Global Challenges Academy

Staff Profile

Dr Stephen Blenkinsop

Principal Research Associate in Climate and Climate Change

Background

Dr Stephen Blenkinsop is a Principal Research Associate in Climate and Climate Change for the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. His areas of expertise are climatic variability and change, climate change impacts, quality control of climate observations, climate downscaling and climate extremes.

Qualifications

PhD, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia
MSc, Geographical Information Systems, University of Leicester
BSc, Geography, University of Durham, Class I

Memberships

Royal Meteorological Society
British Hydrological Society

External Profiles

Google Scholar

ResearchGate

Research

Research Interests

The impacts of climatic variability and change on hydrological systems, observational temperature and precipitation series and downscaling, in particular in relation to extreme events, floods and droughts.

Current Work

I am currently working on the EU-funded INTENSE project examining characteristics of sub-daily rainfall and its drivers.  I have produced a quality-controlled hourly rainfall dataset for the UK and am currently working on a corresponding sub-hourly dataset.  I have also recently worked on projects examining Himalayan climate variability.  I have also worked on the NERC-funded CONVEX and SINATRA projects, undertaking analysis of the spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall through the examination of hourly gauge data.  I also worked on the EPSRC-funded SWERVE (Severe Weather Events Risk and Vulnerability Estimator) project.  This assessed the impacts of extreme weather on the SE London area, deriving probabilistic projections for a range of weather-related hazards such as flooding, heatwaves, wind and subsidence.  This was achieved by using and developing datasets, tools and methodologies which form part of the UKCP09 output.

I have co-authored ~40 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Esteem Indicators

Associate Editor Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica

Teaching

Postgraduate Teaching

CEG8514 Climate Change: Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation

CEG8524 Water Management: Issues and Challenges

CEG8526 Hydrosystems Modelling and Management

Undergraduate Teaching

CEG2004 Design of Sustainable Engineering Systems 2

Publications