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Quinton Lawton, PhD

@quintonlawton.com
2K followers 250 following 54 posts

Assistant Professor in Atmospheric Science at Northern Illinois University. Casual runner, Houston-sports fan, and T1D.

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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 12/09/2026
I've done this Assistant Professor thing for like 3 weeks, so maybe nobody should listen to me. But I will say, as powerful as these tools are, I've noticed much unease about the pace of AI among students. What will it mean for degrees? Careers? Hard Q's, but our field must not shy away from them.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 12/09/2026
Great read. This stood out to me, it's where hard questions arise in higher-ed. How do we ensure training students remains at the center of academic research? Will such acceleration worsen academic pressures of rapid progress? What does it mean for validation and accountability? And so much more.
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Clark Evans @clarkevanswx.github.io · 30/08/2026
With another academic year beginning, I’m resharing something I wrote three years ago to try to demystify the graduate school application process. Please feel free to share with anyone who may benefit, and let me know of any suggestions for improvement! www.linkedin.com/pulse/demyst...
linkedin.com
Demystifying the Atmospheric Sciences Graduate School Application Process
As the dawn of another academic year is upon us, many college seniors will soon be starting the graduate-school application process. To help these students, I’ve prepared some semi-assorted, semi-orga...
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 09/08/2026
Plus if you have a well-funded local library near you, the common spaces can be fantastic! Our library here in Geneva, IL has conference rooms, study spaces, and even a ”maker space” with a 3D printer + crafting materials. Good way to work remotely without the chaos of a coffee shop.
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Marshall Shepherd @drshepherd2013.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Humbled to receive what is likely the highest recognition by my discipline in the U.S. Wow www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
eurekalert.org
American Meteorological Society announces 2027 weather, water, and climate honorees
Each year, the American Meteorological Society recognizes outstanding contributions to the weather, water, and climate community by individuals and organizations. 2027 awardees will be honored at...
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 31/07/2026
Throughout my early scientific career, I've learned complex math, atmospheric modeling, and many different programming languages. Yet today, I've spent HOURS fighting with the Blackboard web interface to try to design my Fall course...
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 31/07/2026
The ineptitude is insane here, actually: “In all cases, Anthropic’s evaluation prompt specified to Claude that its environment was a simulation and that it had no internet access. Due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner, this was not the case.”
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Chelsea Harvey @chelseaeharvey.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Small professional announcement: Amid our energy/enviro reorg, I'm joining a new reporting team dedicated to extreme weather/disasters (with ace colleagues Tom Frank & Saqib Rahim)⚡I'll be focusing more sharply on certain aspects of the beat (see🧵👇), so let's chat! www.politico.com/blogs/politi...
politico.com
POLITICO Announces Energy Team Reorganization and New Newsletter Strategy
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Deepti Singh @climatechirper.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
A week late but excited to share @nationalacademies.org report on Attribution of Extreme Events and their Impacts. Had the opportunity to work with amazing colleagues to reflect on the incredible progress in EEA and review the breadth of applications @climate-done.bsky.social @jmarlon.bsky.social
nationalacademies.org
Attribution of Extreme Weather and Climate Events and Their Impacts
Decades of data and research indicate that human-caused climate change is altering the frequency and intensity of several types of extreme events, such as heat waves and extreme rainfall events. Even...
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 17/07/2026
This week I moved to the Chicago suburbs for my new job, and decided to take the train into downtown yesterday. Ended up wearing a KN95 and trying to stay inside as much as possible all day, as the PM2.5 smoke pollution from the wildfires was absolutely insane.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 11/06/2026
@miamirosenstiel.bsky.social also did a nice press release on this study last year, which you can read here! (4/4) news.miami.edu/rosenstiel/s...
news.miami.edu
Decades of data show African weather disturbances intensify during La Niña
African easterly waves, which directly impact communities in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, are shown to intensify during La Niña, advancing our understanding of how these weather systems in...
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 11/06/2026
The article is still paywalled unfortunately, but the pre-formatted version is available on NCAR's OpenSky. (3/4) ncar.ucar.edu/opensky-publ...
ncar.ucar.edu
On the interannual variability of African easterly waves and its relationship with El Niño-Southern Oscillation | National Center for Atmospheric Research
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 11/06/2026
While we didn't dive into the specific impacts in this work, I think it's likely this relationship could affect hurricane formation and other weather phenomena controlled by these easterly waves. This includes rainfall over the African continent, Saharan dust, localized flooding, and so forth. (2/4)
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 11/06/2026
With El Niño officially here, a lot of discussion of the impacts on weather patterns around the world. One aspect we explored last year are the impacts it has on African easterly waves, which tend to be weaker, drier, and have less humidity (on avg.) during El Niño. (1/4) doi.org/10.1175/JCLI...
doi.org
On the Interannual Variability of African Easterly Waves and Its Relationship with El Niño–Southern Oscillation
Abstract African easterly waves (AEWs) have important impacts on rainfall, drought, and the development of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin. However, the interannual variability of AEWs and the...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 20/02/2026
Haha that’s the spirt!!
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 19/02/2026
I did a lot of my dissertation writing in that office when we didn’t have visitors! Also happens to be the closest staircase to Wetlab…
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 29/10/2025
Fantastic thread by @drkimwood.bsky.social that also mirrors my thoughts! I try to spend much of my outreach emphasizing the “category” can be misleading and isn’t the whole story, especially with rain and surge impacts.
