We are running out of time in fighting the effects of climate change. With the greenhouse gasses emissions steady, the planet is reaching warming levels that could cause some large ecosystems to tip in different states. A tipping point in the climate system refers to a threshold beyond which a small change in a particular …[Read More]
Figure: DallE (the visual cousin of ChatGPT) has produced this image when I asked for “a cartoon showing a climatologist with research articles walking on a weather map” As a communication officer of the division of Nonlinear Processes I started to write posts for the EGU blog a few years ago and I found …[Read More]
In December 2022, the United States experienced a severe cold spell, with record-low temperatures being recorded in many parts of the country. While it is natural for cold spells to occur, the question has arisen as to whether climate change is playing a role in the intensity and frequency of these events. There is ongoing debate …[Read More]
Weather extreme events in the year 2022 are really hitting the Mediterranean basin very hard. Since the beginning of the year we are observing a widespread drought, heatwaves but also severe thunderstorms. Few days before the COP meeting in Sharm-el-sheik we discussed one of the experts of Mediterranean climate, Federico Grazzini, to unveil whether these …[Read More]
On October 23 2022, a tornado outbreak occurred in France, causing extensive damages. Tornadoes in France are a relatively rare phenomenon, even more so in the second half of October. This weather phenomenon is linked to intense thunderstorms, and it is difficult to predict because it is very localized. Will global warming make this weather …[Read More]
The 2022 European summer was governed by the presence of a persistent cold drop (low pressure area) located between Portugal and France. The change in its position has determined the alternation between hot conditions (low pressure center over Portugal) and stormy conditions (cold drop over France). The warming of the Mediterranean Sea (up to +6°C …[Read More]
Davide Faranda is a physicist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). His main interests are devoted to the construction of a statistical mechanical and dynamical systems framework for the study of atmospheric motions. In particular, his works aim at the characterization of the metastable states of the atmospheric circulation with simple mathematical …[Read More]
Too hot, Too soon: the thermometer has reached unprecedented temperature for a month of June in France, with the 40°C mark crossed by Friday June 17 in part of France. The IPCC AR6 report now clearly states that the probability of heatwave events such as this one has increased by a factor 3 to 5 …[Read More]
ClimarisQ is a smartphone/web game from a scientific mediation project that highlights the complexity of the climate system and the urgency of collective action to limit climate change. It is available in four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian. It is an app-game where players must make decisions to limit the frequency and impacts of …[Read More]
One of the main new points of the IPCC reports AR6 with respect to the previous ones is the increased confidence that global climate change induced by anthropogenic emissions is critically affecting the dynamics of weather extremes. For summer, and specifically over Europe, the AR6 report states that we are already observing prolonged periods of …[Read More]
