After receiving his Ph.D., Legates became first an assistant and later an associate professor with the Center for Computational Geosciences at the University of Oklahoma. There, he focused his research on the climate of the southern Great Plains and became interested in the use of radar to estimate precipitation. When the opportunity to work with the SRCC arose, he jumped at the chance. Because of continually expanding computer resources, we're getting finer and more detailed analyses than ever before. And every round of re-analysis is done at a much finer scale.
Climatology is a relatively young field and there are many avenues open for exploration.
Legates says he retains a strong interest in precipitation-based climatology. He recently developed a real-time system to monitor weather conditions for Duke Energy Corp.'s hydroelectric power generation process for the Catawba River Basin in North Carolina. By providing high-resolution precipitation estimates from weather radar, Duke now can model the water flow in the river basin more accurately and thus, better predict and manage its water resources. Legates has worked on global precipitation research at the German weather service in Frankfurt and twice has been invited to participate in U.S.-Soviet climate exchange programs. He recently served as moderator for a global-warming debate sponsored by the Houston Forum.