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Humid heat is exceeding human tolerance & causing mass mortality

December 19, 2024 4:59 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Critical physiological limits to human heat tolerance are drawing ever closer, highlighting the urgent need to limit further climate warming and emphasising the adaptation challenge ahead. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, 21st Century Weather researchers and their collaborators at institutions around the world offered a stark reminder that the hottest boreal summer on record has driven widespread humid heat mortality across every continent of the Northern Hemisphere in 2024. Sufficiently high combinations of air temperature and humidity (levels... Read More

Ailie Gallant elected AMOS Fellow

December 10, 2024 4:28 am Published by Leave your thoughts

21st Century Weather congratulates our Chief Investigator Ailie Gallant, who has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Meteorological & Oceanographic Society (AMOS). Ailie is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, and a leading expert in climate extremes, particularly drought. Her election as an AMOS Fellow is recognition of her outstanding achievements and major contributions to the field. Ailie’s research has included notable studies on flash droughts in Australia and the role... Read More

Helen Cleugh & Kim Reid receive AMOS Awards

December 10, 2024 1:57 am Published by Leave your thoughts

21st Century Weather’s Helen Cleugh & Kim Reid have received distinguished awards from the Australian Meteorology & Oceanographic Society (AMOS). Morton Medal: Helen Cleugh  The 2024 Morton Medal was awarded to Dr Helen Cleugh, chair of the 21st Century Weather Advisory Board.  According to AMOS, through her own research, and especially through her research leadership and clear vision, Helen has had a profound positive impact on the national and international fabric of climate science and its people. As a micrometeorologist,... Read More

A Decadal Plan for Australian Earth System Science

November 26, 2024 10:20 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

21st Century Weather supports the recommendations made in A Decadal Plan for Australian Earth System Science 2024–2033. The Decadal Plan has been developed by the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Earth System Science (NCESS). Members of the NCESS include 21st Century Weather Chief Investigators Julie Arblaster, Claire Vincent and Negin Nazarian. The plan calls for the urgent establishment of a national institute responsible for coordinating the science required to transform Australia’s response to climate change. According to the researchers involved,... Read More

Creating confidence in climate computing: Inside the ACCESS Community Workshop  

October 9, 2024 2:45 am Published by Leave your thoughts

When it comes to Australia’s cutting-edge climate modelling software, removing barriers to trust and understanding for users is crucial.  Tasked with answering that challenge in 2024 was the ACCESS Community Workshop, which took place in September at the Shine Dome in Canberra. The Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) is a computer modelling framework that contains atmospheric, ocean, sea-ice and land surface models, which in turn are coupled to chemical and biological models. These models are tools that... Read More

Partner profile: Humphrey Lean (Met Office)

October 1, 2024 1:41 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Tapping into local knowledge can be the key to any successful journey, and the same rule applies when it comes to building more accurate climate and weather models. Research organisations across the globe are seeking to better understand the mechanisms governing our atmospheric dynamics, ranging from planetary-scale interactions right down to local conditions. Among them is the Met Office, the United Kingdom’s national weather and climate service, where Dr Humphrey Lean – a recent visitor to 21st Century Weather –... Read More

Partner profile: Richard Jones (Met Office)

September 24, 2024 3:49 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Thinking deeply about our weather and climate has been a lifelong pursuit for Richard Jones, whose journey has taken him from class-room window curiosity to one of the world’s leading meteorology organisations. Richard is a senior scientist within the regional model development and evaluation team at the Met Office, the United Kingdom’s national weather and climate service. And while few of us are able to completely realise our childhood dreams, being tasked with uncovering the mechanisms behind atmospheric dynamics, precipitation... Read More

Steven Sherwood elected AGU Fellow

September 19, 2024 4:52 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Please join us in congratulating our Chief Investigator Professor Steven Sherwood, who has been elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. The AGU’s Fellows program recognises members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space science through a breakthrough, discovery, or innovation in their field.  Fellows act as external experts, capable of advising government agencies and other organisations outside the sciences upon request. Steven, who is part of the Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW in Sydney and... Read More

A key moment to integrate cities in global climate science

August 26, 2024 11:46 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

The forthcoming IPCC Special Report on Cities and Climate Change is a crucial opportunity for the urban climate research community to ensure the critical importance and vulnerability of cities is more accurately reflected in global climate science.  Although climate change and its impacts affect the entire planet, both the causes of man-made climate change and the people exposed to it are highly concentrated in densely populated urban areas.  Urban areas occupy only 1-3% of land, yet they are home to... Read More

Negin Nazarian receives NSW Young Tall Poppy Award

August 6, 2024 4:21 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Dr Negin Nazarian, Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in 21st Century Weather, has received a 2024 NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award in recognition of her research and outreach work in the field of urban climatology. Negin is a Scientia Senior Lecturer in the School of Built Environment at UNSW, leads the Climate-Resilient Cities (CRC) research lab, and is also a Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. Negin is an urban climatologist... Read More