Christopher Jack

Director

Christopher is the director of CSAG. He has a background in computer science and ocean/atmospheric science with particular expertise in high performance computing and computing platforms and dynamical and statistical modeling and analysis. Over the past 10 years Christopher has also built extensive experience in science-society engagement and communications, and more recently, decision making under uncertainty and multi/trans-disciplinary research. This experience has been developed through a mix of consulting/advisory activities as well as academic research activities in partnerships with a wide network of collaborators across the region and internationally. His current research activities are focused on the intersection of urban contexts and climate risk through projects such as CASCADE where his background and experience in fundamental climate science and modeling, as well as his experience in decision support and capacity development, come together. Christopher's passion is working with and across diverse disciplines and areas of expertise in complex problem spaces, hence his current interest in urban climate resilience in developing contexts.

Year joined CSAG: yonks ago

Personal Site

Publications

sourced from ORCID (0000-0002-0936-7277): see full ORCID profile

Munthali L, Mushore TD, Nyoni HB, Makhanya SA, van Aardenne L, Makacha L, Chikoko L, Barratt B, Mistry HD, Machingura F, Volvert ML, von Dadelszen P, Jack C, Luchters S, Chersich M, Govindasamy T, Makanga PT, The PRECISE Network, The HE2AT Centre, (2026) Characterizing effects of air quality in maternal, newborn and child health (CHEAQI–MNCH) in sub-Saharan Africa: a research protocol JoGHEP doi:4560a4c4-8e88-498a-98cf-35cdced8d005
Kong’ani LNS, Dayaram T, Ally KB, Jacobs R, McClure A, Mazivila C, Mohale M, Jack C, Karan R, Dickinson C, Netshitanzwani V, (2026) Exploring Informal and Formal Governance Linkages for Climate Adaptation in African Cities: A Qualitative Systematic Review Urbanisation doi:0b18ddff-b8ba-4ea6-9d92-bcef99909e8c
Alan T. Kennedy-Asser, Rachel A. James, Joseph Daron, Ailish Craig, Christopher D. Jack, Piotr Wolski, Richard G. Jones, (2026) Do climate models agree on seasonal rainfall patterns and future changes over Southern Africa? Climatic Change doi:10.1007/s10584-025-04073-5
Vogel Martha M., Jack Christopher D., Sengupta Sayanti, Bailey Meghan, Naess Lars Otto, Lind Jeremy, Mphisa Thabiso, (2025) Climate Change, Conflict, Food Security and Social Protection in Niger doi:802b35ed-2898-4dc4-a87c-12d09e80217e
Craig A, James RA, Archer E, Daron J, Jack C, Jones RG, Kennedy-Asser AT, Lee J, McClure A, Shaw C, Steynor A, Taylor A, Vincent K, (2025) How is climate science used to inform national-level adaptation planning in southern Africa? Climate Policy doi:0f600e19-3c38-42be-8698-c2ee97c97eb7
Modi A, Roxy M, Jain S, Truong CH, Doan Q, Jack C, Jevrejeva S, Singh A, Dhara C, Ghosh S, (2025) Bridging climate science, policy, and communities: collaborative pathways for climate resilience in the Indo-Pacific Frontiers in Climate doi:22ced1da-f1b8-422d-84de-7db30277c0ca
Parker C, Mahlasi C, Govindasamy T, Radebe L, Brink NB, Jack C, Doumbia M, Kouakou E, Chersich Ma, Cissé G, Makhanya S, Tall A, Ndikum D, Adaji A, Ferdinand anga A, Chikandiwa A, Waljee A, Beukes A, Steynor A, Joubert B, Koné B, Hewitson B, Mwangi C, Dumbura C, Gao C, Lakhoo D, Thaldar D, Mitchell D, Donelly D, Frederick E, Vos E, Dlamini Baloyi G, Marmelstein G, Dely I, Solarin I, Maliha I, Maguma J, Tsvaki J, Zhu J, Sall K, McAlpine K, Quagraine K, Mbano L, Aarardenne L, Abdulrauf L, Brennan M, McAllister K, Langa N, Emerence O, Adegun O, Ogendi P, Marsh P, Munyi P, Kloppers P, Wolski P, Satekge R, Duffett R, Sibanda R, Forget R, Omar S, Luchters S, Makanga T, (2025) Quantifying intra-urban socio-economic and environmental vulnerability to extreme heat events in Johannesburg, South Africa International Journal of Biometeorology doi:828f9d57-3e5f-43b5-9e8c-7db8caa0fbdf
Martha Marie Vogel, Christopher David Jack, (2025) Navigating climate risk in humanitarian action: The potential of storyline approaches doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu24-905
Craig John Parker, Craig Mahlasi, Tamara Rosemary Govindasamy, Lebohang Radebe, Nicholas Brian Brink, Madina Doumbia, Yao Etienne Kouakou, Christopher Jack, Matthew Chersich, Guéladio Cissé, Sibusisiwe Makhanya, (2025) Quantifying intra-urban socio-economic and environmental vulnerability to extreme heat events in Johannesburg, South Africa doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-5638179/v1
