Core Meteorology Faculty

Dr. Naylor studies how deep convective storms behave and interact with their surroundings — from why some storms produce tornadoes and others don't, to how large cities themselves alter nearby storm activity. His work combines cloud-resolving numerical simulation with observational case studies.

• Idealized Simulations of a Supercell Interacting with an Urban Area — Meteorology, 2024 (with M.E. Berry & E.G. Gosney)
• Investigating Possible Urban-Induced Precipitation Variations around Louisville, Kentucky — Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 2024 (with I. Kingsberry)
• The Impact of Vertical Wind Shear on the Outcome of Interactions Between Squall Lines and Cities — Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2023 (with J.P. Mulholland)
• Variability in Isolated Convective Activity between Louisville, Kentucky, and Nearby Rural Locations — Earth Interactions, 2021 (with A.D. Kennedy)
• Idealized Simulations of City-Storm Interactions in a Two-Dimensional Framework — Atmosphere, 2020
• Exploring the Potential Impact of Louisville's Urban Heat Island on the Structure and Intensity of an Organized Convective System — Journal of the Kentucky Academy of Science, 2019 (with L.J. Twohey)
• The Relationship between Severe Weather Warnings, Storm Reports, and Storm Cell Frequency in and around Several Large Metropolitan Areas — Weather and Forecasting, 2018 (with A. Sexton)
• Evaluation of the Impact of Moist Convection on the Development of Asymmetric Inner-Core Instabilities in Simulated Tropical Cyclones — Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 2014 (with D.A. Schecter)
• Vorticity Evolution Leading to Tornadogenesis and Tornadogenesis Failure in Simulated Supercells — Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 2014 (with M.S. Gilmore)
• Convective Initiation in an Idealized Cloud Model Using an Updraft Nudging Technique — Monthly Weather Review, 2012 (with M.S. Gilmore)
• Environmental Factors Influential to the Duration and Intensity of Tornadoes in Simulated Supercells — Geophysical Research Letters, 2012 (with M.S. Gilmore)
• Influence of Low-Level Thermodynamic Structure on the Downdraft Properties of Simulated Supercells — Monthly Weather Review, 2012 (with M.A. Askelson & M.S. Gilmore)
• Comparison of Objective Supercell Identification Techniques Using an Idealized Cloud Model — Monthly Weather Review, 2012 (with M.S. Gilmore, R.L. Thompson & 2 more)

Full list (14 works) at the official UofL scholarly profile.

Dr. Gunter specializes in field observation of severe storms and the atmospheric boundary layer — deploying radar, lidar, and in-situ instruments to measure the wind. At UofL he leads Kentucky-focused fieldwork on convective and non-convective wind events, mentoring undergraduates on instrumentation and data analysis.

• Evaluating Microclimate Modification and Acute Cardiovascular Stress Responses to a Dense Urban Microforest: The Green Oasis (GRO) Protocol — International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2026 (with R. Keith, S. Willis, N. Christian & 12 more)
• A Mesonet-Based Climatology of Severe Convective Winds in West Texas — E-Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology, 2024 (with Q. Long)
• Educational Microclimate Mesonet System Design — Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (book chapter), 2020 (with J. Robertson, J. Yang & 3 more)
• Exploring the Feasibility of Using Commercially Available Vertically Pointing Wind Profiling Lidars to Acquire Thunderstorm Wind Profiles — Frontiers in Built Environment, 2019
• Assessment of Virtual Towers Performed with Scanning Wind Lidars and Ka-Band Radars during the XPIA Experiment — Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2017 (with M. Debnath, G.V. Iungo & 7 more)
• Surface Measurements of the 5 June 2013 Damaging Thunderstorm Wind Event near Pep, Texas — Wind and Structures, 2017 (with J.L. Schroeder, C.C. Weiss & 1 more)
• Assessing State-of-the-Art Capabilities for Probing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: The XPIA Field Campaign — Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2017 (with J.K. Lundquist, J.M. Wilczak, R. Ashton & 33 more)
• Validation of Dual-Doppler Wind Profiles with In Situ Anemometry — Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2015 (with J.L. Schroeder & B.D. Hirth)
• Coupling Doppler Radar-Derived Wind Maps with Operational Turbine Data to Document Wind Farm Complex Flows — Wind Energy, 2015 (with B.D. Hirth, J.L. Schroeder & 1 more)
• High-Resolution Full-Scale Measurements of Thunderstorm Outflow Winds — Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 2015 (with J.L. Schroeder)
• Measuring a Utility-Scale Turbine Wake Using the TTUKa Mobile Research Radars — Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2012 (with B.D. Hirth, J.L. Schroeder & 1 more)

Full list (11 works) at the official UofL scholarly profile.