Topic: Climate
NIH-Funded Climate and Health Center Launches at Columbia
A new center called Climate and Health: Action and Research for Transformational Change (CHART) aims to build research capacity and catalyze and coordinate climate and health research and evidence-based solutions on climate change across Columbia University. CHART, which is funded by a three-year $4.2 million grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA), will also promote climate […]
Celebrating Women in Science: Amanda Grossi on Advancing Food Security
Adapted from a story written by Olga Rukovets for the State of the Planet news site. As a Las Vegas native, Amanda Grossi grew up surrounded by more than just casinos. “It’s a very ecologically interesting place and close to some amazing geologic and natural wonders—canyons, wetlands, mountains and forests,” Grossi says. These unique landscapes, […]
Calibrated probabilistic sub-seasonal forecasting for Pakistan’s monsoon rainfall in 2022
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Extreme Weather is Necessitating a Shift in Humanitarian Action
Adapted from a story written by Renee Cho for the State of the Planet news site. Andrew Kruczkiewicz has spent much of his career trying to get ahead of the weather. As a meteorologist and senior staff researcher at Columbia Climate School’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Kruczkiewicz’s current research focuses on extreme […]
Short-range rainfall outlook a new tool for water managers, meteorologists
— Barbados Today
What climate scientists are predicting for the globe in 2024
— Washington Post
El Niño is nearing historic strength. What this means and when it will end.
— Washington Post
Recommendations for Improved Tropical Cyclone Formation and Position Probabilistic Forecast Products
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Forecast skill of Bangladesh summer monsoon rainfall in C3S and NMME models after calibration
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Frontline Heroes: Predicting Climate Extremes in Africa
Originally posted in Columbia Climate School State of the Planet Blog, November 14, 2023, Francesco Fiondella Africa already experiences some of the gravest impacts of climate change, with recurring and persistent drought, extreme heat and extreme rainfall experienced throughout the continent. Recent flooding throughout West and Central Africa has displaced over 8.5 million people, pushing […]
I Study Climate Change. The Data Is Telling Us Something New
— New York Times
Rainy Weekends: Weather or Climate?
— WNYC
From scarfs to shorts: South America sees record-high temperatures in the dead of winter
— El Pais
Young researchers in the USA honored
— ORF - The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
Forschungsnachwuchs in den USA ausgezeichnet
— ORF – The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
Climate change is bringing more rain to New York, and the city is not ready.
— New York Times
WFP Djibouti Country Brief, August 2023
— Reliefweb
Guest post: Gauging the success of climate change adaptation
— Carbon Bried
June 2023 was the world’s warmest June on record
— Yale Climate Connections
Multiyear La Niña Events and Multiseason Drought in the Horn of Africa
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Large-scale stability and the Greater Horn of Africa long and short rains
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May 2023 was the world’s third-warmest May on record
— Yale Climate Connections
The ENSO Fingerprint on Bangladesh Summer Monsoon Rainfall
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A Multimodel Real-Time System for Global Probabilistic Subseasonal Forecasts of Precipitation and Temperature
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NYC Is Sinking, Study Shows
— NBC
As rising oceans threaten NYC, study documents another risk: The city is sinking
— AP
Faculty Spotlight: Suzana Camargo, Plasma Physicist Turned Extreme Weather Expert
— State of the Planet
April 2023: Earth’s 4th-warmest April on record
— Yale Climate Connections
Dry weather ahead for Southern Africa
— Eurofruit
Hurricane Season 2023: More cyclones could hit Jalisco this year
— ES Euro
The world prepares for record temperatures
— RSI Swiss Radio and Television
How Climate Services Can Support Ecosystem Restoration
— State of the Planet
A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections
— Yale Climate Connections
Indigenous people, climate focus of NY events
— Taipei Times
Have efforts to deal with climate change failed?
— Global Herald
Have efforts to deal with climate change failed?
— Al Jazeera
Taiwan highlights indigenous rights, climate change at New York events
— Focus Taiwan
February 2023 was Earth’s 4th-warmest February on record
— Yale Climate Connections
Entrevista Walter Baethgen
— Radio Carve
U.S. faces severe winter storm with extreme conditions affecting several states
— NewsBreak
Nearly 900,000 Without Power As Winter Storms Continue Across U.S.
— Forbes
Snowfall? Spring thaw? Both could happen in the next few days
— York Dispatch
New York City is on the verge of snow-free record: is climate change to blame?
— LocalToday
Kenya: Drought – Early Action Protocol Summary
— Relief Web
Meet the next generation of Africa’s climate forecasters
Written by Amanda Grossi and Francesco Fiondella This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). New state-of-the-art forecasting systems developed at IRI are enabling regional and national meteorological agencies to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for their agricultural sectors. East Africa is experiencing some […]
Digital innovation harnesses power of real-time weather data
Written by Amanda Grossi and Francesco Fiondella This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). A new data-management and visualization tool developed at IRI is helping national meteorological services and regional climate centers across Africa harness real-time weather data for decision-making in agriculture. National meteorological […]
ICYMI: El Niño to add to farmers’ misery
— Food for Mzansi
NYC is on the verge of setting a no-snow record
— MarketScreener
Snow go: New York City’s winter is missing the white stuff
— Reuters
New York City is about to set a snow-free record: Is climate change to blame?
— EuroNews
Snow go: New York City’s winter is missing the white stuff
— Reuters
Earth’s temperature could near danger point with return of El Niño
— Washington Post
Maprooms turn ‘shapeless’ climate data into powerful tools of action
This story is adapted from one originally published by Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA). ‘Maprooms’ are freely accessible, online analytical and visualization tools to make climate data more usable. Developed at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, they are now being tailored and scaled to support adaptation in African […]
Investigation of Irrigation Water Requirement and Evapotranspiration for Water Resource Management in Southern Punjab, Pakistan
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Flooding in California: What Went Wrong, and What Comes Next
— State of the Planet
2022: Earth’s 5th- or 6th-warmest year on record
— Yale Climate Connections
Skill assessment of Saudi-KAU and C3S models in prediction of spring season rainfall over the Arabian Peninsula
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Tropical Cyclones Act As ‘Massive Heat Pumps’ That Fuel Extreme Heat
— Current Science Daily
Mid-December tornado threat ramps up
— Yale Climate Connections
Evaluation of Potential Predictability of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall in ECMWF’s Fifth-Generation Seasonal Forecast System (SEAS5)
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Understanding CMIP6 biases in the representation of the Greater Horn of Africa long and short rains
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What Did COP27 Accomplish?
— State of the Planet
Temps Spike After Tropical Cyclone ‘Heat Pumps’
— Futurity
Tropical Cyclones Act as Heat Pumps that Fuel Extreme Heat
— Reduce Flooding
A warm weekend is ahead to take in Berkshire County’s fall foliage
— Berkshire Eagle
Winter weather predictions abound, but which should you trust?
