis. The mo…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• The Response of Convective Precipitating Storms to Anthropogenically Enhanced Global Radiative Forcing

  NSF · $616k · 2008–2012

• Collaborative Research: An Integrated Understanding of the Initiation and Subsequent Dynamical and Microphysical Characteristics of Deep Convective Storms during RELAMPAGO

  NSF · $637k · 2017–2025

• Collaborative Research: Improved Understanding of Convective-Storm Predictability and Environment Feedbacks from Observations during the Mesoscale Predictability Experiment (MPEX)

  NSF · $440k · 2012–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Stephen W. Nesbitt

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  26 shared

• Elyne Mitchell

  Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies

  16 shared

• David M. Schultz

  University of Manchester

  12 shared

• Sonia Lasher‐Trapp

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  12 shared

• Noah S. Diffenbaugh

  Stanford University

  12 shared

• Karen Kosiba

  University of Alabama in Huntsville

  12 shared

• Michael E. Baldwin

  University of Oklahoma

  11 shared

• Paola Salio

  10 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Meteorology

  The University of Oklahoma

  1994

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