Author Archives: Stephen Burt

Reducing climate change from aviation: could climate-friendly routing play a part?

Posted on 29 May, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Emma Irvine It’s commonly known that burning fossil fuels, like in jet engines, leads to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) which causes global warming. It is perhaps less well known that, particularly in the case of aviation, carbon … Continue reading →

Posted in Atmospheric chemistry, aviation, Climate, Weather forecasting | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why has there been a rapid increase in heat-related extremes in Western Europe since the mid-1990s?

Posted on 22 May, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Buwen Dong In the last few decades, Europe has warmed not only faster than the global average, but also faster than expected from anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases (van Oldenborgh et al., 2009). With the warming, Europe experienced record-breaking heat … Continue reading →

Posted in Aerosols, Atmospheric chemistry, Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Environmental hazards, Numerical modelling | Leave a comment

The physics behind a physics scheme

Posted on 15 May, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Alan Grant When I joined the Met Office (or, as it was then, The Meteorological Office), I was posted to the boundary layer group. I spent a number of years investigating the atmospheric boundary layer, using data from aircraft … Continue reading →

Posted in Boundary layer, Environmental physics, Numerical modelling, Oceans, Waves | Leave a comment

Changing wet and dry seasons

Posted on 8 May, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Richard Allan The fickle nature of weather patterns is ultimately responsible for the where and when of tropical rainfall extremes which wreak damage on agriculture, infrastructure and people. Tropical cyclones, such as Enawo which battered Madagascar in March, can … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Numerical modelling | Tagged | Leave a comment

Potential links between Arctic sea ice loss and mid-latitude weather: revisiting an influential earlier study

Posted on 1 May, 2017 by Stephen Burt

by Len Shaffrey The Arctic is changing rapidly due to human emissions of greenhouse gases. Arctic sea ice extent has been declining by 12% per decade since reliable satellite estimates began in 1979. By summer 2012, Arctic sea ice extent … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Cryosphere, Polar | Tagged | Leave a comment

Water vapour transport by tropical cyclones over East Asia

Posted on 24 April, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Liang Guo When talking about tropical cyclones (TCs), people tend to think about gusty winds and heavy rain. These weather phenomena impress us due to the immense impacts on our surroundings. However, these weather phenomena are short-lived. Most TCs … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate modelling, Monsoons, Numerical modelling, Tropical cyclones | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nice weather, atmospheric blocking and forecasts

Posted on 11 April, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Oscar Martinez-Alvarado With the beginning of spring (either the ‘meteorological’ spring on 1 March or the ‘astronomical’ spring on 20 March, as the Met Office explains here), the UK and indeed the whole Northern Hemisphere start experiencing warmer weather. The … Continue reading →

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Can the use of CCTV images improve urban flooding forecasts?

Posted on 3 April, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Sanita Vetra-Carvalho Urban flooding can result from intense rainfall, flash floods, coastal floods or river floods, the same as in rural areas. However, in cities, unlike in rural areas, there is very little open soil available for water storage … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental hazards, Hydrology, Urban meteorology | Tagged | Leave a comment

Melt ponds over Arctic sea ice

Posted on 27 March, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Daniela Flocco Melt ponds develop over Arctic sea ice during the melting season from the accumulation of melt water from ice and snow. These have become increasingly important over the last few decades because they have been more prevalent … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate modelling, Cryosphere, Polar | Tagged | Leave a comment

Observation uncertainty in data assimilation

Posted on 20 March, 2017 by Stephen Burt

By Sarah Dance Approximately 4 million properties in the UK are at risk from surface-water flooding which occurs when heavy rainfall overwhelms the drainage capacity of the local area. Several national weather centres have been developing new numerical forecasting systems … Continue reading →

Posted in earth observation, Numerical modelling, Remote sensing, Weather forecasting | Tagged , | Leave a comment