— Washington Post
Modelling farmers’ preference and willingness to pay for improved climate services in Rwanda
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Korean agency hints at good N-E monsoon for South India
— PressReader
Trouble Brewing for Coffee
— Council on Foreign Relations
NOAA: Tropical cyclone activity to be below normal for rest of 2022
— Guam Daily Post
Enhancing climate services design and implementation through gender-responsive evaluation
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Flexible Forecast Presentation Overcomes Longstanding Obstacles to Using Probabilistic Seasonal Forecasts
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Country-Specific Challenges to Improving Effectiveness, Scalability and Sustainability of Agricultural Climate Services in Africa
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Potential value of GCM-based seasonal rainfall forecasts for maize management in semi-arid Kenya
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Bias correction of daily GCM rainfall for crop simulation studies
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Use of seasonal rainfall in forecasting annual national coconut production in Sri Lanka: an integrated approach
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Assessing predictability of cotton yields in the southeastern United States based on regional atmospheric circulation and surface temperatures
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Climate change, agriculture and food security: a global partnership to link research and action for low-income agricultural producers and consumers
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Extraction of information content from stochastic disaggregation and bias corrected downscaled precipitation variables for crop simulation
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Urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (SDG 13): Transforming agriculture and food systems
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A multi-scale and multi-model gridded framework for forecasting crop production, risk analysis, and climate change impact studies
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Food and earth systems: Priorities for climate change adaptation and mitigation for small and family farms
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Identifying climate information services users and their needs in sub-Saharan Africa: A learning agenda
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Climate services can support African farmers’ context-specific adaptation needs at scale
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Evaluating agricultural weather and climate services in Africa: Evidence, methodology, and a “learning agenda”
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Estimating the economic value of climate services for strengthening resilience of smallholder farmers to climate risks in Ethiopia: A choice experiment approach
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Gender responsive rural climate services: a review of the literature
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Actor roles and networks in agricultural climate services in Ethiopia: a social network analysis
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Swimming resumes at Jacob Riis Park in Queens after high bacteria levels closed it down
— Gothamist
Meet The Nature Conservancy’s Caribbean Conservation Scientist – Green Hearts
— Green Hearts
Seasonal prediction of the Caribbean rainfall cycle
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Is the heat wave caused by climate change? Expert explains why this year is different
— Finger Lakes Times
The end of La Niña is finally in sight
— KXAN
Can We Turn Down the Heat on the Coming Food Crisis?
— Fine Dining Lovers
Thermal power companies face difficulties while hydropower benefits
— Vietnam News
Chiles, coffee, wine: How the climate crisis is causing food shortages
— Texas Climate News
Chilli peppers, coffee, wine: how the climate crisis is causing food shortages
— The Guardian
Combining precipitation forecasts and vegetation health to predict fire risk at subseasonal timescale in the Amazon
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Lady of the Lake: Water Conservation 101
— Lake County News
Heat, Storm, Drought, Fire: Prolonged Climate Extremes as Cool La Niña Pacific Pattern Persists
— Environmental News Network
May 2022 was Earth’s 6th-warmest May
— Yale Climate Connections
Heat, Storm, Drought, Fire – Prolonged Climate Extremes as Cool La Niña Pacific Pattern Persists
— The Bulletin
Atmospheric circulation types controlling rainfall in the Central American Isthmus
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Advances in the application and utility of subseasonal-to-seasonal predictions
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Advances in the subseasonal prediction of extreme events: Relevant case studies across the globe
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Wild winds and torrential downpours cause widespread destruction across NSW as intense polar chill threatens to linger for DAYS
— Daily Mail
La Niña to last till August and Spring, rain to continue
— Weekly Times
Lazy Bears and Confused Birds: What a Warming Planet Means for Wildlife
— Columbia Magazine
Assessment of Drought Conditions Over Different Climate Zones of Kazakhstan Using Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index
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2022 World Food Prize Awarded to Columbia Climate Scientist Cynthia Rosenzweig
— State of the Planet
Violence responsible for worsening hunger crisis in Africa, not climate change
— StudyFinds
Empowering National Meteorological Services
An important part of ACToday’s goal of increasing food security has been to help develop new climate services that lead to better agricultural decision making. National frameworks for climate services serve this strategy in two important ways – by getting national meteorological services the recognition and support they need from national budgets and international donors, and by placing climate services at the center of adaptation efforts.
The Climate-Nutrition Connection in Food Security
In 2021, ACToday’s Senegal team formalized a partnership with the Human Food and Nutrition Research Laboratory at Cheikh Anta Diop University – Senegal’s most prestigious higher education institution and home to the country’s largest graduate training programs. The partnership aims to address one of the most under-researched topics in development – the links between climate and nutrition.
Was it a flash flood or not? Categorizing disaster types in historical records
IRI researchers develop new methods to assess flash flood risk to support anticipatory humanitarian action One of the important applications of climate knowledge is in the area of disasters. Being able to predict the scale of a potential disaster and the risks a disaster could impose on a community in the future is valuable and […]
February 2022: Earth’s 7th-warmest February on record
— Yale Climate Connections
An adaptive approach to quantify weather-within-climate rainfall characteristics
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A Decade of the North American Multimodel Ensemble (NMME): Research, Application, and Future Directions
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Two-tiered reconstruction of Late Pleistocene to Holocene changes in the freezing level height in the largest glacierized areas of the Colombian Andes
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Climate Change Repercussions on Meteorological Drought Frequency and Intensity in South Wollo, Ethiopia
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Enhancing national climate services: How systems thinking can accelerate locally led adaptation
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An Inside Look at the Making of the Recent IPCC Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on August 9th, 2021. This report summarizes the findings of more than 14,000 peer-reviewed studies about the physical science basis for climate change. The conclusions are sobering. The evidence is unequivocal that humans have warmed the […]
What Did COP26 Achieve?
This story was originally written by Sarah Fecht and published on the State of the Planet blog. COP26, the UN climate conference in Glasgow, wrapped up on Saturday. The two-week conference brought together diplomats from nearly 200 nations to refine the details of the Paris Agreement, to keep alive the hope of limiting human-caused global warming to 1.5 […]
What to Expect From the COP26 Meeting
This story was originally written by Sarah Fecht and published on the State of the Planet blog. Tackling human-caused climate change and its impacts requires a monumental effort and global cooperation. That’s why representatives from all over the world have gathered at COP meetings nearly every year since 1995. Last year’s meeting was cancelled due to […]
In New Project, Millions of Farmers Will Help to Improve Insurance Against Climate Disasters
This story was originally written by Kristin French and published on the State of the Planet blog. Megafires, extreme weather, locust swarms, pandemics: These are just some of the many natural disasters that have devastated farmers in recent years, destroying livelihoods and leaving hunger in their wake. Between 2008 and 2018, disasters cost the agricultural […]
A Coffee Yield Next-Generation Forecast System for Rain-fed Plantations: the Case of the Samalá Watershed in Guatemala
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Spatio-temporal Change of Glacier Surging and Glacier-dammed Lake Formation in Karakoram Pakistan
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Seasonal predictability of Ethiopian Kiremt rainfall and forecast skill of ECMWF’s SEAS5 model
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When Record-Breaking Is the Norm: Mitigating the Impacts of Extreme Rainfall Events in a Changing Climate
This story was originally written by Kai Kornhuber, Mona Hemmati, and Andrew Kruczkiewicz and published on the State of the Planet blog, as part of Climate Week NYC coverage. Learn more about Climate Week, read other stories, and check out upcoming events. Torrential rainfall quickly transformed New York City’s streets and expressways into rivers and lakes on Wednesday night […]
NextGen: A Next-Generation System for Calibrating, Ensembling and Verifying Regional Seasonal and Subseasonal Forecasts
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Projected Drought Conditions over Southern Slope of the Central Himalaya Using CMIP6 Models
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Projected Changes in Climate Extremes Using CMIP6 Simulations Over SREX Regions
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Climate Services Ecosystems in times of COVID-19
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Warfare, Not Climate, Is Driving Resurgent Hunger in Africa, Says Study
After Years of Progress on Food Security, Some Nations See Sharp Reversals This story was originally written by Kevin Krajick and published on the State of the Planet blog. For years, it seemed the world was making progress eliminating hunger. Then, starting in 2014, the trend slid back slowly and reversed in many nations; now, some […]
Is Climate Change Putting the Future of Coffee at Risk?
IRI and Fairtrade International host a virtual event about the future of coffee production in a changing climate
Assessment of CMIP6 Performance and Projected Temperature and Precipitation Changes Over South America
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May Climate Briefing: Neutral Conditions are Here
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-May, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures, while still slightly cool, are now within the range of ENSO-neutral. Atmospheric indicators are similarly consistent with the end of La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts ENSO-neutral conditions are likely to persist through August-October 2021, […]
We Must Incorporate Social Justice When Planning for Compound Disasters
Written by Jackie Klopp, Andrew Kruczkiewicz, and Joshua Fisher and originally published on the State of the Planet blog. As the world faces multiple, concurrent risks — a rapidly warming climate, megadroughts in the American West, new variants and new waves of COVID-19 infections in India, Brazil, and elsewhere — local communities, policy makers, frontline responders, and […]
Colombia, Guatemala adopt ENACTS Climate Data Initiative
The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow Columbia World Project is working with the governments of Colombia and Guatemala to implement a climate data initiative called Enhancing National Climate Services, or ENACTS, to help them better integrate climate knowledge into national-level planning and policy. Since 2014, ENACTS has helped countries facilitate the integration of […]
April Climate Briefing: La Niña Packing Her Bags
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-April, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures remained just within the weak La Niña range, and while some atmospheric indicators appeared weakly La Niña-like, others were consistent with ENSO neutral conditions. A new set of model runs predicts La Niña conditions are likely to dissipate by […]
Intense precipitation events during the monsoon season in Bangladesh as captured by satellite-based products
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March Climate Briefing: La Niña Starting to Wrap Up
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-March, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures remained below average and within the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts La Niña conditions are likely to dissipate by June 2021, with neutral […]
Summers could last half the year by the end of this century
— NBC News
Q&A with Lisa Goddard on Leadership in Climate Science
Lisa Goddard’s career at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society stretches back to when the institute was based on the West Coast and some of its scientists surfed on their lunch breaks (we won’t name names…). Goddard is internationally recognized for her work in climate science, and has held several leadership positions in […]
February Climate Briefing: La Niña to Hold on a Bit Longer
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-February, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures rose slightly but remained below average and within the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts La Niña conditions are likely to dissipate by April-June […]
Lisa Ilboudo Nébié: Studying Food Security, Environmental Changes and Migration in West Africa
Nébié studies how environmental changes impact communities around the world, and how communities adapt.
Characteristic of the Regional Rainy Season Onset over Vietnam: Tailoring to Agricultural Application
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January Climate Briefing: La Niña Eyes Spring Departure
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-January, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures were well below average and into the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts La Niña conditions are likely to dissipate by May-June 2021, with […]
Projected Changes in Temperature and Precipitation Over the United States, Central America, and the Caribbean in CMIP6 GCMs
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Predictions of mass-migration due to climate change are rife, but not necessarily accurate
— Geographical
Rains give West African herders brief respite amid growing heat
— Reuters
The Fascinating And Critical Role Of A Meteorologist Embedded With The Red Cross
— Forbes
December Climate Briefing: La Niña Shows Signs of Receding
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-December, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures were well below average and into the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts moderate or possibly strong La Niña conditions through 2020, approaching a […]
Quel est l’impact des changements de température dans l’océan Pacifique sur le climat mondial?
— Euro News
November 2020 among warmest Novembers on record, NOAA and NASA report
— Yale Climate Connections
2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season Likely To Be Another Active Season, Says First Outlook From Colorado State
— The Weather Channel
Lingering La Niñas may help forecasters spot costly weather patterns two years away
— Washington Post
SoCal has a 90% chance of seeing a dry La Niña winter, according to recent data
— ABC
Climate Services Ecosystems in times of COVID-19
— World Meteorological Organization
Indonesia: Seasonal Climate and Vegetation Monitoring Outlook – Special Focus: Potential Impacts of La Niña
— ReliefWeb
November Climate Briefing: La Niña Staying for the Holidays
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-November, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures were well below average and into the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts moderate or possibly strong La Niña conditions through 2020, approaching a […]
October 2020 was fourth-warmest October on record, NOAA and NASA report
— Yale Climate Connections
ENACTS Climate Services Initiative Ripples Across East Africa with WISER Support
Somalia, South Sudan and a number of other East African countries are now developing their own powerful climate analysis and visualization tools for decision making, using the Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) approach. These efforts were made possible through a partnership with the Kenya-based IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Center (ICPAC) and with funding from […]
Helping Vietnam’s Coffee Sector Become More Climate Resilient
A new platform aims to use digital technology to help Vietnamese coffee farmers lower costs, boost yields and increase profits.
Predicting peak summer monsoon precipitation over Pakistan in ECMWF SEAS5 and North American Multimodel Ensemble
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Dam levels rise after weekend rainfall
— Highway Mail (South Africa)
La Niña has Developed
— ReliefWeb
October Climate Briefing: La Niña Comes Knocking
— Public
October Climate Briefing: La Niña Comes Knocking
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-October, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures were well below average and into the moderate strength La Niña range. All atmospheric parameters also indicated La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts moderate or possibly strong La Niña conditions through 2020 and most […]
Forecasters currently think this year’s La Niña will be strong
— North Denver News
New data and tools bring a deeper understanding of El Niño
Updated maps document expected impacts of ENSO conditions for decision makers across the globe. In 2001, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Simon Mason and Lisa Goddard published an important analysis of how El Niño and La Niña events historically have influenced rainfall around the world. Out of that analysis they produced a […]
La Niña could break SA’s long drought
— Sunday Times (South Africa)
La Niña & Winter Forecasts – Explained
— OpenSnow
September Climate Briefing: La Niña Eminent
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-September, the tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures were below average and into the weak/moderate La Niña range. Most atmospheric indicators also suggested La Niña conditions. A new set of model runs predicts likely weak or moderate La Nina through fall and most of winter, […]
August 2020 was the world’s second-warmest August on record, NOAA reports
— Yale Climate Connections
La Niña has begun, could bring more landfalling hurricanes to U.S.
— Yale Climate Connections
Washington could see La Niña winter with wetter, colder weather than normal
— King5
Improved three-week weather forecasts could save lives from disaster
— Science News
Improved three-week weather forecasts could save lives from disaster
— RokzFast
Expected above normal rainfall
— The Chronicle (Zimbabwe)
Expected above normal rainfall
— News Beezer (Zimbabwe)
August Climate Briefing: La Niña Seeming More Likely
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-August, the tropical Pacific sea-surface temperatures were below average, near the threshold for weak La Niña conditions. Some atmospheric indicators showed neutral conditions while others leaned toward La Niña. A new set of model runs predicts that weak La Niña conditions are most likely […]
Researchers develop system to monitor and forecast the environmental suitability of transmission of Zika, dengue fever and chikungunya
— Outbreak News Today
Want to save lives? Name heat waves like hurricanes, experts say.