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Dr. Kelly Núñez Ocasio @knubez.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
🚨 New Study Alert! Our study with @zmoon92.bsky.social & @edougherty.bsky.social offers new insights into how African Easterly Waves (AEWs), the seeds of Atlantic hurricanes 🌀, are being shaped by a warmer, moister climate. doi.org/10.1029/2025...
doi.org
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 02/10/2025
Oh hey, that's our paper!
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Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 02/10/2025
The Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M has a YouTube channel. Check out our first video! Starring @knubez.bsky.social along with many faculty and students! youtu.be/_e57SmX2Ijw?...
youtu.be
Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences
YouTube video by TAMU Atmospheric Sciences
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Elizabeth Leitman @wxliz.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Just a reminder that NWS is considered essential during a government shutdown. Meteorologists will still go to work, forecasts will still be made, watches and warnings will be issued, data will flow. We won’t be paid until the shutdown ends, but we’ll still protect life and property as always.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 24/09/2025
It's not often we get a stratiform rain day like this! I'm quite enjoying it
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American Meteorological Society @ametsoc.org · 16/09/2025
Much appreciation for AMS Editor's Award recipient Rosimar Rios-Berrios for meticulous, thoughtful, constructive reviews 🤩 Learn more: bit.ly/48gR7vJ #JAtmosSci #PeerReviewWeek
Graphic for the Peer Review Week congratulating Rosimar Rios-Berrios, NSF NCAR, with a citation.
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Carl Schreck, PhD @carl-schreck.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Incredibly proud of my colleagues at NOAA's NCEI that put together this thorough storymap of Hurricane Helene. storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8887...
storymaps.arcgis.com
Helene in Southern Appalachia
One year later: An event analysis and how we move forward.
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Falko Judt @cloudprophet.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
🌍 The MMM lab at @ncar-ucar.bsky.social is running experimental realtime forecasts with a global 3.75-km MPAS model. Goal: Highlight the power of global km-scale models for weather prediction from local to planetary scales, incl. tropical cyclones. 👉 project.mmm.ucar.edu/real-time-fo...
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Amy McGovern @profamymcgovern.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
More news on AI2ES. Please help save science funding in general but also help save AI for weather! www.nbcnews.com/science/scie...
nbcnews.com
White House cuts to science funding threaten AI weather forecasting institute
The Trump administration has proposed a 55% budget cut for the National Science Foundation, but Congress has yet to pass a budget.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 31/08/2025
Likely, but not 100% sure yet!
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 27/08/2025
Wow, congratulations!
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Elizabeth Leitman @wxliz.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Leaving negative comments isn’t really helpful. It takes zero effort to be kind and just scroll past. I choose to remain hopeful and love what I do, because the people that matter most are the ones I took an oath to serve - the American public.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 13/08/2025
Don’t remember much about JAX, but 100% agree about SLC being a great airport!
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 11/08/2025
Funny, I was just looking at the Boulder forecast and wondering this. Feels really far out for a severe mention, but then again I’m a tropical guy…
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Brian McNoldy @bmcnoldy.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Attention hurricane enthusiasts, connoisseurs, experts: the Atlantic season is entering the active months (Aug-Sep-Oct) so what better time to remind you of this Starter Pack so you can get reliable information and insights! go.bsky.app/88mXQKD
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 30/07/2025
Our research on the connection between African easterly waves (AEW) and ENSO was accepted! Using a wave tracker, we show that there is increased circulation, moisture, and convection around AEWs during La Niña, especially in the wave's mid- to low- levels near Africa. This may have TC implications.
journals.ametsoc.org
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 31/07/2025
I have nothing to add to the existing comments other than to say: welcome to MPAS world :)
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 30/07/2025
I am especially proud of this work because of the contributions from Brooke Weiser, a former @miamirosenstiel.bsky.social undergraduate student who I had the honor of mentoring in research a few years ago. Our collaboration continued as I moved to @ncar-ucar.bsky.social and she started her career!
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 30/07/2025
This paper also reflects an update to our easterly wave tracker, which now has been updated to work in the eastern Pacific. We also have produced tracks for both ERA5 and MERRA2. A climatology is shown below. The software is available as a python module (via pip). github.com/qlawton/QTrack
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 30/07/2025
We believe these AEW changes are connected to shifts in regional circulation, including the African easterly jet and west African monsoon. While previous work has looked at ENSO and wave "activity", our use of a wave-tracker allowed us to directly quantify wave attributes and structure.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 30/07/2025
Our research on the connection between African easterly waves (AEW) and ENSO was accepted! Using a wave tracker, we show that there is increased circulation, moisture, and convection around AEWs during La Niña, especially in the wave's mid- to low- levels near Africa. This may have TC implications.
journals.ametsoc.org
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 04/06/2025
Breaking my bluesky silence to say: what was the thought process behind this 💀
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 31/05/2025
As always, thanks for this. Just want to add that the NSF request document also has detailed info on proposed cuts to major facilities like NCAR (40% cut). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...
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July (they/them) @misovortex.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
A quick heads up on some tropical weather social media posts you may see around this time of year. The GFS (U.S.) model is known to over-intensify storms in the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in May and June. This means sometimes it will show a strong hurricane developing ~7+ days out, 1/
Dr. Levi Cowan on X
@TropicalTidbits