Dim Coumou, Paola A Arias, Ana Bastos, Charlotte Kendra Gotangco Gonzales, Gabriele C Hegerl, Pandora Hope, Christopher Jack, Friederike Otto, Fahad Saeed, Olivia Serdeczny, Theodore G Shepherd, Robert Vautard, Barbara Romanowicz, (2024) How can event attribution science underpin financial decisions on Loss and Damage? PNAS Nexus doi:10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae277
Christopher Jack, Craig Parker, Yao Etienne Kouakou, Bonnie Joubert, Kimberly A McAllister, Maliha Ilias, Gloria Maimela, Matthew Chersich, Sibusisiwe Makhanya, Stanley Luchters, Prestige Tatenda Makanga, Etienne Vos, Kristie L Ebi, Brama Koné, Akbar K Waljee, Guéladio Cissé, (2024) Leveraging data science and machine learning for urban climate adaptation in two major African cities: a HE2AT Center study protocol BMJ Open doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077529
Anna Taylor, Nadine Methner, Kalia R Barkai, Alice McClure, Christopher Jack, Mark New, Gina Ziervogel, (2023) Operationalising climate-resilient development pathways in the Global South Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2023.101328
Erin Coughlan de Perez, Kristoffer B. Berse, Lianne Angelico C. Depante, Evan Easton-Calabria, Elton Pierre R. Evidente, Theodore Ezike, Dorothy Heinrich, Christopher Jack, Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay, Selma Lendelvo, Joalane Marunye, Daniel G. Maxwell, Sonia Binte Murshed, Christopher Garimoi Orach, Mecthilde Pinto, Leah B. Poole, Komal Rathod, Shampa, Carolyn Van Sant, (2022) Learning from the past in moving to the future: Invest in communication and response to weather early warnings to reduce death and damage Climate Risk Management doi:10.1016/j.crm.2022.100461
Erin Coughlan de Perez, Ignacio Fuentes, Christopher Jack, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, Izidine Pinto, Elisabeth Stephens, (2022) Different types of drought under climate change or geoengineering: Systematic review of societal implications Frontiers in Climate doi:10.3389/fclim.2022.959519
Alessandro Dosio, Izidine Pinto, Christopher Lennard, Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, Christopher Jack, Grigory Nikulin, (2021) What Can We Know About Recent Past Precipitation Over Africa? Daily Characteristics of African Precipitation From a Large Ensemble of Observational Products for Model Evaluation Earth and Space Science doi:10.1029/2020EA001466
Anna Taylor, Christopher Jack, Alice McClure, Sukaina Bharwani, Rebecca Ilunga, Jessica Kavonic, (2021) Understanding and supporting climate-sensitive decision processes in southern African cities Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2021.03.006
(2021) Climate Information: Towards Transparent Distillation Climate Risk in Africa doi:10.1007/978-3-030-61160-6_2
(2021) Convection permitting regional climate change simulations for understanding future climate and informing decision making in Africa Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society doi:10.1175/bams-d-20-0020.1
Burnet Mkandawire, Bernard Thole, Dereck Mamiwa, Tawina Mlowa, Alice McClure, Jessica Kavonic, Christopher Jack, (2021) Application of Systems-Approach in Modelling Complex City-Scale Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-Production Process and Learning Patterns for Climate Resilience Systems doi:10.3390/systems9010007
Izidine Pinto, Christopher Jack, Christopher Lennard, Simone Tilmes, Romaric C. Odoulami, (2020) Africa's Climate Response to Solar Radiation Management With Stratospheric Aerosol Geophysical Research Letters doi:10.1029/2019gl086047
(2020) Climate risk narratives: An iterative reflective process for co-producing and integrating climate knowledge Climate Risk Management doi:10.1016/j.crm.2020.100239
(2020) Spatio‐temporal patterns of rainfall trends and the 2015–2017 drought over the winter rainfall region of South Africa International Journal of Climatology doi:10.1002/joc.6768
(2020) Emerging climate change-related public health challenges in Africa: A case study of the heat-health vulnerability of informal settlement residents in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Science of The Total Environment doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141355
(2020) South Africa’s agricultural dust sources and events from MSG SEVIRI Aeolian Research doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2020.100637
