Rate My Professor Suzanne Gray

Professor Suzanne Gray is Professor of Meteorology in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, a position she has held since 2013. She has been at the University since 1996, advancing through research and teaching roles, and currently serves as Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (Environment) and leads the Mesoscale Group. She supervises postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate dissertations, and incorporates research findings into teaching, such as the Introduction to Meteorology module using real-life storm case studies. Gray earned a BA in Natural Sciences, specializing in theoretical physics, from the University of Cambridge in 1993, and a PhD from the University of Reading in 1996 on the intensification and eye dynamics of tropical cyclones supervised by Dr. George Craig.

Her research focuses on dynamical meteorology at scales relevant to weather systems, including mesoscale processes, dynamics and predictability of extratropical, Arctic, and Mediterranean cyclones, ensemble forecasting, weather phenomena climatology, and midlatitude convection, with particular emphasis on sting jets—descending jets causing localized extreme winds in storms. Gray has led or co-led major NERC-funded projects, including DIAMET (diabatic influences on mesoscale structures in extratropical storms), where she directed the first research aircraft flight into a sting jet storm; sting jet precursor tools for forecasters; FRANC (forecasting rainfall); PRESTO (precipitation over orography); Arctic summertime cyclones; and ongoing Diabatic influences on current and future hazardous Mediterranean cyclones (2024-2028) and CLOUDY TIME on convective interactions (2023-2026). Key publications encompass 'CISK or WISHE as the mechanism for tropical cyclone intensification' (Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 1996), 'Scientific challenges of convective-scale numerical weather prediction' (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2018), 'Diabatic processes modifying potential vorticity in a North Atlantic cyclone' (Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 2013), and 'A global climatology of sting-jet extratropical cyclones' (Weather and Climate Dynamics, 2024). She received the Royal Meteorological Society's Buchan Prize in 2016 and L.F. Richardson Prize in 2001. Collaborating with the Met Office and insurance industry, her contributions advance extreme weather forecasting and climate impact assessments.