Robert “Race” A. Clark III

Research Scientist
Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS)
Storm Prediction Center (SPC)

National Weather Center (NWC)
120 David L. Boren Blvd
Norman OK 73072
race dot clark at ou dot edu
robert dot a dot clark at noaa dot gov

Education

• Ph.D. (meteorology), The University of Oklahoma, 2016
  • Ph.D. Dissertation title: Machine Learning Predictions of Flash Floods
• M.S. Meteorology, The University of Oklahoma, 2012
  • M.S. Thesis title: Evaluation of Flash Flood Guidance in the United States
• B.S. Chemical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 2010

Research Interests

• Project IMPACTS
  • Integrated Machine-based Predictive Analytics for Convective Threats to Society
  • Right now I’m working on predicting the impacts of tornadoes before they occur to enable the emergency management community to better anticipate disasters
• Pre-Flash Flood Atmospheric Environments
• Machine Learning and Data Mining
• International Capacity Building and Distributed Hydrologic Model Training
• Assessment/Validation of Flash Flood Forecasts
• Operational Flash Flood Forecasting Practices
• Flash Flood Guidance

Projects

• Ensemble Framework for Flash Flood Forecasting (EF5)
  • Developer of EF5 training course and training videos
  • Instructor, Second Geospatial Information Workshop, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico
  • Instructor, Workshop on Higher Resolution SRTM Data & Flood Modeling, Tonantzintla and Puebla, Mexico
  • Participant, 2015 Global Flood Partnership Meeting (.pdf, 4.6 mb), Boulder, CO
  • Instructor, Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Forestry in Windhoek, Namibia
  • Instructor, Flood and Drought Risk Management Workshop, Windhoek, Namibia
• National Weather Service Activities
  • Weekly Coordinator, 2015 Hydrometeorological Testbed Hydrology (HMT-Hydro) Experiment, Norman, OK
  • NWS Flash Flood Summit (Sept 2014), National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, AL
  • Logistics Coordinator and author of final report, 2014 Hazardous Weather Testbed Hydrology Experiment (HWT-Hydro), Norman, OK
  • Participant, 2013 Flash Flooding & Intense Rainfall Experiment, College Park, MD
• Participant, 2015 Open Science Data Cloud Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Participant, 2014 Open Science Data Cloud Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Participant, 2014 Water & Society Summer School, Saint-Pierre-d’Oleron, France

Awards

• 3rd-Place Graduate Student Poster, OU GIS Day, 2015
  • “Processing Topographical Data for Hydrological Modeling” (.pdf, 12 mb)
• 1st-Place Graduate Student Poster, 40th Annual National Weather Association Meeting, 2015
  • “Toward Hazard Services Recommenders for Flash Flood Forecasting” (.pdf, 12 mb)
• 3rd-Place Oral Award, 5th AMS Conference on Transition of Research to Operations (95th AMS Annual Meeting), 2015
  • “The Inaugural Hazardous Weather Testbed – Hydrology (HWT-Hydro) Experiment)” (.pdf, 22 mb)
• Open Science Data Cloud PIRE Fellow, 2014 and 2015
• OU Advanced Radar Research Center Student Journal Paper Award, 2013
  • “CONUS-Wide Evaluation of National Weather Service Flash Flood Guidance Products” doi 10.1175/WAF-D-12-00124.1.
• 1st-Place Graduate Student Poster, OU GIS Day, 2013
  • “A CONUS-Wide Analysis of Flash Flooding: Simulations, Warnings, and Observations” (.pdf, 15 mb)
• 1st-Place Graduate Student Poster, 38th Annual National Weather Association Meeting, 2013
  • “A CONUS-Wide Analysis of Flash Flooding: Simulations, Warnings, and Observations” (.pdf, 4.1 mb)
• American Meteorological Society (AMS) Graduate Fellowship, 2010-2011
• Outstanding Senior, 2009-2010, Oklahoma State University
• Senior of Significance, 2009-2010, Oklahoma State University
• Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
• Tau Beta Pi Honor Society
• Order of Omega Honor Society
• Top Ten Freshman Man, 2006-2007, Oklahoma State University

Conference Presentations and Posters

In-Progress Publications

• Clark III, R., Z. Flamig, H. Vergara, Y. Hong, J. Gourley, D. Mandl, S. Frye, M. Handy, and M. Patterson, 2016: Hydrological Modeling and Capacity Building in the Republic of Namibia. Submitted to BAMS (in review).

