David Owen Blanchard is an American meteorologist, photographer, and storm chaser.
He was a significant collaborator in seminal research on tornadogenesis, specifically the importance of baroclinic boundaries, the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) and its thermodynamic characteristics.
From 1978-1980 Blanchard worked at the NOAA National Hurricane and Experimental Meteorology Laboratory (NHEML) in Coral Gables, Florida after which he moved to the Office of Weather Research and Modification (OWRM) in Boulder, Colorado until 1982 when he worked at the Weather Research Program (WRP) until 1988.
[2] Blanchard participated as a team leader for Project VORTEX in 1994-1995[3] and was co-principal investigator (PI) of subVORTEX during 1997-1998.
Blanchard is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) by the American Meteorological Society (AMS), served on the AMS Severe Local Storms Committee, an associated editor of Monthly Weather Review, and on the Atmospheric Dynamics Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).