— Grist
The Mosquito, the Virus, the Climate: An Unforeseen Réunion in 2018
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Realtime Tracking and Forecasting of Outbreak Risk of Dengue, Zika and other Aedes-transmitted Diseases
New system infuses ‘R0’ models with climate information to help public health agencies forecast places and times when environmental conditions might enhance transmission of dengue, Zika and other Aedes-borne diseases
AeDES: a next-generation monitoring and forecasting system for environmental suitability of Aedes-borne disease transmission
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July Climate Briefing: La Niña Watch Issued
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. In mid-July, the sea-surface temperatures were slightly below average but in the ENSO-neutral range, and some atmospheric indicators showed neutral conditions while others leaned slightly toward La Niña. A new set of model runs predicts that cool-neutral or weak La Niña conditions are most likely […]
June 2020: Earth’s third-warmest June on record
— Yale Climate Connections
Tree rings show unprecedented rise in extreme weather in South America
— Phys.org
June Climate Briefing: La Niña Odds Increasing
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. By mid-June, the sea surface temperatures had decreased to borderline La Niña levels, while some atmospheric indictors show La Niña-leaning conditions and a few show neutral conditions. A new set of model runs predicts cool-neutral or weak La Niña conditions are most likely from late […]
May 2020: Earth’s warmest May on record
— Yale Climate Connections
May Climate Briefing: ENSO-Neutral Conditions Dominate
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. As of mid-May, the sea surface temperatures had decreased to cool-neutral levels, while atmospheric indicators showed mainly neutral or slightly cool-leaning conditions. A new set of model runs predicts neutral conditions are most likely from summer through winter, with a 51% probability for ENSO-neutral for […]
2020 is an already eventful year. Now, here comes hurricane season
— AXA XL
The other plague: Locusts are devouring crops in East Africa and the Middle East
— Vox
April 2020: Earth’s 2nd Warmest April on Record
— Scientific American
Housing Minister Calls For Voluntary Nationwide Desilting Of Drains Ahead Of Rainy Days
— Modern Ghana
An active hurricane season will strain emergency response amid pandemic, forecasters warn
— CBS News
Desert Locust Swarms
— BBC Discovery
April Climate Briefing: Wide Plume But Likely Cooling
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. As of mid-April, the sea surface temperatures were at warm-neutral to borderline El Niño levels, while atmospheric indictors showed mainly neutral conditions. A new set of model runs predicts neutral conditions are most likely through summer and fall, with an 81% probability for ENSO-neutral (19% […]
Dolomites, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Center of Mounting Controversy
— GlacierHub
IMD may tweak 2020 monsoon onset date, forecast above-average rain
— Free Press Journal (India)
March 2020: Earth’s Second Warmest March and Third Warmest Month on Record
— Scientific American
March Climate Briefing: Still Not Cooling
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. As of mid-March, the sea-surface temperatures were at warm-neutral to borderline El Niño levels, while atmospheric indicators showed mainly neutral conditions. A new set of model runs predicts neutral conditions are most likely through summer, with a 79% probability for ENSO-neutral (21% chance for El […]
February 2020: Earth’s 2nd Warmest February and 3rd Warmest Month on Record
— Scientific American
Four-hundred natural gas market decision-makers meet to analyze and discuss plans to buy, sell and transport natural gas in the Southeast U.S. market
— PR Web
Major Rains Expected In March – Meteo Agency
— Modern Ghana
February Climate Briefing: “Warm-Neutral” and Slowly Cooling
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. As of mid-February, the sea-surface temperatures were at warm-neutral levels, while atmospheric indicators showed mainly warm-neutral conditions. A new set of model runs predicts neutral conditions are most likely through summer, with a 61% probability for ENSO-neutral (39% chance for El Niño) for the February-April […]
January 2020: Earth’s Warmest January on Record
— Scientific American
Burkina Faso study shows link between land degradation and migration
Below is a piece originally published on The Conversation on January 21st, 2020, and was authored by IRI researcher Elisabeth Ilboudo-Nébié. In the Sahel of West Africa – which covers Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad – land degradation has led to migration towards less densely populated and more fertile areas. The land […]
January Climate Briefing: Forecast Toes Weak El Niño
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. As of mid-January, the sea-surface temperatures were at warm-neutral to borderline El Niño levels, while atmospheric indicators showed mainly warm-neutral conditions. A new set of model runs from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Climate Prediction Center predicts neutral conditions as […]
Earth Had Its Second Warmest Year in Recorded History in 2019
— Scientific American
December Climate Briefing: Neutral ENSO Conditions Favored
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Ángel G. Muñoz provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs […]
Ángel Muñoz receives US CLIVAR Early-Career Award
IRI climate scientist Ángel Muñoz has been given an Early Career Scientist Leadership Award by the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program (US CLIVAR) for ‘outstanding contributions to national and international work to advance research and applications of subseasonal-to-seasonal predictions’. US CLIVAR is a national program that coordinates and advances climate prediction research in the […]
IRI@AGU: Crossing the ‘Predictability Desert’
Until recently, predicting rainfall and temperature at the subseasonal timescale (i.e. between two weeks and three months) was considered impossible. That’s beginning to change, thanks to the efforts of IRI’s Andrew Robertson, the head of IRI’s climate group and co-chair of the steering group of the Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Project. In the Q&A […]
IRI@AGU: Subseasonal Forecasting for the Indian Monsoon
Climate scientist Nachiketa Acharya is at the center of IRI’s efforts to develop a new seasonal forecasting system. He focuses on improving the skill and usability of climate forecasts for users in agriculture, water management and other sectors. Acharya is also actively involved in improving forecasting at the subseasonal scale. Recently, he and other IRI […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events 2019
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Below is the schedule of IRI’s posters and presentations in sequential order. SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 World Climate Research Programme 40th Anniversary Symposium Lisa Goddard WCRP is celebrating its 40th year of international climate science. We […]
IRI@AGU: Can We Predict “Climate Migrations”?
IRI scientists Ángel Muñoz and Diego Pons are interested in better understanding the root causes of migration in Central America. With their Columbia colleagues, Alex de Sherbinin and Susana Adamo–from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CEISIN)–and Diana Giraldo from the University of Reading, they’ve developed a prototype model that considers climate and […]
IRI@AGU: Focusing on Floods
Often considered one of the most revolutionary technologies for climate research, remote sensing has the capacity to vastly improve the predictive strength of a wide variety of forecasting methodologies. However, this is still a rapidly-growing field and continuing to evaluate and cross-reference remote sensing data against other data-gathering methods is necessary to improve accuracy, a […]
‘Unprecedented’ Rains in East Africa Offer a Glimpse of the Climate Emergency
— Earther
Can We Predict “Climate Migrations”? The 2018 Guatemalan Case
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November Climate Briefing: El Niño Still Hanging By a Thread
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Weston Anderson provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs of […]
October 2019: Earth’s Second Warmest October on Record
— Scientific American
Over 20 Countries Started Building The “Great Green Wall” To Stop Climate Change & Poverty
— Bored Panda
Clipper Coating Tonight – More South of MSP. Unusually Cold Phase Next 1-2 Weeks
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
October Climate Briefing: El Niño Remains Neutral
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs of […]
How To Understand Natural Disasters In A Climate Change Age
— FiveThirtyEight
Trump keeps dismissing Syria as just ‘sand.’ Experts say that’s wrong — ‘and just sad.’
— Washington Post
September 2019: Earth’s Warmest September on Record
— Scientific American
Capacitación Avanzada para Pronosticadores Latinoamericanos
Read this story in English Uno de los objetivos claves del proyecto Adaptando la Agricultura al Clima de Hoy, para Mañana (ACToday) es capacitar a los profesionales que trabajan con información climática en instituciones nacionales y regionales para desarrollar habilidades técnicas. Una de estas sesiones de entrenamiento tuvo lugar durante el verano boreal reciente: siete […]
Larger Heatwaves Expected by 2050, New Study Finds
— The Science Times
Extreme heatwaves pose spreading threat
— Climate News Network
Study: Heat waves expected to be bigger, affect more people
— UPI
Heat Waves On The Rise; 50% More Expected By 2050
— MSN
Heat waves could increase substantially in size by mid-century: Study
— Daily Excelsior
NOAA: Heat waves could grow 50-80% by mid-century
— Science Blog
Predicted catastrophic amplification of heat
— Hand of Moscow
Heat wave intensity to increase by 50% by mid-century: Study
— India Today
ACToday Q&A: Ashley Curtis on International Projects
With its population of nearly 160 million people, Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country in the world. Its geography – tropical, low-lying, with a sizable coastline – make the country one of the most vulnerable to climate change. Rising sea levels, increased cyclone intensity and frequency, and higher temperatures all pose threats to an […]
Heat waves could increase substantially in size by mid-century, says new study
— Phys.org
New Climate Report is Sobering but Strangely Hopeful
— Space.com
Advanced Training for Latin American Forecasters
La version en español esta disponible aquí. One of the key objectives of the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) project is to use trainings to build up the technical skills and capacity of staff working within national and regional climate institutions in the project’s six focus countries. One such training took place […]
IRI Alum Becomes Director of Senegal’s National Meteorological Service
Ousmane Ndiaye, an adjunct research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, recently became the director of Senegal’s national meteorology service, which is part of the country’s National Civil Aviation and Meteorology Agency (ANACIM). Ndiaye now oversees all matters related to climate services in Senegal. Ndiaye earned his doctorate from Columbia University […]
September Climate Briefing: El Niño Stalls in Neutral
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Weston Anderson provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs of […]
Can Artificial Intelligence Predict the Occurrence of El Niño?
— The Science Times
SADC region to receive normal to above normal rainfall
— The Southern Times
August Climate Briefing: El Niño Makes an Exit
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Ángel Muñoz provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs of […]
Forecast tool developed for bush fire warning index
— Jamaica Observer
July Climate Briefing: El Niño Shows Signs of Weakening
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Nachiketa Acharya provides the briefing summary: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows the outputs of […]
More Than Rice: The Future of Food Security in Vietnam
Columbia World Projects‘ first project, Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday), aims to combat hunger and improve food security by increasing climate knowledge in six countries that are particularly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to the effects of climate change and fluctuations —Ethiopia, Senegal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Colombia, and Guatemala. The project is led […]
How much do climate fluctuations matter for global crop yields?
— National Science Foundation
How much do climate fluctuations matter for global crop yields?
— Science Daily
How does climate variability contribute to global crop failures?
— European Scientist
New study: How much do climate fluctuations matter for global crop yields?
— Phys.org
Contemporary Study Displays How Much Do Climate Variations Influence Worldwide Crop Yields
— Report Herald
Study: How much do climate fluctuations matter for global crop yields?
A new study finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation has been responsible for widespread, simultaneous crop failures in recent history, running counter to a central pillar of the global agriculture system, which assumes that crop failures in geographically distant breadbasket regions are unrelated.
June Climate Briefing: El Niño Still Finalizing its Summer Plans
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides his last overview of the briefing: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the SSTs in the Niño3.4 region over the next several months. The plume graph below shows […]
ACToday Helps Unite Farmers and Scientists to Solve Climate Challenges in Guatemala
Adapting Agriculture to Climate Today, for Tomorrow (ACToday) is a Columbia World Project led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. The project aims to combat hunger and improve food security by increasing climate knowledge in six countries that are particularly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to the effects of climate change and […]
Spy satellites reveal Himalayan glaciers losing ground to climate change
— CBS News
May Climate Briefing: Models Say El Niño Stays, but it’s an Uncertain Time of Year
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides his last overview of the briefing: What’s New See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation, and our update from March for much more on how this ENSO event has evolved. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, computers model the […]
Could climate change worsen global conflict?
— Science News for Students
Could climate change worsen global conflict?
— Science News for Students
April Climate Briefing: Models Say Weak El Niño Will Continue
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New An abbreviated briefing update this month. See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation, and our update from March for much more on how this ENSO event has evolved. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO […]
The Use and Misuse of Climate Change Projections in Development
Scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other institutions caution that current practices in international development are not making use of the best available scientific knowledge to guide development practice.
On the Use and Misuse of Climate Change Projections in International Development
— Advanced Science News
March Climate Briefing: El Niño is Here, and Staying Awhile
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New An abbreviated briefing update this month. See below for tweets summarizing the current El Niño situation, and last month’s update for much more on how this ENSO event has evolved. ENSO Forecasts To predict ENSO conditions, […]
Probabilistic Skill of Subseasonal Precipitation Forecasts for the East Africa–West Asia Sector during September–May
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West African convection regimes and their predictability from submonthly forecasts
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UK HOT weather forecast: Heat to BLAST Britain as sweltering Azores plume hits THIS week
— UK Express
How pollution and greenhouse gases affect climate in the Sahel
Below is a piece originally published on The Conversation on February 24th, 2019, and was authored by IRI researcher Alessandra Giannini. Over the last decade many countries in the Sahel region – the semi-arid southern edge of the Sahara that stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia – have been embroiled in conflict. Populations in these countries […]
Making Coffee Production Sustainable
First study to quantify economic trade-offs of shifting from conventional to shade-grown coffee production. Model suggests farmers can optimize coffee profits by converting one to two-thirds of their acreage to shade-grown.
2018/19 El Niño Asia-Pacific impact outlook for March to April 2019
— ReliefWeb
February Climate Briefing: El Niño Arrives, Unfashionably Late
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New The long-predicted El Niño event in the Pacific seems to finally have taken shape. While sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific cooled somewhat for a few weeks in the Niño3.4 region, other factors pointed towards El […]
How pollution and greenhouse gases affect the climate in the Sahel
— ReliefWeb
Philippines morning news for February 19
— AEC News Today
El Niño has arrived. What does it mean for the weather?
— CBS News
The Green New Deal Shows How Grand Climate Politics Can Be
— Wired
World: How pollution and greenhouse gases affect the climate in the Sahel
— MakeMeFeed
January Climate Briefing: El Niño Development Wavers But Odds Remain High
This briefing update was written by Elisabeth Gawthrop and Jacquelyn Turner. Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific have cooled slightly since this time last month. The SST conditions of the Niño3.4 region, shown in tweet image […]
Developing Colombia’s Next Generation of Seasonal Forecasts
Last year, climate scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society visited Colombia’s national meteorological service (called the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies and known by its Spanish acronym, IDEAM) to discuss their continuing partnership and to start developing a more advanced seasonal forecasting system called ‘the Next Generation of Seasonal […]
County remains in state of drought
— The Mountain Mail
Students Play Central Role in First Columbia World Project
Written by Christopher Shea, Columbia World Projects. It was originally published January 2, 2019 on Columbia World Project’s website. “I will never forget those voices and those faces sitting in front of me,” Sarah Johnson, a student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), said over coffee at a campus café recently, as she described a meeting she had with a group of elderly […]
December Climate Briefing: Atmosphere Resists El Niño Participation
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. What’s New Typically, as we near the end of a calendar year, there is relative certainty about the anticipated state of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the coming months. At this time of year, the ENSO cycle is in a less chaotic state, and […]
IRI@AGU: What’s Climate Doing to Guatemala’s Coffee?
The Samalá River watershed on Guatemala’s Pacific coast is a highly productive region for staple and cash crops. It’s also known for having one of the highest incidences of natural disasters in the country. Among the diverse agricultural production in the region, coffee stands as one of the most important export crops. Over the last […]
IRI@AGU: Lessening the Impacts of Climate Shocks to Agriculture
In this video, IRI’s director, Lisa Goddard, discusses two innovations IRI has helped develop to reduce the potential impacts of droughts and extreme weather on vulnerable communities around the world: climate-based index insurance for smallholder farmers in Africa and forecast-based financing for the World Food Programme. Lisa Goddard– Climate Variability, Index Insurance & Forecast-based Financing […]
IRI@AGU: Climate Information for Food Systems
Sourcing seeds. Planting at the right time. Using fertilizer. Harvesting crops. Storing food. Shipping food. Setting prices. There are a multitude of decisions made in the systems that bring food to people around the world, and many of these decisions can be better informed by climate information. With the goal of improving the security and […]
IRI@AGU: Farmers’ Perceptions as Data
As our climate continues to change, it becomes increasingly important to consider the effects this will have around the world, especially in developing countries where many small farmers already struggle. For more than 10 years, researchers at IRI have been developing index insurance, which would provide a safety net for farmers who experience devastating climate […]
IRI@AGU: Forecast-based Financing for Flash Floods
Forecasts are increasingly used to help reduce the impacts of floods in vulnerable communities. Not all floods are created equal, however. Flash floods are one of the most deadly types on a global scale. While early warning and early action systems for slow-onset floods (from rivers, for example) have improved significantly over the past 50 […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events 2018
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Below is the schedule of IRI’s posters and presentations in sequential order. MONDAY Climate Services Research and Development: Adapting to Climate Today Lisa M Goddard is the primary convener for both a presentation and poster […]
IRI@AGU: The Latest in Subseasonal Climate Prediction
Until recently, predicting rainfall and temperature at the subseasonal timescale (i.e. between two weeks and three months) was considered impossible. That’s beginning to change, and several of IRI’s activities at AGU highlight the work of our scientists in this new field of climate prediction. IRI has now released its first subseasonal forecasts, using a similar […]
Should seasonal rainfall forecasts be used for flood preparedness?
