Dr Stacey Hitchcock

Biography

Stacey completed a BS (2012) and MS (2014) in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and a PhD in atmospheric science at Colorado State University (2018). During her masters, she assimilated field campaign radiosonde data into a mesoscale model to assess impacts on short term convective scale forecasts of convective storms on the day of the devastating 31 May 2013 El Reno, OK supercell. During her PhD, Stacey used a combination of observational and model analysis to research to improve understanding of the environments and dynamics of nocturnal organised clusters of thunderstorms called mesoscale convective systems. Her research was based on observations collected during the Plains Elevated Convection at Night field campaign, and gave special focus to mechanisms that support organisation conducive to heavy rainfall/flash flooding in nighttime events. Stacey began a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Melbourne in 2019, where she is investigating processes that lead to extreme precipitation using a combination of observational and numerical model analysis. Her current research interests include: organised deep convection, heavy rainfall/flash flooding, mesoscale meteorology, severe weather, numerical modelling, and applications of data assimilation.