Research
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Atmospheric Science Department at the University of British Colombia Vancouver with a projected graduation date of October 2024.
My research interests include: coupled atmosphere-wildland fire behavior modeling, fire weather forecasting, forest fuel moisture predictions, wildfire smoke forecasting, and creating innovative ways to reduce the costs of collecting fire profile data during controlled burn experiments.
My Ph.D. thesis is focused on developing an hourly fire danger rating system(link is external) (FDRS) using numerical weather predictions. The innovative approach offers forecast shifts in peak fire danger timing, especially during intensified fire activity in the late evening and early morning hours. It also allows for multiple periods of increased fire danger per day—a contrast to the conventional FDRS. For this research, I work closely with wildfire management agencies in Canada to help improve the daily operational fire danger assessments and predictions.
I am also a Co-creator and Instructor (with Dr. Rolland Stull – my Ph.D. Supervisor) of a new fourth-year Synoptic Fire Weather Forecasting Course. The course rolled out in September 2023 addresses a wide variety of meteorological and fire forecasting topics.
My outside interests include snowboarding, climbing, backpacking, surfing, and biking.
Teaching
ATSC 413 · Forest-fire Weather and Climate
ATSC 303 · Methods in Atmospheric Science
Publications
Rodell, C. (In preparation, March 2024). Modernizing Fire Weather Forecasting with Numerical Weather Predictions. University of British Columbia.
Rodell, C., Howard, R., Jain, P., & Stull, R. B. (In preparation, March 2024). Standardizing Fire Danger: Using high-resolution reanalysis to standardize fire weather predictions. Weather and Forecasting.
Rodell, C., R. Howard, P. Jain, N. Moisseeva, T. Chui, and R. Stull, 2024: Forecasting Hourly Wildfire Risk: Enhancing Fire Danger Assessment using Numerical Weather Prediction. Wea. Forecasting, https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-23-0226.1(link is external)
Rodell, C., Howard, R., Jain, P., Moisseeva, N., Chui, T., & Stull, R. B. (2024). An Hourly and Daily Fire Weather Index Dataset 2021-2023. Numerical Federated Research Data Repository. Federated Research Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.20383/103.0876(link is external)
Fei, C., White, R., & Rodell, C. (2023). The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021. Bulletin of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. https://bulletin.cmos.ca/the-unprecedented-pacific-northwest-heatwave-of-june-2021/(link is external)
White, R., & 15 Coauthors, including Rodell, C. (2023). The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021. Nature Communications, 14(727). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36289-3(link is external)
Philip, S. Y., & 26 Coauthors, including C. Rodell, C. (2022). Rapid attribution analysis of the extraordinary heat wave on the Pacific coast of the US and Canada in June 2021. Earth Systems Dynamics, 13, 1689–1713. https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/13/1689/2022/(link is external)
Thompson, D., & 12 Coauthors, including Rodell, C. (2020). Recent Crown Thinning in a Boreal Black Spruce Forest Does Not Reduce Spread Rate nor Total Fuel Consumption: Results from an Experimental Crown Fire in Alberta, Canada. Fire, 3(28). https://doi.org/10.3390/fire3030028(link is external)
Luchetti, N. T., Friedrich, K., & Rodell, C. (2020). Evaluating Thunderstorm Gust Fronts in New Mexico and Arizona. Monthly Weather Review, 4943–4956. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-20-0204.1(link is external)
Luchetti, N. T., Friedrich, K., Rodell, C., & Lundquist, J. K. (2020). Characterizing thunderstorm gust fronts near complex terrain. Monthly Weather Review, 148, 3267–3286. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0316.1(link is external)