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Global predictability of temperature extremes
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From advocacy to action: Projecting the health impacts of climate change
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National Climate Assessment: Threats to U.S. International Interests
John Furlow is the Deputy Director for Humanitarian Assistance and International Development of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. Before joining IRI, he was the lead on climate adaptation at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s climate change office. He also served as an author of the new U.S. National Climate Assessment‘s chapter […]
November Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Keep Climbing
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperatures have remained above average in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean that defines El Niño events (called Niño3.4 – see tweet below). The SSTs have been above the +0.50ºC anomaly threshold that helps […]
Mapping a Way Forward for Localized Climate Information in India
The Indian state of Bihar lies in the eastern area of the country, bordering Nepal. The region was once a powerhouse of culture and education, and Buddhism has its roots in the area. The Ganges River runs straight across this mostly flat, fertile state, where nearly three-quarters of its residents work in agriculture. But despite […]
October Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Greater than 85%
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperatures are warming up in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean that defines El Niño events (called Niño3.4 – see map below). Whether they stay that way will determine if an El Niño event […]
September Climate Briefing: El Niño Waiting Game Continues
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New After months of neutral ENSO conditions and forecasts of an upcoming El Niño event, September has brought yet another month of the same. Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean region that defines El […]
August Climate Briefing: Winds Breathe Life into Probable El Niño Development
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have bounced around some since last month’s briefing, but models continue to predict an El Niño event to develop. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of the […]
Nuevo Estudio Muestra Promesa en Pronóstico Subestacional de Lluvias Intensas en Sudamérica
Análisis de inundaciones en Paraguay durante El Niño 2015-16 examina influencia del clima a multiples escalas de tiempo Traducido por Ángel G. Muñoz El río Paraguay es una vena esencial para un país sin acceso al mar que comparte su nombre. Provee a los paraguayos irrigación para agricultura, acceso a navegación, y mejora la pesca. […]
Global Climate Models For Public Health? Useful, But Not In The Way We Think.
A new paper in PLOS Medicine argues that climate change projections are often misused in health impact studies: they are best suited for shaping public health policies, not for triggering operational actions on the ground. “Recognition that climate change is already underway has led to an increasing focus on adaptation,” write IRI’s Hannah Nissan and her […]
Improving Availability, Access To and Use Of Climate Information in Ethiopia
Workshop for developing expertise in data and digital solutions to support smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. By Ravina Pattni and Kelly Ward This post originally appeared on the blog of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Climate change is threatening farmers’ livelihoods in Ethiopia. Climate information services are a critical […]
Study Shows Promise for Subseasonal Forecasts of Heavy Rain in South America
Analysis of Paraguay flooding event during 2015-16 El Niño examines influence of climate at multiple timescales The Paraguay River is an essential lifeblood for the landlocked country that shares it name. It provides Paraguayans with fishing, irrigation for agriculture and access to shipping. But it’s also prone to seasonal flooding, with especially high consequences for […]
July Climate Briefing: Models Continue to Predict El Niño in Coming Months
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have continued to warm since last month’s briefing. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of the Pacific that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, […]
Predictability of Recurrent Weather Regimes over North America during Winter from Submonthly Reforecasts
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New Tutorials for Using Subseasonal Climate Data
A new series of video tutorials, as well as a written walk-through, give step-by-step instructions for accessing, viewing and downloading subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) climate data. The tutorials use the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Data Library, which hosts S2S data from modeling centers around the world. The written tutorial first appeared in the S2S […]
Los pronósticos experimentales podrían ayudar a Guatemala a recuperarse de la erupción volcánica
Por Sarah Fecht. Traducción al español por Manuel Brahm English version available here. El Volcán de Fuego en Guatemala entro en erupción a principios de junio, matando a al menos 110 personas, mientras que cientos más permanecen desaparecidos. Las corrientes de lava y las columnas de humo y ceniza han desplazado a miles de guatemaltecos […]
Experimental Forecasts Could Help Guatemala Recover from Volcanic Eruption
By Sarah Fecht This story originally appeared on the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet blog. La version en español esta disponible aquí. Guatemala’s Volcán de Fuego erupted in early June, killing at least 110 people, while hundreds more remain missing. Streams of lava and plumes of smoke and ash have displaced thousands of Guatemalans, […]
June Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Increasing, Watch Issued
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have continued to warm since last month’s briefing. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of the Pacific that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called […]
”We need climate information.” – Bangladesh’s agriculture community drives creation of new climate services
A series of three recent training workshops has improved the forecasting capabilities of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), while also helping to deepen the relationship between BMD and Bangladesh’s Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE). The activities pave the way for new climate information products developed especially for DAE’s needs, and ultimately to help the farmers […]
May Climate Briefing: ENSO Neutral, but Other Climate Impacts in Forecast
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing: What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have continued to warm since last month’s briefing. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of the Pacific that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called […]
April Climate Briefing: La Niña Transitions Out, Neutral Next
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean have continued to warm since last month’s briefing, crossing from La Niña to neutral territory over the last few weeks. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of […]
Simon Mason Wins WMO Award for Outstanding Service
The World Meteorological Organization’s Commission on Climatology (CCL) honored Simon Mason, IRI’s chief climate scientist, with its 2018 Award for Outstanding Service. The award was presented in Geneva on April 10 by Thomas C. Peterson, the outgoing President of CCL. In a letter, Elena Manaenkova, the Deputy Secretary-General of WMO, wrote the award was, “in […]
IRI papers make Environmental Research Letters ‘Top 30’ for 2017
Editors at Environmental Research Letters selected two papers written by scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society for the journal’s Highlights of 2017 special issue. The issue features 30 research articles picked for their significance, scientific impact, breadth of appeal and other criteria. “This collection features seminal findings on climate education, oil […]
On Climate and Public Health: “No time for delay,” Doctors Warn
By Yang Zhang Before the sweltering summer arrived in India in 2011, a local pediatrician persuaded the hospital in the city of Ahmedabad to move its maternity ward from the top floor to a lower one and to paint its tar roof white. Quantified and confirmed by Perry Sheffield and her colleagues, those “easy” adaptations […]
Partnership for a Resilient and Secure Food System in Vietnam
This is an an abbreviated version of a piece originally posted on the website of a partner organization, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Read the full piece here. With a coastline spanning 3,260 kilometers, Vietnam is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise, […]
World Meteorological Day 2018: Zika Update
In conjunction with World Meteorological Day, the World Meteorological Organization has released its “State of the Climate Global 2017” report. It was a record-setting year in terms of the costs of extreme events, which included the hurricanes in the North Atlantic, monsoon flooding on the Indian subcontinent and drought in parts of eastern Africa. The […]
March Climate Briefing: Last Gasp of La Niña Influence
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. What’s New Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are trending warmer since last month’s briefing, but they remain in the La Niña realm. Weekly SST anomalies in the area of the Pacific that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called […]
Improved seasonal prediction skill of rainfall for the Primera season in Central America
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A Weather-Type-Based Cross-Time-Scale Diagnostic Framework for Coupled Circulation Models
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February Climate Briefing: La Niña Pattern Holds
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies have cooled slightly in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see first map below). The […]
Andrew Robertson: Bridging the Gap Between Weather and Climate
This story was first posted by Rebecca Fowler for Columbia’s Center for Climate and Life. See the original here. Andrew Robertson is a senior research scientist and head of the Climate Group at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). He works on seasonal and sub-seasonal forecasts, with the goal of making […]
Creating Climate Services in Bangladesh
IRI’s Mélody Braun and John Furlow presented this month at the 4th annual Gobeshona Conference for Research on Climate Change in Bangladesh, held in Dhaka. The conference focused on research-based solutions to local vulnerabilities in Bangladesh and brought together researchers, policymakers, government and non-government representatives, donor agencies and international organizations. Furlow gave a keynote address […]
January Climate Briefing: La Niña, She Persists
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies have remained steady in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see first map below). The […]
