Chempampadam Balasubramannian (C.B.) Jayasankar is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida who develops high-resolution climate simulations to accurately project regional extreme rainfall and flood risks. In this Postdoc Portrait interview, he discusses how his work addresses critical modeling gaps, giving communities the precise hydroclimatic projections needed to safeguard infrastructure against accelerating climate-related hazards.
Mapping Hydroclimatic Extremes and Flood Vulnerability
Q | What drew you to climate science?
I have always been fascinated by how weather and climate affect people's lives, particularly through extreme events such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and tropical storms. Growing up in India, I witnessed the impacts of weather variability on communities, agriculture, water resources, and public health, which sparked my interest in atmospheric and climate sciences. The increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves further motivated me to understand the processes driving climate extremes and their future risks.
During my academic and research career, I became increasingly interested in understanding and predicting hydroclimatic extremes using numerical models, observations, and data analysis. This interest led me to climate modeling and high-resolution simulations, enabling investigations of future climate risks at regional scales. I have worked on research questions related to extreme precipitation and temperature events, and the findings have been published in several peer-reviewed journals.
What motivates me most is the opportunity to bridge scientific research and real-world decision-making. Through my current work, I contribute to improving flood risk assessments and climate resilience planning across Florida, helping communities and decision-makers prepare for the challenges of a changing climate.
Q | What scientific problem are you trying to solve?
Florida is highly vulnerable to flooding from extreme rainfall, tropical storms, and rising sea levels, yet significant uncertainties remain in how these hazards will change under future climate conditions. The scientific problem I am addressing is how to improve projections of rainfall extremes and flood risk at the spatial and temporal scales needed for effective planning and decision-making. Current climate models often lack the resolution required to accurately represent local-scale processes that drive flooding and water resource impacts across Florida.
My postdoctoral research focuses on developing and analyzing state-of-the-art, high-resolution climate simulations to better understand the changes in extreme rainfall, temperature, winds, tropical storm activity, and coastal flooding under future climate scenarios. By evaluating these simulations against historical observations and quantifying the influence of natural climate variability, I aim to produce more reliable projections of the intensity, duration, and frequency of extreme events. These improved datasets and results will support flood vulnerability assessments, water resource management, and resilience planning across Florida, helping communities and policymakers prepare for future climate-related risks.
Disentangling Climate Change from Natural Variability
Q | What’s one thing you learned from your research that you didn’t expect?
One thing that surprised me during this research was the extent to which natural climate variability can influence extreme rainfall and flood risk, even in a warming climate. While climate change is expected to increase the likelihood and intensity of many extreme events, I learned that the year-to-year variations in the climate system can sometimes amplify or mask these changes at regional scales. This result highlighted the importance of using large ensembles and high-resolution climate simulations to distinguish the climate change signal from natural variability. It also clarified the need to communicate uncertainty carefully when providing climate information to stakeholders and decision-makers. I initially expected future changes in rainfall extremes to be relatively straightforward to identify, but the interactions among atmospheric processes, ocean conditions, and local-scale factors make the problem much more complex. Understanding this complexity has helped me realize how challenging climate prediction is and how important accurate scientific analysis is for improving flood risk assessments and planning for future climate impacts.
Q | If your research succeeds, what are the long-term implications?
This research could significantly improve how we understand and project extreme rainfall and flood risk at regional scales, particularly for Florida. By developing high-resolution climate simulations and better quantifying changes in the depth, duration, and frequency of extreme events, it would provide more reliable information for both historical analysis and future climate scenarios. This can strengthen flood vulnerability assessments, water resource planning, and coastal resilience strategies.
Q | What question are you most excited to answer next?
I am most excited to better understand how extreme rainfall and flood risks will change at local scales under future climate scenarios, and how much of these changes can be attributed to climate change versus natural climate variability. Improving our ability to separate these signals using high-resolution simulations is key to producing more reliable projections that can support flood risk assessment and climate resilience planning.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
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