Dr. Kwesi T. Quagraine

Experience & Activities

Dr. Kwesi Twentwewa Quagraine is a researcher in Atmospheric Sciences whose work focuses on extreme weather systems and their impacts on water availability, environmental risk, and societal resilience. His research centers on atmospheric rivers and tropical cyclones, with an emphasis on understanding how large-scale circulation, moisture transport, and storm dynamics shape regional precipitation extremes. Dr. Quagraine is particularly known for his ability to integrate observations, reanalysis products, and high-resolution numerical weather models to evaluate and improve the representation of extreme events. He has conducted systematic, multi-method analyses of atmospheric rivers across Africa and the western United States, helping to clarify their frequency, seasonality, and regional impacts. His work contributes to more reliable assessments of flood risk and water resource variability in regions where moisture-transporting storms play a critical role.

In addition, Dr. Quagraine has demonstrated exceptional technical expertise in the use of advanced modeling frameworks, including MPAS-Atmosphere, to diagnose tropical cyclone structure, evolution, and precipitation. By rigorously evaluating model performance against observations, he identifies key sources of uncertainty that influence forecasts of storm behavior and associated hazards.

Dr. Quagraine earned his Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from Indiana University Bloomington. He is passionate about bridging process-level atmospheric science with practical applications that support environmental sustainability, disaster preparedness, and informed decision-making. Outside of research, he values collaboration, mentorship, and the development of reproducible, transparent scientific workflows.