Research Highlights
Research Interests
Climate variability in the tropical Atlantic.
Changes in tropical cyclone activity.
Seasonal and sub-seasonal prediction.
Extreme weather and climate events.
Stochastic models of climate variability.
Robert West, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate II (University of Miami/ CIMAS), Physical Oceanography Division
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, Florida 33149
“My research is part of a broader goal to understand the ocean’s role in the predictability of hurricane activity on seasonal and sub-seasonal time scales.”
Dr. Robert West is a Senior Research Associate II at the Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and NOAA AOML’s Physical Oceanography Division. He received his PhD in 2020 from the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University. His current research concentrates on the ocean’s influence on the predictability of seasonal tropical cyclone activity and the development of an enhanced US seasonal landfalling hurricane outlook.
Current Work
Seasonality of interbasin SST contributions to Atlantic hurricane activity
Predictability of landfalling hurricanes on seasonal and sub-seasonal time scales
Development of a seasonal landfalling hurricane outlook for the United States
2009, B.S. Meteorology and Applied Mathematics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
2012, M.S. Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
2020, Ph.D. Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Robert West, Hosmay Lopez, Sang-Ki Lee, Andrew E. Mercer, Dongmin Kim, Gregory R. Foltz and Karthik Balaguru, “Seasonality of interbasin SST contributions to Atlantic tropical cyclone activity”, in preparation.
Hosmay Lopez, Robert West, Shenfu Dong, Gustavo Goni, Ben Kirtman, Sang-Ki Lee and Robert Atlas, “Early emergence of anthropogenically forced heat waves in the western United States and Great Lakes”, Nature Climate Change, 8, 414–420 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0116-y.
- Kim, D., Lee, S. K., Lopez, H., West, R., Foltz, G. R., Hong, J. S. and Yeh, S. W. Atlantic Niño increases early-season tropical cyclone landfall risk in Korea and Japan npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 8(1), 240, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01112-x 2025
Ref. 4496 - Lopez, H., Lee, S.K., West, R., Kim, D., Jia, L. The longest-lasting 2023 western North American heat wave was fueled by the record-warm Atlantic Ocean Nature Communications, 16(1), 6544, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61859-y 2025
Ref. 4499 - Tuchen, F., Foltz, G., Lee, S.-K., Perez, R., Prigent, A., Brandt, P., Kim, D., Lopez, H., McPhaden, M., West, R., Lumpkin, R. Record warmth and unprecedented drop in equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperatures in 2024 Geophysical Research Letters, 52(12), e2025GL115973, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL115973 2025
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