Michael Brennan, Ph.D., is the Director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida. He previously served as the Branch Chief of NHC’s Hurricane Specialist Unit, which issues tropical cyclone forecasts and warnings for the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific hurricane basins, and coordinates hazard information related to tropical cyclones for the United States and more than 20 other nations.

Dr. Brennan served as a senior hurricane specialist at NHC from 2008 to 2018, a position where operational duties include the issuance of track, intensity, and wind radii forecasts and associated watches and warnings for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific oceans. Dr. Brennan’s current research interests include quantifying the impact of supplemental observations on model forecasts of tropical cyclone track and intensity. He also conducts training on a variety of topics related to tropical cyclones and as well as National Hurricane Center products, including forecast uncertainty and messaging.

Previously, Dr. Brennan served as the Science and Operations Officer (SOO) at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC), which is responsible for producing wide variety of weather forecast guidance, including quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF), snow and ice forecasts, and medium range forecasts for local NWS offices and other customers. As SOO, Dr. Brennan served as the primary science advisor, responsible for staff training and the infusion of science into operations.

Dr. Brennan has presented at numerous scientific meetings, including conferences of the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the National Weather Association. Dr. Brennan serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals and is currently an associate editor for the AMS journals Weather and Forecasting and Monthly Weather Review.

Dr. Brennan attended North Carolina State University, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Meteorology (1999), and a Master’s Degree (2001) and Doctorate (2005) in Atmospheric Sciences. His graduate research focused on issues related to operational forecasting in the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic, such as the erosion of Appalachian cold-air damming and the distribution of precipitation in extratropical cyclones, as well other aspects of synoptic/dynamic meteorology and numerical modeling.

Back to NWS Biographies Page