Climate-Agriculture-Modeling and Decision Tool (CAMDT): A software framework for climate risk management in agriculture
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Downscaling Probabilistic Seasonal Climate Forecasts for Decision Support in Agriculture: A Comparison of Parametric and Non-parametric Approach
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Breaking New Ground in Hurricane Modeling
Researchers create first model for hurricane hazard assessment that is both open source and capable of accounting for climate change. Climate scientists at Columbia University have developed a new, global hurricane model for estimating the long-term hazard of rare, high impact storms under different climate scenarios. The model uses a novel approach to efficiently simulate […]
December Climate Briefing: New Year, Same La Niña
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see map below), have held at a similar […]
Supporting Science for a Better World
At Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, we work to ensure that the most climate-vulnerable people in the world have enough to eat for themselves and their families, stay healthy and keep out of harm’s way. Our work is based on advancing science, building trust, and thinking long term. Why do we do […]
The Big Idea: Farsighted Forecasts
Lisa Goddard directs Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), which helps developing countries anticipate and manage the impacts of climate change. Columbia Magazine asked her to explain how climate scientists can predict weather patterns months in advance, and how their work is improving people’s lives. Columbia Magazine: IRI is at the forefront […]
Columbia Researcher Joins Quest to “Make Our Planet Great Again”
Alessandra Giannini, a climate scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, has been selected as one of 18 researchers to receive funding from French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” program. Macron announced the new research program in June after the United States indicated […]
IRI@AGU: Improving Long-Range Tropical Cyclone Forecasts
Chia-Ying Lee is an associate research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. She studies tropical cyclones, including their structure and the intensity evolution, as well as their prediction at the weather, sub-seasonal scales, and long-term risk assessment. At the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union next week, Lee will present her work on understanding the factors […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events 2017
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). One scientist will present on a tool for supporting decision making in agriculture. Another presentation focuses on improving our fundamental ability to predict tropical cyclones. Security under changing conditions is a major theme in […]
November Climate Briefing: La Niña Makes it Official
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) have cooled further in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that helps define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see map below). The weekly SST […]
Climate risk and food security in Mali: a historical perspective on adaptation
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Sub-seasonal teleconnections between convection over the Indian Ocean, the East African long rains and tropical Pacific surface temperatures
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Understanding Pacific Ocean influence on interannual precipitation variability in the Sahel
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A quantitative evaluation of the multiple narratives of the recent Sahelian “re-greening”
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CSRD Technical Exchange: ICPAC and National Climate Maprooms – Existing and New Tools for Drought Monitoring and Forecasting in Eastern Africa
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October Climate Briefing: Winter is Coming and so is (probably) La Niña
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New As winter approaches in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern, seasonal forecasts in both hemispheres are showing some typical La Niña climate impacts as well as some surprises. Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) […]
Defining and Predicting Heat Waves in Bangladesh
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IRI Data Library Hosts New Experimental Forecasts
Two new extended-range weather forecast databases are now more accessible to public and researchers Wouldn’t it be nice to know now what the weather is going to be for the vacation you have planned next month? Or, if you’re a farmer, whether you’re going to get enough rainfall during a crucial planting time coming up […]
September Climate Briefing: Surprise La Niña or Ephemeral Cooling?
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño and La Niña. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) have continued to cool in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, as well as to its […]
Hurricane Harvey and Climate Change
After rapidly scaling up in strength, Hurricane Harvey has dumped an ‘unprecedented’ amount of rainfall onto Houston, Texas. Lives have been lost, homes flooded, and officials estimate the damages may make this one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. But inevitably, Americans want to know just how ‘natural’ this disaster really was, and what role climate change […]
How did Hurricane Harvey Become so Powerful, so Quickly?
By Sarah Fecht This post originally appeared on the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet. On Thursday, Harvey was a tropical storm. By the next day it was a Category 2 hurricane, and it strengthened to a Category 4 before hitting southeastern Texas on Friday night. That makes it the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the mainland United States […]
August Climate Briefing: No Niño or Niña on Horizon
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) have cooled in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see first image below). The weekly SST anomalies in […]
Defining and Predicting Heat Waves in Bangladesh
New research shows that in Bangladesh, heat wave predictability exists from a few days to several weeks in advance, which could save thousands of lives. In the United States, extreme heat events have killed more people in the last 30 years than has any other weather-related phenomenon. In Europe, at least 136,835 people died due […]
July Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Continue Downward Trend
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. What’s New Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have been similar to the previous month’s temperatures, ranging from +0.5ºC to +0.7ºC in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see first image below). While […]
Could the Recent Zika Epidemic Have Been Predicted?
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IRI Revela Su Nueva Generación de Pronósticos Climáticos
Read this story in English Esta primavera el IRI implementó una nueva metodología para nuestros pronósticos estacionales de temperatura y precipitación alrededor del mundo. Le pregutamos a Simon Mason, Andrew Robertson y a Tony Barnston, tres de nuestros científicos que lideran el desarrollo y calibración de los pronósticos del IRI, algunas preguntas fundamentales sobre el […]
June Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Continue Downward Trend
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing What’s New Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have been similar to the previous month’s temperatures, ranging from +0.4ºC to +0.6ºC in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the […]
Analysis of agronomic droughts in two livestock producing regions of Uruguay (in Spanish)
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Agroclimatology in Grasslands
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Climate services and insurance: scaling climate-smart agriculture
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Fragmentation increases wind disturbance impacts on forest structure and carbon stocks in a western Amazonian landscape
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Heightened fire probability in Indonesia in non-drought conditions: the effect of increasing temperatures
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Malaria risk increases in Ethiopian highlands as temperatures climb
The highlands of Ethiopia are home to the majority of the country’s population, the cooler climate serving as a natural buffer against malaria transmission. New data now show that increasing temperatures over the past 35 years are eroding this buffer, allowing conditions more favorable for malaria to begin climbing into highland areas. That is the […]
IRI Unveils Its New Generation of Climate Forecasts
Leer en castellano This spring, IRI implemented a new methodology for our seasonal temperature and precipitation forecasts around the world. We asked Simon Mason, Andrew Robertson and Tony Barnston, three of our senior climate scientists who lead the development and tailoring of IRI’s forecasts, to answer some fundamental questions about the new forecast. If you […]
May Climate Briefing: El Niño Odds Down Slightly
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have increased slightly to +0.4ºC to +0.5ºC in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region (see first image below). These sea-surface temperatures […]
New paper highlights applications for subseasonal forecasts
A recent study was the first to comprehensively review the potential applications of subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) forecasts, and several affiliates of IRI were co-authors. Andrew Robertson, one of the IRI co-authors, said the paper provides a substantial overview of the progress achieved in S2S — i.e. forecasts issued with two-week to two-month lead times — over the […]
April Climate Briefing: Models Bullish on El Niño Odds
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have held steady at +0.2ºC to +0.3ºC in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region. While these sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) point to […]
Online tool aids resilience to climate change impacts
— SciDev.Net
World Met Day: Partnering with national meteorological services to support farmers in Africa
The below is an excerpt from a blog written by IRI staff members James Hansen, Alison Rose and Dannie Dinh and originally appearing on the CCAFS website. On World Meteorological Day, we highlight how CCAFS and partners are supporting national meteorological services in African countries to provide actionable local climate information to farmers. The important contributions […]
Another Tornado Record’s in Sight for U.S. as Thunderstorms Boom
— Bloomberg
March Climate Briefing: Probability of El Niño Rises
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have ranged from -0.2ºC to +0.3ºC in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region. This is firmly in the range of neutral ENSO conditions, although other indicators of ENSO […]
IRI Scientists Present At Climate Services Conference
