• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

RealClimate

Climate science from climate scientists...

  • Start here
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics
  • Surface temperature graphics
You are here: Home / Archives for Open thread

Open thread

Unforced Variations: Apr 2013

31 Mar 2013 by group

Open thread for April…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced Variations: March 2013

4 Mar 2013 by group

A new open thread – hopefully for some new climate science topics…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced Variations: Feb 2013

4 Feb 2013 by group

This month’s open thread on climate science…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced Variations: Jan 2013

1 Jan 2013 by group

A new year… so comments reflecting the past year in climate science, or looking forward to the next are particularly apropos.

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced variations: Dec 2012

1 Dec 2012 by group

A new meteorological season, perhaps some new science topics to discuss…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced Variations: Nov 2012

1 Nov 2012 by group

I can’t think what people might want to talk about this month…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced variations: Oct 2012

1 Oct 2012 by group

This month’s open thread. Try to keep it at least vaguely focused on climate science…!

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Unforced variations: Sep 2012

5 Sep 2012 by group

Open thread – a little late because of the holiday. But everyone can get back to work now!

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

Climate indices to watch

31 Aug 2012 by rasmus

What is the most important climate condition to keep tabs on? We have recently mentioned the record-low Arctic sea-ice extent, but hurricanes this year seem to be getting the most attention because of timing ofHurricane Isaac (I know of no evidence suggesting that the Arctic sea-ice has such a direct impact on U.S. politics!).

In addition, the status of ENSO issued by NOAA on August 27, 2012, states that El Niño conditions are likely to develop during August or September 2012, although the present state is classified as ‘ENSO-neutral‘. El Niño has a strong influence on local economies and societies in fairly extensive regions of the world. ENSO is a natural phenomenon, but may change under a changing climate and is interesting to watch over the long term.

It’s important to avoid getting lost into single indicators, however, as the climate system is complex, with many different parts interacting with one another. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) recently put out a statement on climate change, referring to a wide range of different climate indicators (here is a link for the most common ones). The AMS is not alone – the National Academy for Sciences (NAS) is also concerned about our climate and its many aspects: A fairly recent movie called Climate change at the NAS Climate Change: Lines of Evidence provides a comprehensive overview.

Both AMS and NAS accounts provide a rich picture of many different aspects with many different (important) details, which make them fairly long and complicated. This is why simple indices sometimes are used – to convey a simple message. We need both, and that’s why the NAS video and the AMS statement are so valuable – at least for the readers who understand what they are talking about. I’m not sure that everybody does, though.

R-script for making pretty picture

Filed Under: Climate Science, Communicating Climate, Open thread

Unforced Varations: Aug 2012

2 Aug 2012 by group

Once more with feeling…

Filed Under: Climate Science, Open thread

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 16
  • Page 17
  • Page 18
  • Page 19
  • Page 20
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Search

Search for:

Email Notification

get new posts sent to you automatically (free)
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • The most recent climate status
  • Unforced variations: May 2025
  • Unforced Variations: Apr 2025
  • WMO: Update on 2023/4 Anomalies

Our Books

Book covers
This list of books since 2005 (in reverse chronological order) that we have been involved in, accompanied by the publisher’s official description, and some comments of independent reviewers of the work.
All Books >>

Recent Comments

  • E. Schaffer on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Barton Paul Levenson on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Barry E Finch on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Paul Pukite (@whut) on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Kevin McKinney on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • CherylJosie on Unforced variations: Jun 2025
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time
  • Pedro Prieto on Predicted Arctic sea ice trends over time

Footer

ABOUT

  • About
  • Translations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Page
  • Login

DATA AND GRAPHICS

  • Data Sources
  • Model-Observation Comparisons
  • Surface temperature graphics
  • Miscellaneous Climate Graphics

INDEX

  • Acronym index
  • Index
  • Archives
  • Contributors

Realclimate Stats

1,367 posts

11 pages

244,108 comments

Copyright © 2025 · RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists.