Colin Zarzycki

Affiliate Researcher
Titles and Affiliations
Associate Professor, Meteorology and Atmospheric Science

Colin Zarzycki's research is centered around simulating extreme atmospheric phenomena and bridging the gap between weather and climate. In particular, he is focused on cutting-edge, high-resolution modeling techniques. This allows for multiple research directions, including regional weather and climate prediction on timescales ranging from days to decades, the development of dynamical cores and sub-grid physical parameterizations, and software engineering on petascale computing systems. Zarzycki uses these techniques to investigate tropical cyclone dynamics in global climate models and to improve the community's capability to objectively detect weather extremes in "big (climate) data."

In the News

Research Keywords

Recent Publications

Diagnosing Freezing Rain Events in Reanalysis and CMIP6 Climate Data

Gore, M. J. & Zarzycki, C. M., Feb 2026, In: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 65, 2, p. 245-268 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

A Statistical Model for Post-Tropical Cyclone Hazard Assessment

Li, D. Y., Reed, K. A., Camargo, S. J., Lee, C. Y., Sobel, A. H., Zarzycki, C. M. & Bieli, M., Mar 28 2026, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 131, 6, e2025JD044936.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Robust responses of tropical and post-tropical cyclones to climate warming in WRF and CAM storyline ensembles

Li, D. Y., Reed, K. A., Zarzycki, C. M. & Camargo, S. J., Jun 2026, In: Weather and Climate Extremes. 52, 100909.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Earth System Predictability across Time Scales for a Resilient Society: A Research Community Perspective

Richter, J. H., Joseph, E., Arcodia, M. C., Berner, J., Demuth, J. L., Falloon, P., Romine, G. S., Cohen, J. T., Gonzalez-Cruz, J., El Gharamti, M., Hoppe, B., Kumar, S., Mariotti, A., Mishra, D., Pegion, K., Pu, Z., Quagraine, K. A., Quagraine, K. T., Roychoudhury, C. & Ryan, J. & 5 others, Stone, Z., Das, D., Gaubert, B., Kapnick, S. & Zarzycki, C., Mar 2026, In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 107, 3, p. E326-E351

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

How Do Tropical Cyclones Directly Simulated in High-Resolution Climate Models Differ from Statistically Dynamically Generated Storms?

Bolivar, A. J. & Zarzycki, C. M., 2025, In: Journal of Climate. 39, 1, p. 145-168 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

QuadTune version 1: A regional tuner for global atmospheric models

Larson, V. E., Guo, Z., Stephens, B. A., Zarzycki, C., Dikta, G., Qian, Y. & Xie, S., Dec 9 2025, In: Geoscientific Model Development. 18, 23, p. 9767-9790 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

High-Resolution Model Intercomparison Project phase 2 (HighResMIP2) towards CMIP7

Roberts, M. J., Reed, K. A., Bao, Q., Barsugli, J. J., Camargo, S. J., Caron, L. P., Chang, P., Chen, C. T., Christensen, H. M., Danabasoglu, G., Frenger, I., Fučkar, N. S., Ul Hasson, S., Hewitt, H. T., Huang, H., Kim, D., Kodama, C., Lai, M., Leung, L. Y. R. & Mizuta, R. & 15 others, Nobre, P., Ortega, P., Paquin, D., Roberts, C. D., Scoccimarro, E., Seddon, J., Treguier, A. M., Tu, C. Y., Ullrich, P. A., Vidale, P. L., Wehner, M. F., Zarzycki, C. M., Zhang, B., Zhang, W. & Zhao, M., Mar 3 2025, In: Geoscientific Model Development. 18, 4, p. 1307-1332 26 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Identifying, Tracking, and Evaluating Mechanisms of North American Cold Air Outbreaks (CAOs) Using a Feature Tracking Approach

Stone, J., Gervais, M., Bowley, K. A. & Zarzycki, C., Jan 2025, In: Monthly Weather Review. 153, 1, p. 153-168 16 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Tropical Cyclone Wind Shear-Relative Asymmetry in Reanalyses

Carstens, J. D., Didlake, A. C. & Zarzycki, C. M., Nov 2024, In: Journal of Climate. 37, 22, p. 5793-5816 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

The Effect of Coupling Between CLUBB Turbulence Scheme and Surface Momentum Flux on Global Wind Simulations

Gentile, E. S., Zhao, M., Larson, V. E., Zarzycki, C. & Tan, Z., May 2024, In: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 16, 5, e2024MS004295.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Using EUREC4A/ATOMIC field campaign data to improve trade wind regimes in the Community Atmosphere Model

Graap, S. & Zarzycki, C. M., Feb 23 2024, In: Geoscientific Model Development. 17, 4, p. 1627-1650 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

A Method for Interpreting the Role of Parameterized Turbulence on Global Metrics in the Community Earth System Model

Nardi, K. M., Zarzycki, C. M. & Larson, V. E., Oct 2024, In: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. 16, 10, e2024MS004482.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Assessing South Indian Ocean tropical cyclone characteristics in HighResMIP simulations

Pall, P., Gagnon, A. S., Bollasina, M. A., Zarzycki, C. M., Huang, Y., Beckett, C. T. S., Ramanantoanina, H. & Reynolds, T. P. S., Nov 15 2024, In: International Journal of Climatology. 44, 13, p. 4792-4808 17 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Anticipating how rain-on-snow events will change through the 21st century: lessons from the 1997 new year’s flood event

Rhoades, A. M., Zarzycki, C. M., Hatchett, B. J., Inda-Diaz, H., Rudisill, W., Bass, B., Dennis, E., Heggli, A., McCrary, R., McGinnis, S., Ombadi, M., Rahimi-Esfarjani, S., Slinskey, E., Srivastava, A., Szinai, J., Ullrich, P. A., Wehner, M., Yates, D. & Jones, A. D., Sep 2024, In: Climate Dynamics. 62, 9, p. 8615-8637 23 p.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Response of the upper ocean to northeast Pacific atmospheric rivers under climate change

Shields, C. A., Li, H., Castruccio, F. S., Fu, D., Nardi, K., Liu, X. & Zarzycki, C., Dec 2024, In: Communications Earth and Environment. 5, 1, 603.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review