Atmospheric Dynamics @ St Andrews, led by Simon Lee in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, investigates the large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere and its role in weather and climate variability, predictability and change, with a particular focus on the extratropics and subseasonal-to-seasonal timescales.
Our research combines observations, large multi-model forecast ensembles and targeted numerical model experiments to understand the dynamical processes that drive weather and climate variability. We also evaluate how well weather and climate models represent these processes and assess their impact on forecast skill and long-term projections.
Research interests include stratosphere–troposphere coupling, sudden stratospheric warmings, jet streams, weather regimes, annular modes and teleconnections, as well as extreme events, subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction, large ensembles and model biases
About Simon
I am a Lecturer (~Assistant Professor) in Atmospheric Science in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
Prior to joining St Andrews, I was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM) at Columbia University in New York City. I obtained my PhD and MMet degrees from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, UK, and spent time in the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma during both my MMet and PhD. I served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Meteorological Society journal Weather from 2020–2025. I received the Malcolm Walker Award from RMetS in 2021, and I became a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society (FRMetS) in 2026.
I have been interested in weather and climate from a very young age – I’ve written a little bit about that in this Weather in my life article. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to do atmospheric science for a living, and I am indebted to numerous great scientists for their inspiration, mentorship, and collaboration.
I am originally from North Yorkshire, and in my spare time I enjoy being outside running, hiking, and road cycling. I also enjoy storm chasing in the US Great Plains, and have seen many tornadoes. My photo of a tornado near Forgan, OK on 17 May 2019 features in the frontispiece of the second edition of Introducing Meteorology: A Guide to Weather by Jon Shonk.
You can also find me on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
