Professional summary

Dr Chris Taylor is interested in how properties of the land surface, such as soil moisture and vegetation cover, influence weather and climate. Much of his work uses satellite observations to identify how fluxes of moisture and sensible heat from the land affect the lower atmosphere and convective rainfall. His work has been motivated by the need to better understand the climate of semi-arid regions, in particular in Africa.

He is currently the UKCEH lead on projects looking at weather forecasting on time scales of hours to weeks in Africa (AfHaz, NAIAR), the representation of land-atmosphere feedbacks in kilometre-scale models (UMBRELLA), the role of the land surface in enhancing humid heat extremes (H2X), and the impact of wetlands across Africa on methane fluxes (CurFEW). 

Chris is a member of the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation, which provides national capability in earth observation science. He is also a Visiting Professor in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.

Selected publications

Maybee Ben et al. , (2025), Homogeneous soil moisture fields suppress Sahelian MCS frequency. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL118583

Barton Emma J. et al. , (2025), Soil moisture gradients strengthen mesoscale convective systems by increasing wind shear. Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01666-8

Chagnaud G. et al. , (2025), Wet-bulb temperature extremes locally amplified by wet soils. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112467

Taylor C.M. et al. , (2024), Multiday soil moisture persistence and atmospheric predictability resulting from Sahelian mesoscale convective systems. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109709

Taylor Christopher M. et al. , (2022), Nowcasting tracks of severe convective storms in West Africa from observations of land surface state. Environmental Research Letters, 17, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac536d

Taylor Christopher M. et al. , (2022), “Late-stage” deforestation enhances storm trends in coastal West Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109285119

Klein Cornelia et al. , (2020), Dry soils can intensify mesoscale convective systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 21132-21137, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007998117

Taylor Christopher M. et al. , (2017), Frequency of extreme Sahelian storms tripled since 1982 in satellite observations. Nature, 544, 475-478, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature22069

Taylor, Christopher M. et al. , (2012), Afternoon rain more likely over drier soils. Nature, 489, 423-426, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7416/full/nature11377.html

Taylor, Christopher M. et al. , (2011), Frequency of Sahelian storm initiation enhanced over mesoscale soil-moisture patterns. Nature Geoscience, 4, 430-433, http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v4/n7/full/ngeo1173.html

Other Publications

For a full publication list go to https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/K-2319-2012