Ombadi Lab

Hydroclimatic Extremes, Impacts and Data Analytics (HEIDA)

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

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Mohammed Ombadi

Assistant Professor, University of Michigan

Curriculum Vitae

About me

Hi there!

I'm an Assistant Professor at University of Michigan College of Engineering. My research group studies the impact of climate change on the hydrologic cycle using advanced data analytics.

Prior to joining University of Michigan, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. I earned my Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of California Irvine in 2021. My research interests lie at the intersection of hydrology, climate sciences, and data science. I'm particularly interested in using the latest data science and big data analytics tools to enhance our mechanistic and predictive understanding of climate change's impact on the hydrologic cycle.

NEWS

FEATURED: New Paper Published In Nature

Paper Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06092-7

Full access without subscription: https://rdcu.be/dfA53

Media coverage: The New York Times, Associated Press, France 24 (AFP), Inside Climate News, Scientific American, Publico, New Scientist, Down to Earth, The Guardian, US News and World Report, Phys.org, Science Museum Group.

Climate Change Can Turn Snow Into Rain, Raising Risks in Mountain ZonesHigh-altitude regions will get more extreme rain than previously thought, making floods and landslides more likely, a study finds.

Warming causes more extreme rain, not snow, over mountains. Scientists say that’s a problemA new study says climate change is turning major snowfalls into more extreme rain over mountains, somehow worsening both dangerous flooding like the type that devastated Pakistan last year and long-term water shortages.

Every 1C of warming means 15% more extreme rain, researchers sayGlobal heating incrementally boosts the intensity of extreme rainfall at higher altitudes, putting two billion people living in or downstream from mountains at greater risk of floods and landslides,…

Research Group News

Recent news about our postdocs, students and researchers

UROP Students present their research in the UROP Spring Symposium [04/24/2024]

Abigail Dolunt, Vicky Lin and Aleksandra Putintceva presented their year-long research projects in the University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Spring Research Symposium. Abbey, Vicky and Aleksandra conducted research over the 2023-24 academic year on the impacts of meteorological droughts on vegetation, soil moisture and crop yield across Midwestern States [Read more].

PhD students, Lisa Nguyen and Tianxiang Gao join HEIDA

Lisa Nguyen is an Applied Physics PhD student at the University of Michigan, who joined HEIDA in summer 2024. Prior to joining UM, Lisa obtained a BSc in Mathematics from the University of California Berkeley.

Tianxiang Gao is an incoming PhD student in Fall 2024. Tianxiang has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Atmospheric Science from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

Welcome, Lisa and Tianxiang. [Read more].

Media

Check out recent interviews and media appearances

New Article in the Conversation [09/19/2023]

As extreme downpours trigger flooding around the world, scientists take a closer look at global warming’s role

ABC News Interview [08/17/2023]

Himalayas experiencing more rainfall and less snowfall.

New York Times [06/28/2023] Climate Change Can Turn Snow Into Rain, Raising Risks in Mountain Zones

Wall Street Journal Interview [08/23/2023]

Extreme Heat, Floods, Fire: Was Summer 2023 the New Normal? Climate scientists say a warming planet is contributing to, and worsening, weather events

BBC Interview [08/17/2023]

Himachal Pradesh floods: More rain, less snow are turning Himalayas dangerous

Vox Interview [07/17/2023]

The “new abnormal”: The rise of extreme flooding, briefly explained

Recent Research Articles

Check out recent research

Ombadi et al., A warming-induced reduction in snow fraction amplifies rainfall extremes, Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06092-7

Ombadi & Varadharajan, Urbanization and aridity mediate distinct salinity response to floods in rivers and streams across the contiguous United States, Water Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.118664

Ombadi & Risser, What's the temperature tomorrow? Increasing trends in extreme volatility of daily maximum temperature in Central and Eastern United States (1950–2019), Weather and Climate Extremes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2022.100515

Ombadi et al., Evaluation of Methods for Causal Discovery in Hydrometeorological Systems, Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027251

Science Communication

Bay Area Research Slam [10/20/2022]

I represented Berkeley Lab, together with two talented postdocs, in the Bay Area Research SLAM (a competition across four national labs: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, SLAC National Lab and Sandia National Labs.

American Geophyscial Union (AGU) Outstanding Student Presentation Award [12/2020] 🏆

At the 2020 Fall Meeting titled: “Toward an Improved Understanding of Hydrologic Complexity”.

Results presented in this talk were published in Journal of Hydrology at: Complexity of hydrologic basins: A chaotic dynamics perspective. Journal of Hydrology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126222

Berkeley Lab Research Slam [09/22/2022]

Very honored to have won the second place prize in the 5th annual Berkeley Lab Research SLAM. 🏆

Supported By

US Department of Energy Office of Science

UNESCO International Hydrological Program