Debbie Martin

Debbie Martin is a senior hydrometeorologist at the RTI Center for Water Resources, where she specializes in the development of hydrometeorological inputs to compute hydrologic hazard risk-based probabilistic assessments for energy clients, state/province dam safety offices, and nuclear facilities.. In her role, Ms. Martin conducts site-specific probable maximum precipitation and precipitation-frequency analyses, as well as spatio-temporal reconstructions of extreme storms. She has also incorporated methodologies to assess sensitivity of hydrometeorological inputs to potential future climate conditions and impacts to resulting hydrologic analyses.

Before joining RTI, Ms. Martin worked on the Colorado-New Mexico Regional Extreme Precipitation Study (REPS) from 2016 to 2018 for the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado Division of Water Resources, and New Mexico Office of the State Engineer which led to an update of Colorado's State Dam Safety Regulations. Specifically, she led the precipitation-frequency analysis task (Volume 3) to develop estimates for different storm types across the two-state area using regional L-Moments methodology. This 3-year project included an extensive Project Review Board of over 20 individuals from federal and state agencies. The results included precipitation-frequency results for 2-hour local storms, 6-hour mesoscale storms, and 48-hour mid-latitude cyclone storms and remnants of tropical storms for annual exceedance probabilities 1 in 10 through 1 in 10,000,000 for dam safety needs. This effort included areal reduction factors for application to watershed areas.

Ms. Martin also worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center from 2000 to 2013 to publish nine volumes of NOAA Atlas 14, Precipitation-Frequency Estimates of the United States covering a range of climates across the contiguous U.S. as well as Alaska, Hawaii, and other affiliated island territories.