Michael Rawlins

Extension Associate Professor and Associate Director, Climate System Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Michael Rawlins seeks to connect and understand water, energy and carbon cycling across the earth's land, atmosphere and ocean domains.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Climatology
Hydrology
Arctic Science
Climate
Hydrology of Arctic Environments
Climate Change

Biography

Michael Rawlins comments on the impact of climate change on the earth. Most recently he's appeared in print and video discussing evidence he's found that thawing permafrost in northern Alaska is altering the hydrological system of the Arctic, which disrupts the region’s inhabitants and changes the environment into a source of carbon emission.

As associate director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass, he's also often called on to explain how climate change is affecting life in the Northeast United States.

Social Media

Video

Education

University of New Hampshire

Ph.D.

Earth and Environmental Sciences

University of Delaware

M.S.

Geography/Climatology

University of Delaware

B.S.

Environmental Science

Select Recent Media Coverage

Could the Northeast Burn Again?

Inside Climate News  online

2025-02-18

Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate System Research Center, comments about the potential for wildfires in New England. Rawlins says warmer air pulls more moisture from leaf litter, twigs and soil across the forest floor, leaving behind a perfect fuel for fire.

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Why Did Brooklyn’s Biggest Park Light Up in Flames?

Slate  online

2024-11-12

Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate System Research Center at UMass Amherst, discusses the role of climate change in the current drought and wildfires in the Northeast. Rawlins says a quickly warming Arctic may be causing short-term weather systems to linger. “Instead of a dry week, we’re seeing more like a dry two weeks or three weeks,” he says.

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We Ruined Rain

The Atlantic  online

2024-06-20

Michael Rawlins, associate director of the Climate Research Center, comments in an article about how climate change has made rainfall a peril rather than a benefit. Rawlins says that just as societies developed because of the use of fossil fuels and that led to problems from carbon emissions, water made life possible, but because of climate change, water too, “is almost coming back to bite us.”

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Select Publications

Arctic rivers face big changes with a warming climate, permafrost thaw and an accelerating water cycle − the effects will have global consequences

The Conversation

Michael Rawlins and Ambarish Karmalkar

2024-03-05

”As the Arctic warms, its mighty rivers are changing in ways that could have vast consequences – not only for the Arctic region but for the world. ... We’re climate scientists who study how warming is influencing the water cycle and ecosystems. In a new study using historical data and sophisticated computer models of Earth’s climate and hydrology, we explored how climate change is altering Arctic rivers. ...”

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Why a warming climate can bring bigger snowstorms

The Conversation

Michael Rawlins

2022-02-02

Michael Rawlins writes about the effects of climate change on snowstorms. “The sharp increase in high-impact Northeast winter storms is an expected manifestation of a warming climate,” Rawlins says. “It’s another risk the U.S. will have to prepare for as extreme events become more common with climate change."

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