Why are Atlantic sea temperatures changing, and what does it mean for Britain?
Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis wreaked havoc across Britain this year, causing damage to thousands of homes and businesses, extensive travel disruptions, and several deaths. In some places, over a month’s worth of rain fell in twenty-four hours.
These hazardous weather systems are known as mid-latitude storms. They are swept in from the Atlantic, where cold polar air from the north meets warmer air from the south at roughly the same latitudes as Britain. Far from the shores of Britain, the Atlantic climate holds the answers for important questions about our weather, including how severe and how frequently future storms will hit.
Training Course: Fast Track Your Research Impact
We are offering 30 places on a free one-day training course in April, which will give you everything you need to generate and communicate real-world impacts from your research and public engagement.
You will learn about practical tools to time-efficiently increase the significance and reach of your impact.
As part of the session you will receive your own copy of the second edition of The Research Impact Handbook.
Limited places are available, so if you would like to attend, please register by Thursday 26 March 2020.
Clearing up cloudy climate predictions
UK scientists take to the skies as part of a major international research campaign to better understand the behaviour of clouds and their role in climate change.
Trade-wind cumulus clouds play an important role in the Earth's climate system. They can influence how heat is circulated in the atmosphere and they reflect sunlight away from the Earth's surface.
But the complexity of clouds – their makeup, behaviour and how they react to global warming – makes it difficult for them to be accurately represented in climate change models.