This month’s open thread on climate-related topics. The post Unforced Variations: Feb 2025 first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

One more dot on the graphs for our annual model-observations comparisons updates. Given how extraordinary the last two years have been, there are a few highlights to note. First, we have updated the versions of a few of the observational datasets: UAH TLT/TMT are now on version 6.1, and the NOAA NCEI surface temperature data […] The post Comparison Update 2024 first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

There’s been a bit of media whiplash on the issue of AMOC slowing lately – ranging from the AMOC being “on the brink of collapse” to it being “more stable than previously thought”. AMOC, of course, refers to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, one of the worlds major ocean circulation systems which keeps the northern […] The post The AMOC is slowing, it’s stable, it’s slowing, no, yes, … first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

To no-one’s surprise 2024 was the warmest year on record – and by quite a clear margin. Another year, another data point. Unlike the previous year, 2024 was anticipated to be a record breaker even before it began (I predicted a record – despite the huge anomaly in 2023 – with a 55% probability). It […] The post 2024 Hindsight first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

This month’s open thread on climate topics. Please remember to be substantive, respectful and vaguely on topic. Note that we’ll have an update to the various observational datasets after Jan 10th, and hopefully an update to all the model-observation comparisons the week following (depending on other things not getting in the way). Happy New Year […] The post Unforced Variations: Jan 2025 first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

Rapid progress in the use of machine learning for weather and climate models is evident almost everywhere, but can we distinguish between real advances and vaporware? First off, let’s define some terms to maximize clarity. Machine Learning (ML) is a broad term to distinguish any kind of statistical fitting of large data sets to complicated […] The post ¡AI Caramba! first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

This is a follow-on post to the previous summary of interesting work related to the temperatures in 2023/2024. I’ll have another post with a quick summary of the AGU session on the topic that we are running on Tuesday Dec 10th, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. 6 Dec 2024: This is perhaps the […] The post Nature 2023: Part II first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

This month’s open thread for climate topics. Please stay vaguely on topic and do not abuse other commenters. The post Unforced Variations: Oct 2024 first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

It’s 20 years since we started blogging on climate here on RealClimate (December 10, 2004). We wanted to counter disinformation about climate change that was spreading through various campaigns. In those days it was an unusual move that prompted a welcome from Nature.  One thing that I didn’t anticipate then was the vast global scale […] The post Twenty years of blogging in hindsight first appeared on RealClimate ..read more

There is a need to make climate science more agile and more responsive, and that means moving (some of it) from research to operations. The post Operationalizing Climate Science first appeared on RealClimate ..read more