Activities

• National Weather Center tour guide, 2010-Present
• OU Graduate College Student Ambassador, 2011-Present
• OU SoM Senior Capstone Project Mentor, 2013-2014
  • With fellow graduate students Z. Flamig and E. Argyle, mentored three senior OU meteorology students on their project “The Effects of Broadcast Graphics in Severe Weather Decision Making”
• OU SoM Student Advisory Council (SAC), Vice-Chair, 2013-2014
• OU SoM SAC, Ph.D. Representative, 2012-2013
• OU Graduate Student Senate (GSS), Vice-Chair, 2012-2013
• OU GSS, Member, 2010-2012

Interests

• International travel
• Severe weather
• Sports (college basketball, college football, and the Oklahoma City Thunder)
• Running
• Cooking
• Python and C#

Publications

ID	Topic	Citation	Year
9	Hydrologic modeling	"Yami, T. L., Gao, S., Chen, M., Li, Z., Vergara, H., Clark, R. R., ... & Hong, Y.", 2021: CREST/EF5 capacity building to enhance resilience to hydrodynamic disasters in emerging regions. African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 15 (6), 230-242.	2021
8	Flash flood	Gourley, J. J., H. Vergara, A. Arthur, R. A. Clark III, D. Staley, J. Fulton, L. Hempel, D. C. Goodrich, K. Rowden, and P. R. Robichaud, 2020: ”Predicting the Floods that Follow the Flames". Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc, 101, E1101–E1106. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0040.1.	2020
7	Flash flood	Martinaitis, S. M., B. Albright, J. J. Gourley, S. Perfater, T. Meyer, Z. L. Flamig, R. A. Clark III, H. Vergara, and M. Klein, 2020: The 23 June 2016 West Virginia flash flood event as observed through two Hydrometeorology Testbed Experiments. Wea. Forecasting, 35, 2099-2126. doi: 10.1175/WAF-D-20-0016.1.	2020
6	Hydrology	Hasan, E., A. Tarhule, P.E. Kirstetter, R. Clark, and Y. Hong, 2018: Runoff sensitivity to climate change in the Nile River Basin. Journal of Hydrology, 561, 312-321. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.04.004.	2018
5	Flood	Gourley, J., Z. Flamig, H. Vergara, P. Kirstetter, R. Clark, E. Argyle, A. Arthur, S. Martinaitis, G. Terti, J. Erlingis, Y. Hong, and K. Howard, 2016: The Flooded Locations And Simulated Hydrographs (FLASH) project: improving the tools for flash flood monitoring and prediction across the United States. . Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.,. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00247.1.	2016
4	Hydrological Modeling	Clark, R., Z. Flamig, H. Vergara, Y. Hong, J. Gourley, D. Mandl, S. Frye, M. Handy, and M. Patterson, 2016: Hydrological Modeling and Capacity Building in the Republic of Namibia. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00130.1.	2016
3	Flash Flood Guidance	Clark III, R., J. Gourley, Z. Flamig, Y. Hong, and E. Clark, 2014: CONUS-wide Evaluation of National Weather Service Flash Flood Guidance Products. Weather and Forecasting, 29, 377-392. doi: 10.1175/WAF-D-12-00124.1. PDF.	2014
2	Natural Hazards, Flood	Gourley, J. J., Y. Hong, Z. L. Flamig, A. Arthur, R. A. Clark, M. Calianno, I. Ruin, T. Ortel, M. E. Wieczorek, E. Clark, P.-E. Kirstetter, and W. F. Krajewski, 2013: A Unified Flash Flood Database over the US. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 94 (6), 799–805. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00198.1. PDF.	2013
1	Forecasts	Marsh, Patrick T., John S. Kain, Valliappa Lakshmanan, Adam J. Clark, Nathan M. Hitchens, Jill Hardy, 2012: A Method for Calibrating Deterministic Forecasts of Rare Events. Wea. Forecasting (27), 531–538. doi: 10.1175/WAF-D-11-00074.1. PDF.	2012
ID	Topic	Citation	Year