Advancing the Understanding and Forecasting of Severe Convective Weather
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Techniques, Instruments, and Modeling".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 18 November 2026 | Viewed by 383
Editors
Interests: lightning physics and thunderstorm electrification; electric field sounding; severe convective storm nowcasting; radar–lightning data fusion; atmospheric boundary layer; observational meteorology
Interests: numerical weather prediction; mid-latitude and tropical convective cloud-scale modeling; hurricane forecasting; regional climate modeling; wind and solar energy relevant model development; large-eddy scale simulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Severe convective weather, including tornadoes, hail, damaging winds, and flash flooding, poses significant threats to life, property, and infrastructure worldwide. Despite remarkable advances in observational technologies and numerical modeling over recent decades, accurately forecasting the initiation, evolution, and intensity of severe convective storms remains a formidable challenge. Critical gaps persist in our understanding of the multiscale processes governing convective storm dynamics, microphysics, and environmental interactions, which limit forecast skill and lead times.
This Special Issue invites contributions that advance both the fundamental science and operational forecasting capabilities for severe convective weather. We welcome studies employing novel observational platforms (including remote sensing, radar technologies, and field campaigns), high-resolution numerical simulations, machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches, and data assimilation techniques. Of particular interest are investigations into:
- Convective initiation mechanisms and predictability in complex terrain and varying environmental conditions;
- Supercell dynamics, tornado genesis, and tornadic processes;
- Hail formation and growth mechanisms with implications for size prediction;
- Convective mode transitions and upscale growth into mesoscale convective systems;
- Environmental controls on severe weather potential, including moisture transport, instability, and wind shear;
- Innovative forecast methodologies integrating ensemble prediction systems, probabilistic approaches, and nowcasting techniques;
- Verification strategies and performance metrics for severe weather warnings.
We particularly encourage submissions that bridge the gap between research and operations, offering practical insights for improving severe weather forecasts and warning decision-making processes.
Dr. Ye Tian
Dr. Jimy Dudhia
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- severe convective storms
- tornado forecasting
- numerical weather prediction
- convective initiation
- ensemble forecasting
- radar meteorology
- machine learning applications
- remote sensing
- extreme weather events
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