(2019) What can we know about future precipitation in Africa? Robustness, significance and added value of projections from a large ensemble of regional climate models Climate Dynamics doi:10.1007/s00382-019-04900-3
Jack, C., Katragkou, E., (2019) Evaluation of downscaling methods over Europe: Results of the EU-COST action VALUE International Journal of Climatology doi:10.1002/joc.6184
Lawal, S., Lennard, C., Jack, C., Wolski, P., Hewitson, B., Abiodun, B., (2019) The observed and model-simulated response of southern African vegetation to drought Agricultural and Forest Meteorology doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107698
Quagraine, K.A., Hewitson, B., Jack, C., Pinto, I., Lennard, C., (2019) A methodological approach to assess the co-behavior of climate processes over Southern Africa Journal of Climate doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0689.1
Daron, J., Burgin, L., Janes, T., Jones, R.G., Jack, C., (2019) Climate process chains: Examples from southern Africa International Journal of Climatology doi:10.1002/joc.6106
(2018) Interannual rainfall variability and SOM-based circulation classification Climate Dynamics doi:10.1007/s00382-017-3621-1
(2018) Process-based model evaluation and projections over southern Africa from Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment and Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models International Journal of Climatology doi:10.1002/joc.5666
Wolski, P., Lennard, C., Jack, C., Tadross, M., (2017) Seasonal hydrological forecasting - Current state of play Water Wheel doi:2-s2.0-85028950951
Steynor, A., Padgham, J., Jack, C., Hewitson, B., Lennard, C., (2016) Co-exploratory climate risk workshops: Experiences from urban Africa Climate Risk Management doi:10.1016/j.crm.2016.03.001
Babatunde J. Abiodun, Sabina Abba Omar, Chris Lennard, Chris Jack, (2015) Using regional climate models to simulate extreme rainfall events in the Western Cape, South Africa International Journal of Climatology doi:10.1002/joc.4376
Joseph D. Daron, Susanne Lorenz, Piotr Wolski, Ross C. Blamey, Christopher Jack, (2015) Interpreting climate data visualisations to inform adaptation decisions Climate Risk Management doi:10.1016/j.crm.2015.06.007
MacKellar, N., New, M., Jack, C., (2014) Observed and modelled trends in rainfall and temperature for South Africa: 1960-2010 South African Journal of Science doi:10.1590/sajs.2014/20130353
Joseph David Daron, Kate Sutherland, Christopher Jack, Bruce C. Hewitson, (2014) The role of regional climate projections in managing complex socio-ecological systems Regional Environmental Change doi:10.1007/s10113-014-0631-y
Kim, J., Waliser, D.E., Mattmann, C.A., Goodale, C.E., Hart, A.F., Zimdars, P.A., Crichton, D.J., Jones, C., Nikulin, G., Hewitson, B., Jack, C., Lennard, C., Favre, A., (2014) Evaluation of the CORDEX-Africa multi-RCM hindcast: Systematic model errors Climate Dynamics doi:10.1007/s00382-013-1751-7
Donat, M.G., Alexander, L.V., Yang, H., Durre, I., Vose, R., Dunn, R.J.H., Willett, K.M., Aguilar, E., Brunet, M., Caesar, J., Hewitson, B., Jack, C., Klein Tank, A.M.G., Kruger, A.C., Marengo, J., Peterson, T.C., Renom, M., Oria Rojas, C., Rusticucci, M., Salinger, J., Elrayah, A.S., Sekele, S.S., Srivastava, A.K., Trewin, B., Villarroel, C., Vincent, L.A., Zhai, P., Zhang, X., Kitching, S., (2013) Updated analyses of temperature and precipitation extreme indices since the beginning of the twentieth century: The HadEX2 dataset Journal of Geophysical Research D: Atmospheres doi:10.1002/jgrd.50150
Eckardt, F.D., Soderberg, K., Coop, L.J., Muller, A.A., Vickery, K.J., Grandin, R.D., Jack, C., Kapalanga, T.S., Henschel, J., (2013) The nature of moisture at Gobabeb, in the central Namib Desert Journal of Arid Environments doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2012.01.011
Hewitson, B.C., Daron, J., Crane, R.G., Zermoglio, M.F., Jack, C., (2013) Interrogating empirical-statistical downscaling Climatic Change doi:10.1007/s10584-013-1021-z
Mattmann, C.A., Waliser, D., Kim, J., Goodale, C., Hart, A., Ramirez, P., Crichton, D., Zimdars, P., Boustani, M., Lee, K., Loikith, P., Whitehall, K., Jack, C., Hewitson, B., (2013) Cloud computing and virtualization within the regional climate model and evaluation system Earth Science Informatics doi:10.1007/s12145-013-0126-2
Brown, R., Mills, A.J., Jack, C., (2008) Non-rainfall moisture inputs in the Knersvlakte: Methodology and preliminary findings Water SA doi:2-s2.0-47249113869
