Climate Links

WEBSITES | BLOGS | NEWS | OBSERVATIONS | IMAGES/ANIMATIONS | RESOURCES | SLIDES | Richard Allan's links |

Latest data

map of 2m daily temperature anomalies from Climate Reanalyzer2m T anomalies

map of latest SST daily anomalies from NOAASST daily anomalies

graph of latest Arctic sea ice extent from NSIDCArctic sea ice extent

graph of latest monthly Arctic sea ice volume from PSCArctic sea ice volume

Latest Mauna Loa CO2 dataLatest CO2 data

HadOBS global mean surface temperatureHadOBS Univ Colorado Sea Level2025 Mean Sea Level data

Websites

  • Met Office Climate Data Portal
  • Climate Change Tracker: tracking IPCC climate change indicators
  • The Science of Climate Change (Government Office for Science)
  • Is it hot in the UK right now?
  • En-roads climate scenario tool
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | IPCC 2013 WG1 video
  • climateprediction.net
  • UNFCCC - the big picture
  • Met Office guide to Climate Change | What is a climate model?
  • NASA's Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet | Key Indicators
  • CMSAF EUMETSAT climate datasets
  • Royal Society: Climate Change - Evidence and Causes
  • National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (NCAS) Climate
  • Royal Meteorological Society
  • Walker Institute
  • National Centre for Atmospheric (NCAS) Climate
  • University of Koeln
  • Gov. W. Australia: Dept. Agriculture and Food | Climate and Weather
  • Gulf Stream: Myths regarding European Climate (LDEO)
  • Additional Links (Steve Dorling, UEA)
  • Carbon Brief
  • IPCC business briefing
  • Extreme Events (UK Health Protection Agency)
  • Science Media Centre UK | UKCP climate change projections for the UK | ClimaMeter Impacts Dashboard

    |     Sea level rise coastal risk maps

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    Blogs

  • Climate Lab Book [Ed Hawkins, University of Reading]
  • Weather and Climate Discussions (University of Reading, Meteorology Department)
  • www.skepticalscience.com | article on deep ocean changes
  • www.realclimate.org | Greenland Melt [2013/01]
  • www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk (Ed Hawkins, University of Reading) | Climate change in Berkshire
  • NCAS Climate Blog | warm past climate (Nathaelle Bouttes)
  • www.carbonvisuals.com (Adam Nieman: visualisation of carbon emissions)
  • All Models Are Wrong (Tamsin Edwards, Open University)
  • www.sharesci.net (coming soon)
  • Climate and Risk (Justin Bowles)
  • More science wont cure climate skepticism (David Roberts)
  • Arctic Ice Blog (Neven) | Arctic ice more extensive in 1930s melt events | Yale Media Forum video on Arctic Ice Melt
  • Greenland Melting
  • My climate and me (inc Q+A)
  • Jeff Master's Wunderblog | Comment on Europe flooding of 2013 | Atmospheric humidity monitoring
  • Bad Astronomy | Slow-speed collapse of *six* huge Antarctic glaciers is past the point of no return

