Meet Diana Stovern

Diana Stovern

CIRES researcher Diana Stovern (she/her) joined PSL's Hydrometeorological Modeling and Applications Team in July 2021. Diana’s work includes testing and developing statistical post-processing techniques to improve precipitation forecasts in numerical weather prediction models. She worked with Tom Hamill, formerly of the Attribution and Predictability Assessments Team, to test a technique called quantile mapping on the Global Ensemble Forecast System (GEFS). She found that the quantile mapping technique improved 6-hr probabilistic precipitation forecasts over the raw GEFS out to a 10-day forecast lead time and better characterized precipitation patterns in the western United States. The technique is now being implemented by NOAA’s Meteorological Development Laboratory for improving precipitation forecasts in the National Blend of Models. She also developed a public-facing website through PSL to display the quantile-mapped precipitation forecasts in real-time. Diana’s future work will include using the post-processed GEFS precipitation to study the effect on probabilistic streamflow forecasts in the National Water Model.

Before joining PSL, Diana worked on projects for NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC). While there, she developed forecast tools to help operational forecasters in the National Weather Service improve their situational awareness towards extreme precipitation events. Prior to WPC, Diana was at the University of Arizona receiving her Ph. D. and Master’s degrees in Atmospheric Science. Her dissertation focused on the physical mechanisms that cause size and structure changes in the wind and precipitation fields of tropical cyclones. Diana received her Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Diana developed a passion for meteorology growing up in Minnesota, which was characterized by extreme weather swings. With dangerous heat waves and squall lines in the summer to polar-air outbreaks and multi-foot snowstorms in the winter, Minnesota was always keeping Diana on her toes with her eyes to the sky. Diana took advantage of the heavy snow and cold weather by learning to ski at a young age, which is still her favorite pastime now in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Diana also thoroughly enjoys Colorado with her hobbies of rock climbing, attending concerts, and hiking the trails with her dog Ziggy.