astronomy

Hannah Cloke

Hannah Cloke is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hannah Cloke rather than just read about it. In short: Hannah Louise Cloke is a British hydrologist who is Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. She was awarded the European Geosciences Union Plinius Medal in 2018 and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

Key takeaways

Hannah Cloke belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hannah Cloke to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hannah Cloke from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hannah Louise Cloke is a British hydrologist who is Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. She was awarded the European Geosciences Union Plinius Medal in 2018 and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

Early life and education Cloke's father was a geography teacher and her uncle is a professor of human geography. She studied geography at the University of Bristol where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1999 and a PhD in 2003. Cloke worked at the Joint Research Centre on the European Flood Awareness System.

Research and career Cloke joined the Department of Geography at King's College London. She was part of the Europeanizing Flood Forecasting program, which looked at flood forecasting and management in the European Union. She joined the University of Reading in 2012, where she held the post of professor of hydrology. In 2026, Cloke was appointed as the Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science in the University of Reading, succeeding Professor Keith Shine FRS. Cloke co-directs the Water@Reading group, which concentrates on water science, policy and societal impacts. She is the Director of the Natural Environment Research Council programme Flooding from Intense Rainfall. She is interested in flood forecasting and risk management, leading the project TENDERLY (Towards END-to End flood forecasting and a tool for ReaL-time catchment susceptibilitY). She works with the Met Office, Environmental Agency and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Cloke's Global Flood Awareness System is a partnership between the European Commission and the ECMWF, and provides hydrological monitoring and forecasting that is independent of political boundaries. She was also involved with the Natural Environment Research Council projects Susceptibility of catchments to INTense RAinfall and flooding (SINATRA) and Improving Predictions of Drought for User Decision-Making (IMPETUS). Since climate change will make flooding more probable, Cloke says that we should start to take precautions to protect homes and livelihoods. Cloke's research helps policymakers make better decisions about flood preparation. She has discussed the problems with the United Kingdom's flood defence systems. She called for the National Flood Resilience Review to evaluate how flood risks are likely to change in different locations across the United Kingdom. She is supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme. In 2019 Cloke created IMPREXive, a game that allowed players to control flood forecasting during a deluge. The information provided to the players is not always correct; and decisions must be made to keep cities safe. She has written for The Conversation and The Guardian. She was the guest on The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4 in October 2021.

Awards and honours Her awards and honours include;

2013 Natural Environment Research Council Early Career Impact Award 2016 Guardian Research Impact Award runner-up 2018 European Geosciences Union Plinius Medal 2019 Officer of the Order of the British Empire 2026 Regius Professor in Meteorology and Climate Science

References

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hannah Cloke

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hannah Cloke claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hannah Cloke before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hannah Cloke ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hannah Cloke

In research: Hannah Cloke appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hannah Cloke in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hannah Cloke is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Academics of the University of Reading, British women scientists, Hydrologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hannah Cloke outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hannah Cloke in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hannah Cloke means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hannah Cloke out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hannah Cloke in simple terms?

Why does Hannah Cloke matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hannah Cloke?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hannah Cloke.