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    News

  • GENERAL:
    BBC Science & Environment: | Weather Online (includes Climate stories) | Dino-thropogenic warming [BBC 07/05/12] | Climate 'causes leaves to narrow' | Environmental Research Web (Institute of Physics) | Animal migration rates (PNAS study) | Urban heat island effect has not contaminated global temperature record [Parker 2009 Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change] Meteorology of Jupiter Mathematical theory underpinning the physics of climate (Ghil & Lucarini, 2019)
  • POLICY:
    Climate talks - Bonn [14/05/2012] | Guardian: 2nd Rio Earth summit 20 years on | Extremes linked to climate change? | | Geoengineering experiment postponed [BBC 16/05/2012] | Water scarcity may force vegetarianism [Guardian, 2012/08/26] On Global warming and winter cold air outbreaks [Wallace et al., letter to Science, 2014] | Make climate-change assessments more relevant [Hallegatte and March, 2016, Nature comment]
  • GREENHOUSE GASES:
    Fossil 14C diluting natural C14 by about 1%/year [Levin et al. 2010 Tellus, see Graven 2015 PNAS for future projections] CO2 hits 400 ppmv over Arctic for first time in at least 2 Million Years | New holey material to soak up CO2 | Inexorable rise in greenhouse gases continues (WMO report) [CNN, 20/11/2012] | Amazon die-back less likely based on modelling constrained with observed sensitivity of current climate [Nature, Feb 2013, Cox et al.] | Latest carbon dioxide emissions suggest we're still following upper emissions scenarios [Peters et al. 2013 Nature Climate Change] | Cutting Methane and soot alone is no quick fix for climate [Smith and Mizrahi 2013 PNAS] | Warming causing increasing annual cycle of CO2 [Graven et al. 2013 Science] | Greening of planet in recent decades linked with increased CO2 uptake [Donohue et al. 2013, GRL] | Increased atmospheric CO2 explains 70% of the observed greening trend over 25-50% of the globe. [Zhu et al. 2016, Nature Geosci.] | Uncertainties around reductions in China’s coal use and CO2 emissions [Korsbakken et al. 2016, Nature Climate] | "Greening" from more CO2 declines when climate gets wetter, drier or hotter [Obermeier et al. 2017 Nature Climate] | RCP8.5 high emissions scenario relevant for the near-term and mid-term time horizons [Schwalm et al. (2020) PNAS]
  • OCEAN:
    Riddle of rising seas [21/05/2012] | New maps of sea level rise [24/09/2012] | Decline in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation since 2004? [Smeed et al. (2013) Ocean Science] | Tropical rainfall linked to cross-equatorial ocean heat transport to N Atlantic [Frierson et al. 2013 Nature Geosciences] | Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years [Rosenthal et al. 2013, Science] | Slowing in Atlantic overturning circulation in the 1970s unprecedented in last 1000 years with likely contribution from previously unrecognised influence of Greenland melting and freshening of the N Atlantic [Rahmstorf et al. 2015, Nature Clim. Ch.] | Recent changes in global ocean overturning strength are likely to be be mainly explained by natural variability... so far. [Nature Geoscience Editorial, July 2016] | Acceleration of sea level rise [Dangendorf et al. (2017) PNAS] | Sea level at last interglacial not as high as previously thought? [Dyer et al. 2021 PNAS; Wolff et al. 2025 Nature]
  • CRYOSPHERE:
    Record Arctic Sea Ice Melt Rate [June 2012] | Record Arctic Sea Ice Minimum 2012 [Guardian] | BBC: Big melt at roof of world [21/09/2012] | Winds have driven increased Antacrctic sea ice | Accellerating melt of ice sheets [Science, 30/11/2012] | 10o winter warming in W Greenland [IOP, 07/01/2013] | Cryosat data confirms dramatic loss in ice volume since 2010 | Lubrication of Greenland ice sheet by meltwater not as important as thought [PNAS, 12/08/2013] Unusual ocean conditions in Pacific explain 50% of recent rapid Arctic warming [Nature, 8/5/2014] | Ice plug prevents irreversible discharge from East Antarctica and 3-4m sea level rise [Nature Climate, 4/8/2014] | Slow-speed collapse of *six* huge Antarctic glaciers is past the point of no return (potential commitment for 3-4m sea level over 200-1000 years) [ Joghin et al., Science; Rignot et al., GRL, May 2014] | Arctic sea-ice decline linked to recent Eurasian cold winters [Mori et al. 2014, Nature Geosci.] | Warming ocean melts Antarctic Ice Sheets leading to sea level rise over many 1000s in all but highly mitigating projection scenario (RCP2.6) [Golledge et al. 2015, Nature] | New studies on ice sheet melt faster but less than thought [Edwards et al. and Golledge et al, 2019, Nature]
