Dr. Corene Matyas

Professor and Certificate Coordinator

Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Research(opens in new tab)

Curriculum Vitae

Focus Areas

Areas of Specialization

  • Tropical Climatology
  • Hurricanes
  • Severe Weather
  • Remote Sensing of Rainfall

Educational Background

  • PhD in Geography, Pennsylvania State University, 2005
  • M.A. in Geography, Arizona State University, 2001
  • B.S. in Environmental Geoscience, minor in Sculpture, Clarion University of PA, 1999

Awards

  • Fellow: American Association of Geographers 2025
  • University of Florida Foundation Research Professor 2025-2028
  • Excellence in Teaching: Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers 2019
  • CLAS Teacher of the Year 2018-2019
  • University of Florida Term Professorship 2016 – 2019 and 2019-2022
  • Colonel Allan R. and Margaret G. Crow Term Professor, 2014-2015
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2011-2018
  • CLAS Teacher of the Year 2008-2009

Recent Courses

  • GEO3250/6255  Climatology
  • MET4532/6530  Hurricanes
  • MET4750/6752 Atmospheric Data Analysis
  • MET4560/6565 Atmospheric Teleconnections
  • MET4911 Undergraduate Research Meteorology

Current Graduate Students

PhD

Recently Graduated Students

PhD

  • Dr. Stephanie Zick  (Associate Professor Virginia Tech)
  • Dr. José Javier Hernández Ayala (Assistant Professor Sonoma State Univ)
  • Dr. Jingyin Tang (Senior Meteorologist and Software Engineer The Weather Company IBM)
  • Dr. Yao Zhou (Assistant Professor Embry Riddle Aeronautical University)
  • Yu Wang (Product Engineer, ESRI)

Master’s

  • Sanghoon Kim

In My Own Words

At the age of 4, I realized that one cannot hide from severe weather events. Consequently, I vowed to learn everything that I could about natural disasters because I wanted to be prepared. Throughout my education as a scientist, I have maintained in interest in art, and the combination of these two pursuits led me to my thesis work where I examined the shapes of “rainprints” produced when convective thunderstorms moved through the region around Phoenix, Arizona during the monsoon season. For my dissertation work, I investigated how best to quantify the shapes of tropical cyclone rain shields. Many physical mechanisms affect rain production in these storms, such as topography, interaction with middle latitude weather systems, and atmospheric moisture. My doctoral research laid the groundwork for attributing changes in the rain shield shapes to these physical mechanisms, as well as explored a new set of methods for examining tropical cyclone rainfall patterns by using a GIS to spatially analyze base reflectivity data for these storms.  I seek to quantify how tropical cyclone rain shield shapes change over the life span of the storm, with a particular emphasis on the effects of landfall.

My primary research involves the GIS-based analysis of rainfall from tropical cyclones. I am interested in other severe weather events as well. I am also currently pursuing research on social and behavioral responses to natural hazards. I seek to mentor students who would like to examine severe weather events, atmospheric teleconnections, or rainfall, and who have GIS and/or remote sensing skills. I look forward to serving on committees for students working in fields related to natural hazards, utilizing weather and climate-related data such as wind, rainfall, temperature trends, etc., examining atmospheric teleconnections and their influence on weather and climate, and human/environment interactions.

Recent Publications

Addington, K. D., Zick, S.E., Wood, K. M., Matyas, C. J., Berislavich, K. 2025. Variations in tropical cyclone size and rainfall patterns based on synoptic-scale moisture environments in the North Atlantic, accepted, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.

Matyas, C.J., Kim, D., Zick, S. E., Wood, K. M. 2025. Four moisture patterns surrounding Atlantic hurricanes revealed by deep learning, Atmospheric Research, 108114. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2025.108114

Matyas, C.J.; Zick, S.E.; Wood, K.M. 2025. Comparing reflectivity from space-based and ground-based radars during detection of rainbands in two tropical cyclones. Atmosphere, 16, x. https://doi.org/10.3390/xxxxx

Kim, D. and Matyas, C. J. 2024. Classification of tropical cyclone rain patterns using convolutional autoencoder, Scientific Reports, 14:791 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50994-5

Stackhouse, S., Zick, S.E., Matyas, C. J., Wood, K., Hazelton, A., Alaka, G. 2023. Evaluating the skillfulness of experimental high resolution model forecasts of tropical cyclone precipitation using an object-based methodology. Weather and Forecasting, 38(10), 2111-2134.

Zhou, Y., Zhu, L., Matyas, C. J., Luan, H., Tang, J. 2023. Assessing environmental conditions associated with spatially varying rainfall structure of North Atlantic tropical cyclones: An object‐based climatological analysis. International Journal of Climatology, 43(12), 5464-5484.

Kim, D., Park, D.S., Matyas, C. J. 2023. Spatial variations in tropical cyclone rainfall over the western North Pacific according to ENSO phase. J. Climate, 36, 1697–1710.

Jury, M.R., Matyas, C. J. 2022. Tropical cyclones in the northern Mozambique Channel: Composite intra-seasonal forcing and 2019 event, Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 134 (70), 1-14.

Zick, S. E., Matyas, C. J., Lackmann, G., Tang, J., and Bennett, B. 2022. Illustration of an object-based approach to identify structural differences in tropical cyclone wind fields, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 148 (746), 2587-2606.

