Kenneth E. Kunkel, Ph.D.
Climate Data Advisor

Dr. Kunkel is an internationally renowned Atmospheric Scientist and leader on multiple U.S. National Climate Assessments. He has spent more than 40 years performing wide-ranging and internationally recognized research on climate variability and change, particularly related to extreme weather and climate events. He has documented long-term (century plus) historical trends in heavy precipitation, heat and cold waves, freeze seasons, and snowfall. Several of his research products are included in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Indicators in the United States reports. His extensive research portfolio as a Principal Investigator includes work to better understand the climate system and to use that knowledge to incorporate climate change into codes and standards that will support more resilient infrastructure.

He is a leader in the U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA) process, serving as the Lead Scientist for NOAA’s NCA Technical Support Unit. In that role, he has led the development of foundational climate science material (observed trends and future projections) used in NCA reports, including extensive analysis of CMIP3, CMIP5, and CMIP6 data, and associated downscaled data. He conceived and led the production of NCA-focused regional and state reports on climate trends and projections, widely used by NCA authors and climate change practitioners. He is an author on the Third (2014), Fourth (2018), and Fifth (2023 upcoming) U.S. National Climate Assessments. He led the development of the North Carolina Climate Science Report (2020), a response to an executive order by the North Carolina Governor in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. He is a contributing author on the 3rd, 4th, and 6th Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

He has published over 180 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

He holds a B.S. degree in Physics from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Kunkel has also been a coauthor of many other specialized climate assessments, including coauthoring a special analysis of the Great Lakes region and leading analyses of each of the 50 states in the United States as part of the National Climate Assessment process.