  • PALEOCLIMATE:
    Determining the natural length of the current interglacial [Tzedakis et al. 2012 Nature Geosci.; see also discussion in 2006 by Crucifix & Berger | Younger Dryas overestimated? | Clouds and snowball Earth: Warming from clouds as well as Volcanic CO2 may explain escape from snowball Earth 635 million years ago.(see also Science article on snowball Earth) | Ocean circulation response to Northern Hemisphere ice retreat in response to Milankovic forcing explains Southern Hemisphere deglacial warming with CO2 providing strong ensuing amplifying feedback [Nature, Feb 2013, He et al.] | Proxy climate data confirms thermometer record since 1901 [GRL, Feb 2013, Anderson et al.] | Climate change over last 11,000 years [Marcott et al. 2013, Science but see article/comments in RealClimate and complimentary paper by Anderson et al. (2013) in GRL] | Hysteresis in N American ice sheet explains prominent 100,000yr glacial cycle response to Milankovitch orbital forcing [Abe-Ouchi et al. 2013, Nature] | Arctic summers warmest in 44,000 years | Moisture increases with slow warming smaller than today as tropics (where most moisture is) warms less than high latitudes [Back et al. J Clim 2013] | Rapid transition to aridity in north Africa 5000 years ago [Bard perspectve on Tierney and deMenocal (2013) Science] | Did Antarctica initiate glacial cycles? [McKay perspective, Science, 2014] | Current interglacial to last many tens of millennia due to Earth's current less elliptical orbit and high CO2 levels [Berger et al. 2015 Rev. Geophys] | Multiple causes of Younger Dryas event [Renssen et al. 2015 Nature Geosci.] | Anthropogenic CO2 may prevent next likely glacial inception in 50,000 years [Ganopolski et al. 2016 Nature; see also N&V] | How Antarctica got its ice [Lear and Lunt, 2016, Science] | Declining CO2 explains cooling from hot-house Earth 51 million years ago [Anagnostou et al. 2016 Nature] | Asian monsoon over past 640,000: termination linked to multiples of precesion cycles [Cheng et al. 2016 Nature] | In hospitable ice-free corridor unlikely to have been route of N. American colonization after last glacial maximum [Pedersen et al. 2016 Nature] | Simple model for interglacial timing based on 65osummer insolation & length of glacial [Tzedakis et al. (2017) Nature] | Deepening Drake passage 35M yrs ago caused increased weathering, CO2 drawdown & inception of Antarctic ice sheet [Elsworth et al. 2017 Nature Geosci] | Jones et al. (2018) Nature: S Hemisphere high latitude climate variability in last glacial maximum modulated by shifts in location of tropical convection linked to N Heisphere icesheet size | Rehfeld et al. (2018) Nature: global temperature variability decreased by factor of four between since Last Glacial Maximum, mostly in higher latitudes, due to changes in the meridional temperature gradient | Basak et al. (2018) Science: emergence from last glacial reinforced by large CO2 outgassing from breakdown in Southern Ocean stratification | Ferreira et al. (2018) GRL: Glacial-Interglacial states may relate to multiple equilibria of the climate system rather than external forcing | Zhao et al. (2022) Sci. Adv.: Prolonged drying trend coincident with the demise of Norse settlement in southern Greenland | Hörhold et al. (2023) Nature: Central and northern Greenland temperatures highest in past millennium and 1.5oC warmer than twentieth century leading to increased meltwater runoff | Kaufman & Broadman (2023) Nature: Examination of available evidence on whether anthropogenic global warming was preceded by a long-term warming trend or by global cooling provides support for a relatively mild millennial-scale global thermal maximum during the mid-Holocene. | Barker et al. (2025) Science: precession plus rising obliquity has more influence on deglacial onset due to peak summer intensification while obliquity alone is most important for reaching peak interglacial conditions and glacial inception that is explained by the varying latitude of the northern ice |

