Dr. Corene J. Matyas

Assistant Professor

matyas@ufl.edu

website

Areas of Specialization

• Climatology
• Hurricanes
  
• Severe Weather
  
• Precipitation

Educational Background

• PhD -- Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 2005
  
• MA -- Geography, Arizona State University, 2001
  
• BS -- Environmental Geoscience, Clarion University of PA, 1999
  

Recent Courses

• GEO 2242  Extreme Weather (Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008)
  
  GEO 3250/6938  Climatology (Fall 2005, Spring 2007)
  
  GEO 3930/6938  Weather and Forecasting (Spring 2006, Spring 2007)
  
  GEO 4938/6938  Hurricanes (Fall 2006, Fall 2007)
  
  GEO 4938/6938  Special Topics: Storm Chasing (Summer C, 2007)
  

Recent Publications

• Matyas, C. J. 2006. "Using GIS To Assess the Symmetry of Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields," Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences Volume 29, Pg31-39.

• Matyas, C.J. 2006. "Florida Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Totals as Related to Storm Location and Intensity," The Florida Geographer Volume 37, Pg. 58-71.

• Matyas, C.J. Quantifying the Shapes of U.S. Landfalling Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields, accepted The Professional Geographer 10/4/06. Will appear in May 2007 issue.

• Matyas, C.J. 2006. Using GIS To Assess the Symmetry of Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields, Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences Volume 29, Pg 31-39.

• Matyas, C.J. 2006. Analyzing Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields According to Storm Size. 27th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Monterey, CA.
  http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/108831.pdf

• Matyas, C.J. 2006. Using Annular Rings and Quadrants to Clip Polygons Representing Tropical Cyclone Precipitation in a Geographical Information System. Extended Abstracts, 22nd International Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.

• Matyas, C.J., 2005, "Using geographical information systems for the spatial analysis of base reflectivity radar data and applications to the study of tropical cyclone precipitation patterns ," 15th Conference on Applied Climatology, Savannah, GA, June 20-24, 2005.

• Vega, A.J. and C.J. Matyas, 2004, "North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Intensities    and Macro-Scale Temperature Variations," The Pennsylvania Geographer, Spring/Summer 2004, Volume 42, Number 1, Pg 142-178

Recent Presentations

• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Relating the Rain and Wind Fields of Hurricane Charley 2004, to be delivered at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 11, San Francisco, CA.
• Matyas. C.J. 2006 Climate Change and Tropical Cyclones: Is a Category Six on the Horizon, delivered at the Physics Department Colloquium Series, October 19, Gainesville, FL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Using GIS To Assess the Symmetry of Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields, delivered at the 29th Annual Applied Geography Conference, October 12, Tampa, FL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Measuring Tropical Cyclone Rain Shield Shapes with GIS, delivered at the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, August 15, Miami, FL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Analyzing Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields According to Storm Size, delivered at the 27th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, April 24, Monterrey, CA.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Predicting the Spatial Extent of Tropical Cyclone Rainfall, delivered at the Department of Mathematics Colloquium Series, April 12, Gainesville, FL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Relating the Shapes of Landfalling Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields to Storm Intensity, Distance Inland, and Topography, delivered at the Association of American Geographers 2006 Annual Meeting, March 10, Chicago, IL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Quantifying the Effects of Wind Shear on Tropical Cyclone Rain Shields, delivered at the Florida Society of Geographers 2006 Annual Meeting, February 18, St. Petersburg, FL.
• Waylen, P. and C.J. Matyas 2006 Shifting Patterns of Seasonal Rainfall, Jacksonville, 1872-2005, delivered at the Florida Society of Geographers 2006 Annual Meeting, February 18, St. Petersburg, FL.
• Matyas, C.J. 2006 Using Annular Rings and Quadrants to Clip Polygons Representing Tropical Cyclone Precipitation in a Geographical Information System. 22nd International Conference on Interactive Information Processing Systems for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Atlanta, GA.
• Matyas, C.J. 2005 Relating Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Patterns to Storm Size, delivered at the Association of American Geographers South East Division Annual Meeting, November 21, West Palm Beach, FL.
• Matyas, C.J., 2005, Using Geographical Information Systems for the Spatial Analysis of Base Reflectivity Radar Data and Applications to the Study of Tropical Cyclone Precipitation Patterns, 15th Conference on Applied Climatology, Savannah, GA.
• Matyas, C.J. 2005 A Set of Shape Measures to Track Changes in the Precipitation Patterns of Landfalling Tropical Cyclones, delivered at the Association of American Geographers 2005 Annual Meeting, April 8, 2005, Denver, CO.
• Vega, A.J. and C.J. Matyas 2004. Relationships between North Atlantic Air and Sea Temperatures and Tropical Cyclone Intensity, delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society, Nov 5-6, 2004, New Cumberland, PA.
• Matyas, C. J. 2004. The Spatial Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Precipitation Patterns: Does Size Matter, delivered at the Association of American Geographers East Lakes Division Annual Meeting, October 15, Athens, OH.
• Matyas, C.J. 2004. Geographical Tools to Aid Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Forecasts, poster presentation delivered at the Pennsylvania State University Graduate Exhibition, March 28, 2004.
• Matyas, C.J. 2004. Using Geographical Shape Analysis to Investigate Tropical Cyclone Radar Reflectivity Patterns, delivered at the Association of American Geographers 2004 Annual Meeting, March 15, Philadelphia, PA.

In My Own Words

At the age of 4, I realized that one cannot hide from severe weather events. Consequently, I vowed to learn everything that I could about hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters because I wanted to be prepared when severe weather struck. Throughout my education as a scientist, I have maintained in interest in art, and the combination of these two pursuits led me to my thesis work where I examined the shapes of "rainprints" produced when convective thunderstorms moved through the region around Phoenix, Arizona during the monsoon season. For my dissertation work, I investigated how best to quantify the shapes of tropical cyclone rain shields. Many physical mechanisms affect rain production in these storms, such as topography, interaction with middle latitude weather systems, and directional wind shear. My doctoral research laid the groundwork for attributing changes in the rain shield shapes to these physical mechanisms, as well as explored a new set of methods for examining tropical cyclone rainfall patterns by using a GIS to spatially analyze base reflectivity data for these storms. Future work will build upon this foundation, using techniques inherent to geographers, to quantify how tropical cyclone rain shield shapes change over the life span of the storm, with a particular emphasis on the effects of landfall.

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