University of Florida Homepage

Dr. Esther Mullens

Contact Information

Email: emullens
Office: Turlington Hall 3138

Mullens Lab Webpage(opens in new tab)

Curriculum Vitae(opens in new tab)

ORCID: 0000-0002-4370-6375

Affiliate Member
UF Water Institute
University of Oklahoma South Central Climate Adaptation Center
School of National Resources and the Environment

Focus Areas

Research Statement:

My research interests surround precipitation variability – in particular in its extremes (drought, floods), as well as climate dynamics, and climate adaptation. My other joys are in mentoring undergraduate research, supporting stakeholder science through assisting with climate data interpretation, and assisting in a recent early-career workshop facilitated by CS-CASC. I had the privilege of co-authoring the Southern Great Plains Chapter of the National Climate Assessment (NCA4). At the University of Florida, I will be expanding the meteorological teaching and research within the department of Geography. I will also continue to work with colleagues at OU on the PRES2iP project, which aims to improve our understanding and prediction of heavy precipitation at seasonal to sub-seasonal lead times.

Recent Funded Projects

NSF-AGS Physical and Dynamic Meteorology 2021-4 (PI: $294,440) Thermodynamic Modification of Winter Storms

Recent Publications

Britton, A. R., & Mullens, E. D. (2025). A weather regime‐based analysis of freezing rain trends in a warmer climate for Eastern North America. International Journal of Climatology, e70233.

Britton, A. R., & Mullens, E. D. (2025). Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Freezing Rain Regimes over Eastern North America. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 1(aop).

Klees, A., Barlow, M., Davenport, C., Flynn, W., Handlos, Z., Kristovich, S., & Mullens, E. D. (2025). What does a modern atmospheric dynamics course look like? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society106(4), 253-260.

Mullens, E.D. (2025). Freezing rain and large-scale natural variability in Eastern North America. Journal of Climate, 38(24), 7491-7507.

Mullens, E., & Engström, J. (2025). Drought to flood to drought: A review of definitions of precipitation whiplash events, what causes them and their impacts over the continental United States. International Journal of Climatology, e8850.

Wang, H., & Mullens, E. D. (2025). A climatology of atmospheric river severity using an adjusted IVT scaling across US subdomains. Journal of Climate38(24), 7269-7284.

Wang, H., & Mullens, E. (2024). Role of single and compound Pacific natural variability in extratropical cyclone activity over North America. International Journal of Climatology44(2), 647-667.

Williamson, M., Ash, K., Erickson, M. J., & Mullens, E. (2023). Damages associated with excessive rainfall outlooks (ERO) and missed flash floods. Weather and Forecasting38(6), 971-984.

Mullens, E., & McPherson, R. (2023). The Changing Nature of Hazardous Weather and Implications for Transportation: Example from Oklahoma, USA. Climate11(2), 32.

Júnior, R. D. S. N., Olivier, L., Wallach, D., Mullens, E., Fraisse, C. W., & Asseng, S. (2023). A simple procedure for a national wheat yield forecast. European Journal of Agronomy148, 126868.

VanBuskirk, O., Ćwik, P., McPherson, R. A., Lazrus, H., Martin, E., Kuster, C., & Mullens, E. (2021). Listening to stakeholders: Initiating research on subseasonal-to-seasonal heavy precipitation events in the contiguous United States by first understanding what stakeholders need. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society102(10), E1972-E1986.

Mullens, E. D. (2021). Meteorological cause and characteristics of widespread heavy precipitation in the Texas Gulf watershed 2003–2018. International Journal of Climatology41(6), 3743-3760.

Educational Background

  • PhD in Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 2014
  • B.Sc. in Meteorology, University of Reading, 2007

Current Graduate Students

Alumni Graduate Students