  • WATER CYCLE:
    Indian Ocean dominates East Africa multidecadal rainfall variability | Subtropical precipitation change caused by circulation response to ozone depletion [Science 2011, Kang et al.] | See also detection of ozone and GHG signals on circulation [Science 2013, Lee and Feldstein] | Ice sheet hysteresis explains strong link between orbital forcing and 100,000 year Croll/Milankovitch glacial cycles [Abe-Ouchi et al. 2013 Nature] | A drier future? [Sherwood & Fu, 2014, Science] | Drought in the Congo basin [Chambers and Roberts (2014) on Zhou et al. paper in Nature, 1 May 2014] | Upper tropospheric moisture amplifies anthropogenic warming [Chung et al. (2014), PNAS] | Aerosol induced surface solar dimming may have increased river flow [Gedney et al. 2014, Nature Geosci]. | Weather modified due to irrigation scheme in E Africa [Alter et al. 2015 Nature] | Interannual changes in CO2 linked to temperature as water-cycle changes have compensating effects on Gross Primary Productivity and Terrestrial Ecosystem Respiration [Jung et al. 2017 Nature]
  • CLOUDS:
    Mineral dust dominent ice nuclei for cirrus clouds [Cziczo et al. 2013 Science] | Observations suggest in short-term clouds amplify temperature changes but little relationship with cloud responses at longer time scales [Dessler 2010 Science] | Climate models with inaccurate subtropical dryness may underestimate climate sensitivity [Fasullo and Trenberth (2012) Science] | Climate models with unrealistic mixing underestimate warming response to rising greenhouse gases [Sherwood et al. 2014 Nature] | Aircraft contrails reduce daily temperature range [Science, 2002] | Interannual low cloud feedback smaller than but linked to climate change feedback [Zhou et al. 2015 GRL] | Cirrus cloud thinning could potentially offset CO2 heating effect without problematic precipitation decline found for other geoengineering methods [Kristjansson et al. 2015 GRL] | Cloud greenhouse effect amplifies El Nino [Radel et al. (2016) Nature Geosci.]
  • AEROSOL:
    Negative aerosol feedback discovered (but small effect, -0.01 Wm-2 globally) [Paasonen et al. (2013) Nature Geosciences] | Large contribution of natural aerosols to uncertainty in indirect forcing [Carslaw et al. 2013 Nature] | What if Icelandic volcanic eruption like 1783? [BBC 1 May 2014 ]
  • LAND:
    Models with convective parametrization cannot capture observed negative feedback between soil moisture and precipitation [Taylor et al. (2014) GRL] | Mega-heatwaves of 2003 and 2010 explained by weather patterns and reinforcing feedbacks [Nature Geosciences 2014]
  • RADIATION BUDGET:
    Unmeasured Far Infra-red wavelengths may be crucial in Arctic climate change [PNAS, 2014] | Spectral Signatude of Climate Change [Slingo and Webb, QJRMS 1997] | Better radiative calculations/diagnostics needed in climate models [Chung and Soden, ERL, 2015] | Energy budget diagrams of the planets! [Read et al. 2015 QJRMetS]
  • NON-CLIMATE:
    Cheaper way to synthesise Ammonia with implications for agriculture? [Anderson et al. (2013) Nature] | Time to leave GDP behind [Constanza et al. (2014) Nature] | Viking migration [Margaryan et al. (2020) Nature]