"The GFS commonly develops fictitious storms in the western Caribbean.

Typically, these arise from the aggregation of multiple small-scale vorticity perturbations (left panel) caused by and collocated with strong bursts of convection/precip (right panel).

While the GFS is not always wrong about the existence of these localized convective bursts, they are often way too strong, leading to small areas of intense vorticity/spin that eventually aggregate upscale into a tropical cyclone circulation, as we can see here on today's 12Z model run.

This is why the GFS is difficult to take seriously when it predicts TC formation, unless other models show a similar forecast. This is especially true in the western Caribbean, where the GFS has an extremely high false alarm rate.

Know your weather model before you trust its output!"

7:53 PM Jun 10, 2023
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
200+ scientists are in the middle of a marathon livestream to show why weather and climate science is so important and needs all our help to continue. It is here: wclivestream.com/watch
wclivestream.com
Redirecting to: https://www.youtube.com/@wclivestream/live
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Dave Nolan @davenolan305.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
The first CGWaves research flight is scheduled for tonight! This is the plan, which could change a bit during the flight. @miamirosenstiel.bsky.social
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 12/05/2025
Completely anecdotal, but my personal experience is that many local Miami realtors are astutely aware of this bubble. The scrupulous ones I knew were very open with their clients about climate/hurricane/flooding risk. But my guess is they were in the minority
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 10/05/2025
I mean they are certainly gutting most of the divisions. There is nothing good going on, that’s for sure.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 10/05/2025
Seems bad. I gotta stop checking bluesky on Friday’s 😭
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 10/05/2025
Yeah, not claiming this is good (it is not), but the article does specially mention all directorates will be retained.
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Quinton Lawton, PhD @quintonlawton.com · 10/05/2025
So the geoscience directorate remains but will focus on the those 5 “clusters”? Is this the right interpretation?
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Casey Davenport @cedavenportwx.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Beyond honored to have been awarded the Bonnie Cone Early Career Professorship in Teaching! My name may be on the plaque but it is dedicated to all who have mentored, taught, and supported me along the way. I can only hope to live up to Bonnie's reputation of excellence and advocacy.
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