星空无限传媒

Any hurricane that forms in the Gulf of America is a direct threat to Louisiana and its neighboring states.

But most seasonal forecasts focus on the entire North Atlantic Basin, including areas where storms may never come close to any land, much less the U.S. Gulf Coast.  

A Gulf-specific forecast developed at addresses that issue by providing storm information specifically geared toward the Gulf region. The lab is run by Paul Miller, an associate professor 星空无限传媒 who founded it in 2019. 

鈥� Video by Elizabeth Perez

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READ MORE: Five storms predicted in the Gulf this season, says COMET Lab 

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鈥淲e decided that a Gulf-specific forecast could help state officials and Gulf-area residents better understand how active the upcoming season might be in their part of the Atlantic,鈥� said Miller, who teaches in Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences in the College of the Coast & Environment.  

Miller said the is one example of how the COMET Lab delivers real benefits to Louisiana.  鈥娾�淎 lot of forecasts tend to align with each other each year. But ours works a lot differently than some of the other forecasts that are geared towards larger areas of the ocean,鈥� he said.  

鈥淲e鈥檙e not the world鈥檚 leading hurricane research lab鈥攁nd we don鈥檛 try to be. Instead, we prioritize meeting the largest research gaps relevant to Louisiana residents, spanning a wide variety of weather hazards.  

鈥淲e want to make sure Louisianans experience a clear return-on-investment from our lab鈥檚 activities.鈥� 

Ways the lab supports the state also include: 

• Helping forecast storm surge in real time and informing the decision on when to close flood barriers before a tropical system hits land. 
• Developing rainfall models to support flood prevention efforts. 
• Studying weather patterns that cause drought and low coastal water levels that can lead to marsh loss during dry spells on the Gulf Coast. 

Saharan Dust Research 

One area of study that incorporates both air quality and tropical weather is the lab鈥檚 research on Saharan dust clouds, which are blown across the Atlantic in an air mass called the Saharan Air Layer, or SAL.  

鈥淪o, this sort of far-off distant concept of Saharan dust is actually something that is kind of important to folks here in Louisiana,鈥� Miller said.  

This dust can shut down thunderstorm activity in the U.S. Caribbean territories, a key area of research in the COMET Lab, and cause respiratory problems when it reaches the Southeast U.S. The SAL can also suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic. 

鈥娾�淥ur lab just launched a new project with the Office of Naval Research to determine how dust-dimmed sunlight can affect ocean temperatures in the Atlantic鈥檚 most active hurricane breeding grounds,鈥� Miller said. 

Students: The 鈥楬eartbeat鈥� of the Lab 

The lab currently houses three PhD students, one MS student, and a rotation of undergraduates. While the lab studies weather, the research pulls in many disciplines.  

鈥淪tudents are the heartbeat of the COMET Lab,鈥� Miller said, emphasizing that they lead essentially all of the technical work, harvesting data from cloud repositories, writing computer code, initializing model simulations on the LSU supercomputing clusters, and sharing their results at national conferences.  

鈥淲ithout their hard work, we really wouldn鈥檛 have nearly the impact that we do across the state.鈥� 

Hank Dolce of Austin, Texas, a first-year PhD student in the LSU Coastal Meteorology program, said he appreciates how lab students involved in different projects interact and share information to benefit each other鈥檚 work. 

鈥淗aving that interaction between all of us in the lab is very important鈥攖o have a camaraderie and an interdisciplinary research aspect to your lab group,鈥� he said. 

Dolce said working in the COMET Lab is helping equip him for a future in forecasting or in an academic research role.  

Abby Rehagen of Freeburg, Mo., is a first-year master鈥檚 student who earned her Coastal and Environmental Sciences degree 星空无限传媒. At the COMET lab, she is working with simulated storm tracks to identify and understand trends to expect in future hurricanes. 

She said the alignment between her future goals and LSU coastal and science programs made LSU a good choice for her. At the COMET Lab, she is learning new skillsets, often assisted by fellow team members, that will benefit her wherever her future takes her. 

鈥淭he people here, especially the people in our lab, are always there to help me. I can come to them with any problem, and they all have some skillset that can address my issue.鈥� 

Miller touts an impressive list of student outcomes for former COMET Lab team members. 

鈥淥ur alumni now work for the EPA, Department of Energy, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, and the Institute for Business and Home Safety, a private-industry research consortium of building insurers,鈥� Miller said.  

In May 2025, LSU announced a new major, the Bachelor of Science in Coastal Meteorology, in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e the state鈥檚 largest avenue for developing graduate-level meteorologists. As our undergraduate program begins to grow, residents will gradually begin to see more LSU Coastal Meteorology alumni on their TV broadcasts or issuing their tornado warnings.鈥� 

Beyond instruction and training, the lab serves as a valuable asset for Louisiana, supporting state officials in their decision-making during impending hurricanes as well as decisions about how to design future storm-resilient infrastructure.  

鈥淲e may not hold press conferences, but our fingerprints are on many decision-making processes that will inform present and future storm resiliency in Louisiana,鈥� Miller said.  

A Path to LSU 

Miller said he always dreamed of being a television weatherman. But an internship during his time at Virginia Tech taught him that the job didn鈥檛 feed his need to dive into the 鈥渘uts and bolts鈥� of weather. 

鈥淚 thought weather was way too interesting to distill into a three-minute segment,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 realized being an academic allowed me to dive into all the gory detail, push the frontier of our understanding, and nab a captive audience of students for 75 minutes.鈥� 

After five years as a graduate student and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia, Miller found a home in Louisiana, which he noted is known for its quantity and variety of active weather.  

LSU also checked off many important boxes, including top-tier high-performance computing systems, internal funding opportunities, highly talented contracting staff, broad administrative support, and a commitment to elevating the visibility of the university鈥檚 work to the public.  

鈥淚 liked th星空无限传媒 (and, to some extent, Louisiana) was a relative 鈥渂lank slate鈥� in terms of its existing meteorology programs, so I could really have an impact on growing the atmospheric science footprint in the state,鈥� he said. 

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