Student Spotlight
Tracking Rivers in the Skies Doctoral student Breanna Zavadoff has developed a passion for studying extreme weather events In living rooms and dining rooms from the Florida Panhandle to the southernmost tip of Texas, they watched for days, sitting, standing, or stooping in front of flat screens to learn the latest on Hurricane Katrina’s path. One of those keeping an eye on the powerful cyclone was a Long Island 9-year-old named Breanna Zavadoff. “Everyday weather just didn’t stir me up,” recalls Zavadoff. “But whenever there was a hurricane or large storm threatening land, I would obsessively watch the Weather Channel’s coverage.” Her preoccupation with hurricanes wasn’t a passing fancy. It continued unabated, growing so strong that she majored in meteorology in college. Today, as a Ph.D. student at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Zavadoff is fascinated by another type of extreme weather phenomenon— atmospheric rivers. Long, narrow corridors of water vapor in the sky, atmospheric rivers (ARs) move with the weather, producing massive amounts of
rain and snow when they make landfall. Sometimes called “drought busters,” ARs can produce up to 50 percent of California’s precipitation, helping to replenish reservoirs in the northern portion of the state. “But on the flip side, those that contain the largest amounts of water vapor can produce too much rain in too short a period of time, and that’s when floods can occur,” explains Zavadoff, a meteorology and physical oceanography specialist whose research focuses on the impact of atmospheric rivers in Europe. ARs, she points out, cause major flooding and landslides in the Iberian Peninsula. “If we could better predict where they will hit and determine if they’ll help or hinder, it would be a tremendous help to emergency response managers and forecasters,” Zavadoff says. Studying a phenomenon known as atmospheric Rossby waves could hold the key. Named for the Swedish-born meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby, these atmospheric waves are giant meanders in
high-altitude winds that influence weather and are associated with pressure systems and the jet stream. “When atmospheric rivers are in sync with anti-cyclonic Rossby wave breaking, the rivers tend to be stronger,” Zavadoff says. “So, forecasting such an event could help us model atmospheric rivers more effectively.” As an undergraduate, Zavadoff played rugby for three years, once breaking a rib. “I enjoyed the camaraderie the sport brings out,” she says. “There’s no protective gear, no stopping the clock. We’re all out
there to win; but at the same time, we need to protect each other because of how physical and intense the sport is.” Zavadoff borrows a page from her rugby playbook in terms of camaraderie amid the intensity of climatic events such as floods, hurricanes, and fires: “We’ve got to get everyone on the same page,” she says. “We need to ramp up the dialogue that the science of climate change is fact and not just a belief.” —Robert C. Jones Jr.
miami.edu/magazine Spring 2020 MIAMI 17