Hewitson, B. C., Tadross, M. A., Sarr, A., Jain, S., Mdoka, M., Jack, C., McKellar, N., Walawege, R., Intsiful, J., Gutowski, W. J. J., (2006) The development of regional climate change scenarios for Sub-Sahara Africa Final Report No. AF doi:
Tadross, M. A., Gutowski Jr, W. J., Hewitson, B. C., Jack, C., New, M., (2006) MM5 simulations of interannual change and the diurnal cycle of southern African regional climate Theoretical and applied climatology doi:0177-798X
Hewitson, B., Tadross, M., Jack, C., Schulze, R. E., (2005) Scenarios from the University of Cape Town Climate change and water resources in southern Africa: studies on scenarios, impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation doi:
Tadross, M., Jack, C., Hewitson, B., (2005) On RCM-based projections of change in southern African summer climate Geophysical Research Letters doi:10.1029/2005GL024460
Hewitson, B., Engelbrecht, F., Tadross, M., Jack, C., (2005) General conclusions on development of plausible climate change scenarios for southern Africa Climate Change and Water Resources in Southern Africa: Studies on Scenarios, Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation, Water Research Commission, WRC Report doi:
Hewitson, Bruce C., Reason, C. J. C., Tennant, W., Jack, C., Mackellar, N., Lennard, C., Hansingo, K., Walawege, R., Mdoka, M., (2004) Dynamical modelling of present and future climate systems doi:1770052801
New, Mark, Washington, Richard, Jack, Chris, Hewitson, Bruce, (2003) Sensitivity of southern African climate to soil-moisture Clivar Exchanges doi:
Jack, Chris, Cape, Western, (2003) A 15 year regional model integration for Southern Africa 7th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography doi:
Walawege, R. P., Jack, C., Hewitson, B. C., (2002) Analysis of a long term Regional Model Simulation AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts doi:
Giorgi, Filippo, Christensen, J., Hulme, M., Von Storch, H., Whetton, P., Jones, R., Mearns, L., Fu, C., Arritt, R., Bates, B., (2001) Regional climate information-evaluation and projections Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergouvernmental Panel on Climate Change [Houghton, JT et al.(eds)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kongdom and New York, US doi:0521014956
Giorgi, F., Hewitson, B., Christensen, J., Hulme, M., Von Storch, H., Whetton, P., Jones, R., Mearns, L., Fu, C., Arritt, R., (2001) of the IPCC TAR (Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis) Chapter 10-Regional Climate Information Evaluation and Projections, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK doi:
Giorgi, F., Whetton, P.H., Jones, R.G., Christensen, J.H., Mearns, L.O., Hewitson, B., VonStorch, H., Francisco, R., Jack, C., (2001) Emerging patterns of simulated regional climatic changes for the 21st century due to anthropogenic forcings Geophysical Research Letters doi:10.1029/2001GL013150
O’Shea T, Grobusch LC, Zhang M, Neal J, Daron J, Jones R, Jack C, McClure A, Siame G, Ndhlovu D, Bharwani S, () Integrating social narratives of flood events into a text network analysis-based decision support framework to reduce vulnerability to climate change in Africa Climate Services doi:531576fb-8972-40ef-97f4-904fa8d7ecab
Ebi KL, Bi P, Bowen K, Brauer M, Chua PL, Colón-GF, Dimitrova A, Gasparrini A, Gouveia N, Hajat S, Hamilton I, Harper S, Hasegawa T, Hashizume M, Heaviside C, Honda Y, Green C, Jack C, Kim H, Kinney P, Kone B, Kovats S, Lloyd SJ, Morse AP, Ogden NH, Paz S, Price J, Ryan SJ, Semenza JC, Sheehan T, Taylor R, Ruijven B, Vicedo-CA, Warren R, Zaitchik B, Hess JJ, () Priority climate and health modelling needs The Lancet Planetary Health doi:555448f6-fe0b-4d58-bf23-5a72733bd27a
Steynor, Anna, Hewitson, Bruce, Jack, Chris, () Uncertain times–A maturing approach to communicating inherent uncertainty to decision-makers ACCESS doi:

Posts by Christopher Jack

We tried to write a climate change manifesto… (and failed), 26 Sep 2019 in Uncategorized
CSAG contributes to FAO State of Food Security 2018, 12 Sep 2018 in CSAG Blog and Frontpage
So when is it going to rain?, 25 Jan 2018 in CSAG Blog and Frontpage and Uncategorized
What is a successful climate service?, 28 Feb 2017 in Climate Services and Frontpage and Uncategorized
Telling stories: A multi-disciplinary co-production device?, 22 Feb 2017 in Climate Services and CSAG Blog and Frontpage
New research tackles disaster risk in urban Africa, 05 Mar 2015 in Frontpage
Time for a cold shower?, 02 Oct 2014 in CSAG Blog and Frontpage
Tickling the elephant?, 26 Nov 2013 in Uncategorized
Climate Change Apathy, 18 Oct 2013 in CSAG Blog and Frontpage