About

Dr. Robin Tanamachi is a research meteorologist specializing in the collection, analysis, and assimilation of mobile Doppler radar data collected in severe storms and tornadoes. She currently works as a NRC postdoctoral fellow at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Oklahoma. She has been an avid storm chaser since 2001, and participated in numerous severe weather research campaigns including VORTEX2 (2009-2010). This blog is intended to chronicle her meteorological pursuits and interests, including research updates, publication announcements, and chase logs.

Dr. Tanamachi’s current vita can be found here.

Robin grew up in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. While she had a lifelong interest in weather, the medium of television strongly influenced her choice to become a research meteorologist. In 1986, she was captivated by live news helicopter footage of a tornado near Minneapolis, footage that caught the attention of research meteorologists at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Around the same time, the PBS special “NOVA: Tornado!” aired, showing research meteorologists from the University of Oklahoma (including Dr. Howard Bluestein, who later became her Ph.D. adviser), launching weather balloons and other instruments in severe storms. Thus inspired to become a research meteorologist, she tailored her education toward math and science, but always tried to remain a well-rounded learner with interests in all subjects.

Robin received her B.S. in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2001, her M.S. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2004, and her Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2011. Over the years, she participated in numerous field campaigns collecting data in the Great Plains area of the U.S., including Project VORTEX2 (2009-2010). She has taught a university-level meteorology course, and also spent a few months of 2005 in Japan as a “typhoon chaser” for a Japanese TV network.

Robin is married to fellow severe weather research scientist Dr. Daniel Dawson (who works at CAPS). In her spare time, Robin enjoys cycling, amateur radio, painting, and photography.

The opinions expressed in this blog are solely those of the author, and are not necessarily those of NOAA.