An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Helen Titley

Areas of expertise

  • Severe and high-impact weather prediction.
  • Ensemble forecasting and its application.
  • Forecasting of storm surges.
  • Objective identification and tracking of cyclonic features.
  • Forecasting of tropical cyclones using ensemble forecast data.

Current activities

Helen is a senior scientist working in the Weather Impacts Science group. The current focus of work is on the societal risk from high-impact weather, with probabilistic forecasts based on ensemble prediction systems being a key tool. Helen's current activities include:

  • Development of a Global Hazard Map using ensemble forecast data to predict hazardous weather, including forecasts of tropical cyclones, heavy rain and strong winds.
  • Storm-surge ensemble prediction for coastal flood risk management in collaboration with the Environment Agency and Flood Forecasting Centre.
  • Identifying and and tracking cyclonic features in the extra-tropics, providing a wide range of products for forecasters including track-following plume diagrams for various cyclone attributes, and storm-track probability plots for different thresholds of severity.
  • Investigating the possibility of extending tropical cyclone forecast products to include information on storm intensity in addition to forecast tracks.  

Career background

Helen Titley (nee Watkin) joined the Met Office in 2001 in the Aviation Applications group, where she worked to develop thunderstorm forecasts for air traffic control and a system to detect volcanic eruptions from satellite images. In 2003 she moved to the Forecasting Development team where she worked on many projects including the Met Office Dispersion Model system development, automated TAF production, and Weather and Health data analysis and forecasting.

Since 2005 Helen has worked on Ensemble Forecast Applications, and is now part of the Weather Impacts Science Group.

Prior to joining the Met Office Helen obtained an MSc (distinction) in Applied Meteorology and Climatology from the University of Birmingham. Her undergraduate degree was in Geography, obtained at the University of Cambridge (St Catharine's College). Helen worked at the Royal Geographical Society for two years in between her undergraduate and post-graduate studies.