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Dr. Tyler Fricker

  • Position: Assistant Professor
  • Department: Earth & Environmental Sciences
  • Office Location: Building 13, Room 215
  • tfricker@uwf.edu
  • Campus: 850.474.2721

Biography

Dr. Tyler Fricker, an Assistant Professor, researches the environmental impacts of natural hazards on society and the connection between weather and climate. Much of his work bridges the gap between climate science and climate-society interaction. His most recent research projects have taken a place-based approach to understanding human vulnerability to tornadoes in the Deep South. Prior to joining UWF, Fricker spent five years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Louisiana Monroe and one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University.

Fricker's work has a strong computational and quantitative methods emphasis with research directed toward the development and application of geographic information systems (GIS), integrated and hierarchical statistical models, and Bayesian techniques. He has published recent findings in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Professional Geographer, Geophysical Research Letters, the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Natural Hazards, as well as other national and international outlets. His work has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and Vox, cited in the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and discussed on the History Channel's UnXplained.

Degrees & Institutions

  • Ph.D. Geography, Florida State University
  • M.S. Geography, Florida State University
  • B.S. Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University

Research

Dr. Fricker's research looks to advance the understanding of the connection between natural hazards and climate, and the impact such a relationship has on society through a spatial lens. His current and future work will focus on predictions of high-impact weather over a range of potential emissions scenarios, establishing place-based vulnerabilities to weather-related casualties across communities, and creating and evaluating a multi-hazard losses database.

Current Courses

  • Introduction to Earth Science

Publications

Fricker, T., T. A. Murphy, I. Montgomery, C. Entremont, C. Kovacik, et al. (2025). “Quantifying the Effects of the KULM Radar on Local Report Climatology, Operational Metrics, and Casualty Impacts of Tornadoes”. In: Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 64.7, p. 899–910. ISSN: 1558-8432. DOI: 10.1175/jamc-d-24-0184.1. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-24-0184.1.

Fricker, T. and Z. Schroder (2025). “A Metropolitan-Level Climatology of Tornado Frequency in the United States”. In: Annals of the American Association of Geographers, p. In Review.

Malloy, K., T. Fricker, Z. Schroder, and D. Burow (2025). “Exploring Recent Changes in Tornado Activity via an Environment-based Tornado Count Model for CMIP6 Applications”. In: Journal of Climate, p. In Review.

Moore, T. W., T. A. DeBoer, and T. Fricker (2024). “Multi-timescale exploration of teleconnection/tornado activity relationships in the Southeastern United States”. In: Theoretical and Applied Climatology 155.6, p. 5577–5592. ISSN: 1434-4483. DOI: 10.1007/s00704-024-04960-4. URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00704024-04960-4.