Media awareness about global warming and climate change has grown fairly steadily since 2004. My impression is that journalists today tend to possess a higher climate literacy than before. This increasing awareness and improved knowledge is encouraging, but there are also some common interpretations which could be more nuanced. Here are two examples, polar amplification and extreme rainfall. … Read Full Article about Old habits
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The Scafetta Saga
It has taken 17 months to get a comment published pointing out the obvious errors in the paper in GRL. Back in March 2022, Nicola Scafetta published a short paper in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) purporting to show through 'advanced' means that 'all models with ECS > 3.0°C overestimate the observed global surface warming' (as defined by ERA5). We (me, Gareth Jones and John Kennedy) … Read Full Article about The Scafetta Saga
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The AMOC: tipping this century, or not?
A few weeks ago, a study by Copenhagen University researchers Peter and Susanne Ditlevsen concluded that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is likely to pass a tipping point already this century, most probably around mid-century. Given the catastrophic consequences of an AMOC … Read Full Article about The AMOC: tipping this century, or not?
As Soon as Possible
The latest contrarian crowd pleaser from is just the latest repetition of the old "it was the sun wot done it" trope[1] that Willie Soon and his colleagues have been pushing for decades. There is literally nothing new under the sun. … Read Full Article about As Soon as Possible
Unforced variations: Sep 2023
This month's open thread on climate science topics. It's been a warm summer, dontcha know? Expect ERA5, the satellite data and then the surface data products to confirm this in the next week or so. Sea ice minimum in the Arctic will also occur soon, as will a record low maximum in the Antarctic. El … Read Full Article about Unforced variations: Sep 2023
Unforced Variations: Aug 2023
This month’s open thread for climate topics. Has anyone noticed how warm it’s been? Someone should probably look into that… … Read Full Article about Unforced Variations: Aug 2023
What is happening in the Atlantic Ocean to the AMOC?
For various reasons I'm motivated to provide an update on my current thinking regarding the slowdown and tipping point of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). I attended a two-day AMOC session at the IUGG Conference the week before last, there's been interesting new papers, and in … Read Full Article about What is happening in the Atlantic Ocean to the AMOC?
Area-based global hydro-climatological indicators
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S) both provide sets of global climate statistics to summarise the state of Earth’s climate. They are indeed valuable indicators for the global or regional mean temperature, … Read Full Article about Area-based global hydro-climatological indicators
Back to basics
You can tell how worried the climate deniers are by how many fields of science they have to trash to try and have people not see what’s happening. it will not have escaped most people’s notice that global temperatures are heading into uncharted territory. The proximate cause of this week’s … Read Full Article about Back to basics
Unforced variations: July 2023
This month's open thread for climate topics. Let the (northern hemisphere) heat wave and wildfire smoke season begin! … Read Full Article about Unforced variations: July 2023
Turning a new page[s]
The world is full of climate dashboards (and dashboards of dashboards), and so you might imagine that all datasets and comparisons are instantly available in whatever graphical form you like. Unfortunately, we often want graphics to emphasize a particular point or comparison, and generic graphs from … Read Full Article about Turning a new page[s]
Unforced Variations: Jun 2023
This month's open thread on climate topics. … Read Full Article about Unforced Variations: Jun 2023