Judge, J., Lannon, H. A., Stofer, K. A., Matyas, C. J., Lanman, B., Leissing, J. J., Rivera, N., Norton, H., Hom, B. 2022. Integrated academic, research, and professional experiences for 2-year college students lowered barriers in STEM engagement, Journal of STEM Outreach, 5 (1), 1-15.

Matyas, C.J., Stofer, K. A., Judge, J., Lannon, H. J., Hom, B., Lanman, B., 2022. Despite challenges, 2-year college students benefit from faculty-mentored geoscience research at a 4-year university as part of an extracurricular program, Journal of Geoscience Education ,70, 354-367.

Wang, Y. and Matyas, C. J. 2022. Simulating the effects of land surface characteristics on precipitation for a modeled landfalling tropical cyclone, Atmosphere, 13, 138. DOI:.10.3390/atmos13010138

Zhou, Y. and Matyas, C. J. 2021. Regionalization of precipitation associated with tropical cyclones using spatial metrics and satellite precipitation, GIScience & Remote Sensing, 58, 1-20, DOI: 10.1080/15481603.2021.1908675

Stofer, K., Chandler, J. Insalaco, S., Matyas, C., Lannon, H., Judge, J., Lanman, B., Hom, B., Norton, H., 2021. Two year college students report multiple benefits from participation in an integrated geoscience research, coursework, and outreach internship program, Community College Review, 49(1), DOI: 10.1177/00915521211026682

Matyas, C.J. and VanSchoick, S. 2021. Geospatial analysis of rain fields and associated environmental conditions for cyclones Eline and Hudah, Geomatics, 1,1. https://doi.org/10.3390/geomatics1010008

Catarelli, R.A., Fernandez-Caban, P.L., Masters, F.J., Bridge, J.A., Gurley, K.R., Matyas, C.J., 2020. Automated terrain generation for precise atmospheric boundary layer simulation in the wind tunnel, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 207, 104276. DOI:10.1016/j.jweia.2020.104276

Matyas, C. J. 2020. Variations in rainfall timing and changes in the leading edge of Hurricane Katrina (2005) during Gulf Coast landfalls, International Journal of Environmental Sciences & Natural Resources, 26(4): 556192. DOI: 10.19080/IJESNR.2020.26.556192.

Kim, S., Matyas, C.J., and Yan, G. 2020. Rainfall symmetry related to moisture, storm intensity, and vertical wind shear for tropical cyclones landfalling over the U.S. Gulf Coastline, Atmosphere, 11, 895, 1-19. doi:10.3390/atmos11090895

Current Research Funding

  • Collaborative Research: An Object-Oriented Approach to Assess the Rainfall Evolution of Tropical Cyclones in Varying Moisture Environments. National Science Foundation AGS-2012008, 2011981, 2011812 $621,816 (Combined). (2020-2025) Role: PI. Other institutions: Mississippi State Univ. and Virginia Tech.

Previous Research Funding

  • Assessing the Impact of Geo-Targeted Warning Messages on Residents Evacuation Decisions before a Hurricane. Quick Response Research Award Supported by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder with the support of the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Program Office $5235 (2021) Role: Co-PI; PI Yan Wang, UF Urban and Regional Planning
  • Geometric Analysis of Moisture Budgets and Precipitation Structures in U.S. Landfalling Tropical Cyclones. Society of Women Geographers Pruitt Fellowship (Stephanie Zick), $8,479 (2015-2020), Role: PI.
  • CAREER: Geospatial Modeling of Tropical Cyclones to Improve the Understanding of Rainfall Patterns and Enrich the Analytical Skills of Students. National Science Foundation, BCS-1053864 $470,000 (2011 – 2018), Role: Principal Investigator
  • Revising Radx Software for High-Performance Real-time Doppler Weather Radar Gridding and Warning Decision Support during Hurricane Events. Intel Code Modernization Fellowship (Jingyin Tang and Kyuseo Park), $25,000 (2016 – 2017), Role: Faculty Advisor
  • Novel Analysis and Database Management Strategies to Track Hurricane Rainfall Regions Detected by Ground-Based Weather Radars. University of Florida Research Opportunity Fund $75,038 (2016 – 2018), Role: PI
  • Collaboration at Mississippi State University. Southeastern Conference Faculty Travel Grant. $2,454 (2018-2019), Role: PI.
  • CNH: Climate Effects on Tea Quality and Socioeconomic Responses. National Science Foundation, BCS- 1313775 $931,000 (2013 – 2019), Role: Senior Personnel; PI: Colin Orians Tufts University Dept. of Biology
  • MRI: Development of a Versatile, Self-Configuring Turbulent Flow Condition System for a Shared-Use Hybrid Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. National Science Foundation CMMI- 1428954 $ 921,370 (2014 – 2019), Role: Co-PI; PI: Forrest Masters, University of Florida Dept. of Civil and Coastal Engineering
  • Collaborative Research: GP-EXTRA: Geoscience Engagement and Outreach (GEO) – High-Impact Integrated Academic and Professional Experiences. National Science Foundation ICER- 1540729 $489,670 (2015-2019), Role: Co-Pi; PI: Heidi Lannon, Santa Fe College