Overview

My work involves application of statistical methods to quantifying and dealing with uncertainty in meteorological and climatological data and forecasts, in a variety of contexts.

Research Focus

Much of my research during the past 5 years has related to forecast evaluation, ensemble forecasting, or both. Other areas in which I have worked are in the use and economic value of forecasts in formal decision-making models, "weather generators" (time-domain time series models for weather data), interpretation and use of long lead ("climate") forecasts, and studies of climate-change impacts.

Instruction Focus

My courses are: EAS 435 (Statistical Methods in Meteorology and Climatology), Fall terms; EAS 666 (Applied Multivariate Statistics), Spring terms, odd-numbered years; EAS 334 (Microclimatology) Spring terms, even-numbered years; and EAS 296 (Forecast Competition) Spring and Fall terms. Also, I am author of the textbook Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences.

Additional Links

• http://www.eas.cornell.edu
• Errata - Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences - I appreciate hearing about any additional errors that you may find.

Professional Activities

• Editorial Boards: Weather and Forecasting - 2007-present
• Editorial Boards: International Journal of Climatology - 2005-present
• Organizing committees: 16th American Meteorological Conferences on Probability and Statistics - 2002
• Cornell Atmospheric Science, Director of Graduate Studies - 2001-2006, 2008-present
• Editorial Boards: Meteorological Applications - 2001-2006
• External advisory committee, NCAR Geophysical Statistics Project (Chair, 2006) - 2001-2006
• Faculty Senate, Executive Committee, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences - 2001-2004
• Organizing committees: 15th (chair) American Meteorological Conferences on Probability and Statistics - 2000
• Co-organizer, Short course on forecast verification; 1998 AMS Annual Meeting - 1998
• Organizing committee, 14th American Meteorological Conferences on Probability and Statistics - 1998
• Faculty Senate, Cornell College of Agricultural and Life Sciences - 1997-2008
• Editorial Boards: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology - 1995-2002
• Organizing committee, 6th International Meeting on Climatology - 1995
• Cornell Atmospheric Science, Undergraduate Advising Coordinator - 1991-2001
• American Meteorological Society Probability and Statistics Committee, 1998-2002 (Chair 1999-2001) - 1990-1994, 1998-2002

Selected Publications

• Wilks, D.S., C.J. Neumann, and M.B. Lawrence, 2009. Statistical extension of the National Hurricane Center 5-day forecasts. Weather and Forecasting, 24: 1052-1063.
• Wilks, D.S., 2009, Extending logistic regression to provide full-probability-distribution MOS forecasts. Meteorological Applications, 16: 361-368.
• A gridded multisite weather generator and synchronization to observed weather data. Water Resources Research, in press.
• Wilks, D.S., 2008. Effects of stochastic parameterisations in conceptual climate models. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, in press.
• Wilks, D.S., 2008. Improved statistical seasonal forecasts using extended training data. International Journal of Climatology, 28: 1589-1598.
• 2007 - Wilks, D.S., and T.M. Hamill, 2007. Comparison of ensemble-MOS methods using GFS reforecasts. Monthly Weather Review, 135: 2379-2390.
• Wilks, D.S., 2007. High-resolution spatial interpolation of weather generator parameters using local weighted regressions. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 148: 111-120.
• Wilks, D.S., and T.M. Hamill, 2007. Comparison of ensemble-MOS methods using GFS reforecasts. Monthly Weather Review, 135: 2379-2390.
• Wilks, D.S., 2006. Comparison of ensemble-MOS methods in the Lorenz `96 setting. Meteorological Applications, 13, 243-256. Wilks, D.S., 2006. On "field significance" and the false discovery rate. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 45, 1181-1189.
• Wilks, D.S., 2006. Comparison of ensemble-MOS methods in the Lorenz `96 setting. Meteorological Applications, 13, 243-256.
• Wilks, D.S., 2006. On "field significance" and the false discovery rate. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 45, 1181-1189.
• Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences (Academic Press, 2nd Edition 2006). A PDF containing known errors can be downloaded from the `Additional Links` section above.
• Wilks, D.S., 2006. Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, 2nd Ed. International Geophysics Series, Vol. 59, Academic Press, 627 pp.
• Wilks, D.S., 2005. Effects of stochastic parameterizations in the Lorenz `96 system. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 131: 389-407.
• Walter, M.T., D.S. Wilks, J.-Y Parlange, and R. Schneider, 2004. Increasing evaporation from the conterminous U.S. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 5, 405-408.
• Wilks, D.S., 2004. The Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) histogram as a verification tool for multidimensional ensemble forecasts. Monthly Weather Review, 132, 1329-1340.
• Wilks, D.S., 2002. Smoothing forecast ensembles with fitted probability distributions. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 128: 2821-2136.
• DeGaetano, A.T., and D.S. Wilks, 2002. Extreme-value climatology of maximum soil freezing depths in the United States. Journal of Cold Regions Engineering, 16, 51-71.
• Wilks, D.S., 2002 Realizations of daily weather in forecast seasonal climate. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 3, 195-207.
• Wilks, D.S., and C.M. Godfrey, 2002. Diagnostic Verification of the IRI Net Assessment Forecasts, 1997-2000. Journal of Climate, 15, 1369-1377.

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