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    Observations

  • www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/climate.html (Met Office)
  • < a href="https://eip.ceh.ac.uk/hydrology/water-resources/">UK Water Resources Data Portals
  • www.met.reading.ac.uk/weatherdata/ (University of Reading)
  • Climate Monitoring (NCDC/NOAA) | NASA's Global Climate Change Key Indicators
  • NOAA PSD map room
  • ECMWF data (including ERA Interim
  • Climate Reanalyzer
  • NOAA water vapour animations
  • Southern Africa station data
  • CHESS UK daily Met data 1962-present
  • TAO ocean array data
  • Remote Sensing Algorithms List
  • NASA world view satellite images
  • Copernicus Climate Data Store
  • Eumetrain explorer
  • COMPOSITION: Act on CO2 Now (recent CO2 stats, etc) | Emissions time series (e.g. Fossil Fuels ) | Annual Carbon Budget | Volcanic index | CO2 | Trace Gases | Radiative Forcings (Hansen et al. 2011 ACP) | Ozone hole | Global Carbon Project
  • SURFACE TEMPERATURES: HadCRUT (global HadCRUT3 anomalies | HadCRUT4: annual and monthly anomalies | HadCRUT4 ranked to 2011) | Japan Met Agency plots | GISSTEMP | NOAA sea surface temperature | Current global temperature anomaly maps | Met Office Decadal Forecast | SurfTemp Sea Surface Temperature data
  • El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO): ENSO index | MEI ENSO index | NOAA ENSO advisory | IRI ENSO products | ESSIC global precipitation summaries | GPCC rain gauge dataset visualiser
  • Arctic Oscillation index
  • OCEANS: ARGO floats | RAPID ocean array | Florida Current | Sea level rise | Mixed layer depth climatology |
  • TAO ocean array data
  • ICE AND SNOW: nsidc.org/news/ (Arctic ice) | PIOMAS ice volume | Cryosphere Today | | AMSRE data | Decline of snow cover | Polar portal (Danish Met Institute): Arctic and Greenland | NSIDC Interactive Arctic Ice graph
  • CLOUDS AND RADIATIVE ENERGY: Solar Irradiance | NASA solar cycles | Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) | Cloud Appreciation Society | Overpass times of satellites measureing cloud and radiative energy | NASA Satellite Imagary and Cloud Products Page | Real time MODIS and AIRS data | RMIB solar irradiance composite (from 1984)
  • ATMOSPHERIC REANALYSES: ECMWF ERA Interim | NCEP/NCAR | 20th Century Reanalysis

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    Images/Animations

  • Greenhouse Effect: Dancing Molecules (water vapour)
  • Clouds: Infra-red (38 MB, 1992) (or YouTube version)
  • Water vapour: integrated water vapour (ERA Interim, 6 hourly, 2011) | Near surface (kg/kg, ERA Interim, 6 hourly, Nov 2009)
  • Radiation and Climate: daily cycle (MPG/3MB) | Mystery Shadow! | Evaluating Met Office simulation (GIF/9MB) | Suns effect on meteorology (WMV/5MB)
  • Black Cloud
  • Earth's Orbit: Seasons | Milankovic Cycles (splot the mistake...) [These have stopped working but here is another one]
  • Scratch version of an energy balance model for understanding climate.

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    Resources

  • RMetS/NCAS IPCC climate change updates for GCSE Geography and Science teachers
  • A year of Weather (EUMTSAT geostationary satellite data)
  • Walker Institute Modelling Climate Change booklet
  • Department of Meteorology Outreach resources
  • Public Information Resource Centre Climate Change Factsheet
  • Monash Simple Climate Model
  • CliMT: An object-oriented Climate Modeling and diagnostics Toolkit (python)
  • KNMI Climate Explorer (plot out latest climate model and observation data)
  • National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) Climate
  • Richard Allan (University of Reading)
  • MIT PAOC Spotlights
  • UN CC:Learn - Introductory e-Course on Climate Change (more on policy/adaptation)
  • World Population Animation

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    CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE NOTES: (to follow)

    Climate Change: Past Present and Future


    Session 1     Introduction
    Session 2 The Greenhouse Effect | See also IPCC (2007) FAQ 1.1 and FAQ 1.3
    Session 3 Past Climate 1 - Glacial Cycles | See also IPCC (2007) FAQ 6.1 and Box 6.1
    Session 4 Past Climate 2 - Paleoclimate and Proxy Measurements | see also Box TS.5 of the 2013 IPCC report
    Session 5/6 Current climate change | Group worksheet | See also IPCC (2013) WG1 Summary for Policy Makers (Section B)
    Session 7 Simulating Climate | See also IPCC (2013) FAQ 11.1
    Session 8 Future Climate Projections | See also IPCC (2013) WG1 Summary for Policy Makers (Section E)
    Session 9 Clouds and Climate See also IPCC (2013) FAQ 7.1: How do clouds affect climate?
    Session 10 Further Issues and Conclusions | See also IPCC (2013) FAQ 7.2: How do aerosols affect climate?

    Worksheet: PDF | Online

    IPCC (2013) Frequently Asked Questions

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