Rate My Professor Andrew Dowdy

Associate Professor Andrew Dowdy holds the position of Associate Professor in Climate Science within the Faculty of Science, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD in 2005 at the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with the Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Germany. His career history encompasses key appointments in atmospheric research and policy. Since 2023, he has served as Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. Previously, he was Principal Research Scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology from 2011 to 2023, Professional Officer at the Bureau of Meteorology from 2007 to 2011, Policy Officer at the Department of the Environment and Heritage from 2006 to 2007, and Lidar Physicist at the Australian Antarctic Division from 2001 to 2003.

Dowdy specializes in extreme weather events and their associated hazards, including bushfires, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, tropical cyclones, extratropical and subtropical cyclones such as east coast lows, extreme rainfall, severe winds, floods, and pyroconvection. His research addresses modes of variability, forecasting, observations, and climate change projections from sub-daily to long-term scales, with applications to sectors like energy, environment, finance, and emergency services. He has authored approximately 163 publications. Key works include "Connections of climate change and variability to large and extreme forest fires in southeast Australia" (2021), "Multi-decadal increase of forest burned area in Australia is linked to climate change" (2021), "Insights from CMIP6 for Australia's future climate" (2020), "Climate change increases the potential for extreme wildfires" (2019), "Future changes in extreme weather and pyroconvection risk factors for Australian wildfires" (2019), "Climatological variability of fire weather in Australia" (2018), "Declining tropical cyclone frequency under global warming" (2022), "Australian fire weather as represented by the McArthur forest fire danger index and the Canadian forest fire weather index" (2009), "Development of a global fire weather database" (2015), and "Compound weather systems of cyclones, fronts and thunderstorms in global reanalysis" (2025). These publications have advanced knowledge of climate influences on Australian extreme events.