In late February, seven staff members and scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society participated in the fifth International Conference on Climate Services. The conference, held in Cape Town, South Africa, focused on capacity development, including elements of formal and non-formal education, infrastructure and institutional capacity, as well as other components of […]
El Niño Weather Pattern Would Further Drench California Next Year
— Breitbart
February Climate Briefing: Weak La Niña Replaced With Neutral ENSO, and Uncertainty
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures have warmed in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region. Last week, the weekly anomaly for Nino3.4 was +0.1ºC — the first time […]
January Climate Briefing: La Niña on Last Legs
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperature anomalies in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, have warmed about a tenth of a degree. The past few weeks, these anomalies have been […]
Local beats global when it comes to national climate services in Rwanda
By Dannie Dinh, James Hansen, Floribert Vuguziga, Madeleine Thomson, Yohana Tekeste, and Aisha Owusu This post originally appeared on the web site of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate, Agriculture and Food Security. Climate data gaps are an obstacle to providing useful services for smallholder farmers Climate information—and its use for farming decision making, index-based […]
IRI @ AMS: Schedule of Events
“Observations Lead the Way” is the theme for the upcoming 97th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. Much, if not all, of the initiatives at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society rely on a critical mass of quality weather and climate observations. The presentations of IRI’s staff and scientists at this year’s […]
Tennessee utilities learn from drought, prepare for next dry year
— The Tennessean
December Climate Briefing: La Niña Lingers, Likely to Lapse
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, have remained within a tenth of a degree of the -0.5ºC threshold indicative of La […]
Health and Climate Colloquium Report
Earlier this year, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Mailman School of Public Health, both of Columbia University, hosted the Health and Climate Colloquium 2016. The purpose of the Colloquium was to help build a global community of health practitioners and policymakers that can use climate information as a means to […]
Issues Of The Environment: Climate Change And Weather For The Coming Winter
— WEMU
IRI@AGU: Advancing Climate Prediction at New Timescales
Andrew Robertson is a senior research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. He heads IRI’s climate group and studies how to improve climate forecasts with lead times between two weeks to two months, referred to by scientists as the subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescale. He also co-chairs the S2S Prediction Project Steering Group, which […]
IRI@AGU: Upmanu Lall on Improving Risk Management
Upmanu Lall is the director of the Columbia Water Center, a senior research scientist at IRI and the Alan & Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In addition to other presentations at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, Lall will be presenting, “Quantifying conditional risks for water and […]
S2S Workshop: Summary Blog
Below is an excerpt from a blog post written by Zane Martin for the Initiative for Extreme Weather and Climate. For the full post, see the Initiative’s site. By Zane Martin Last week hundreds of scientists from around the world attended the Workshop on Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Predictability of Extreme Weather and Climate online and at Columbia University’s […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events 2016
A range of IRI’s areas of expertise will be represented at this year’s annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Many of the presentations center on fundamental climate science, including analyses of the influence of climate variability and change on rainfall in the US, Iran, South America and the Sahel, as well as the […]
Event: S2S Extremes Workshop
This week, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), the Extreme Weather & Climate Initiative (Extreme Weather), and the WWRP/WCRP Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project will hold a 2-day workshop at the Columbia University Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palisades, New York. Adam Sobel, one of the co-organizers of the event, said that the workshop will bring […]
Tornado Swarms Are On the Rise—but Don’t Blame Climate Change
— Bloomberg
November Climate Briefing: La Niña Arrives, Some Impacts Likely
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Since last month’s briefing, sea-surface temperatures in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, have remained cooler-than-average. Since July, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have been around or just below the -0.5ºC […]
COP22: Launch of Think Tank Network in Favor of Climate Capacity Building
— North Africa Post
How Oceans Dried Out the Sahel
The original version of this post first appeared on the web site of the International Institute for Environment and Development. What caused the great Sahelian drought of the 1970s and 80s? For the past 10 or so years, state-of-the-art climate models have consistently shown how the shift from the anomalously wet conditions that characterised the […]
October Climate Briefing: Teetering on La Niña
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Sea-surface temperatures in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, are slightly cooler than those in the weeks leading up to last month’s briefing. Since July, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies have […]
The World’s Poorest Most at Risk From Drought, Conflict
— Bonner County Daily Bee
A Blustery El Niño Departs The Stage, Making Way For La Niña
— NPR
A weakening La Nina adds a lot of uncertainty to climate predictions
— CNBC
From Climate Science to Climate Service – Three Considerations
A new paper in Science argues that the most effective climate services consider three key factors. Every day, weather services help people decide what to wear, how to how to get to and from work and how to spend our weekends. We take such services for granted – they’re ubiquitous and often just a tap […]
September Climate Briefing: No Niña, But Some Impacts Expected
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Sea-surface temperatures in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, remain similar to those from last month’s briefing. Since July, weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies (see first image below) have been […]
Is La Niña here? Depends who you ask
— Climate Central
Coal Rises From Grave to Become One of Hottest Commodities
— Bloomberg
Climate Denial and Sea Level Rise
— Huffington Post
Rain prospects: the good, the bad, and the not so pretty
— New Era
Rainfall deficit in 37% districts of India despite ‘normal’ monsoon; September crucial: IMD data
— First Post
37% districts short of rain despite average monsoon; September crucial
— Business Standard
August Climate Briefing: Fate of La Niña Up in the Air
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Conditions in the area of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, remain similar to those from last month’s briefing. While ocean temperatures are indicating a weak La Niña event could be imminent, atmospheric […]
Voices from CariCOF: Dry Season 2015-16
The Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum, also known as CariCOF, brings together climate scientists and meteorologists with decision-makers who may be able to use climate information. During the meeting, now held twice a year — once at the beginning of the dry season and once at the beginning of the wet season — the scientists present […]
Youth in COP: Meet Mélody Braun, Climate Change Advocate
— World Youth Voice
July Climate Briefing: Waiting for the Winds to Change
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Neutral conditions remain in the central equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region. Recent weekly sea-surface temperature anomalies dipped just below the -0.5º threshold used to define La Niña, but those […]
Why we should all worry about the Amazon catching on fire this year
— Washington Post
As Congress dithers on Zika, climate signals get stronger
— ClimateWire
90-day forecast calls for warmer temperatures
— Midwest Producer
Primer pronóstico estacional de rayos del mundo
Con unos 250 flashes por kilómetro cuadrado por año, la Cuenca del Lago de Maracaibo en el noroeste de Venezuela tiene la mayor tasa anual de rayos del mundo. La actividad de rayos es tan común en este sitio que tiene un nombre propio, Relámpagos del Catatumbo, siguiendo el nombre de la región localizada en […]
World’s First Seasonal Lightning Forecast
At about 250 lightning flashes per square kilometer per year, the Lake Maracaibo Basin in northwestern Venezuela has the highest annual lightning rate of any place in the world. Lightning activity is so common there that it has a proper name, Catatumbo Lightning, named for the Catatumbo region located in the southwest corner of the […]
June Climate Briefing: Neutral, For Now
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing The El Niño event that began in spring 2015 has come to an end. Sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean that define El Niño and La Niña events, called the Nino3.4 region, have been in the neutral category […]
Forecasting Climate, with Help from the Baobab Tree
In El Niño retrospective, lessons from Senegal In a three-part series for the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, graduate student Catherine Pomposi relates her experience in Senegal during the 2015 El Niño. She explains the 2015 El Niño forecast and its climate impacts in Senegal, as well as current efforts to better understand climate in […]
Climate Change The Biggest Threat To Global Health
— Jamaica Gleaner
International Meeting: Connecting Health and Climate
Yesterday, Linda Fried, the dean of the Mailman School of Public Health, wrote about the crucial connection between climate and public health in a piece for the Huffington Post. Understanding and anticipating the ways in which climate change and variability can adversely affect human health, she wrote, requires a global commitment to share science and best practices […]
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20160531/active-season-agencies-forecast-heavy-rains-flooding
— Jamaica Gleaner
Turns Out You Do Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blew
— NPR
May Climate Briefing: Signs Point to La Niña
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing The El Niño event declared over a year ago is in its last weeks, with odds for at least a weak La Niña to develop by late summer are pegged at more than 50%. Sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are […]
Heightened Fire Activity Predicted for Amazon in 2016
The IRI has developed a forecast maproom that characterizes the expected fire activity in the Amazon based on climate conditions for the upcoming dry season. Kátia Fernandes, along with Walter Baethgen and Lisa Goddard, have been researching how the Amazon fires are influenced by large-scale ocean phenomena and how sea surface temperature (SST) forecasts can […]
Dry Winter and Warm Spring Set Stage for Wildfire in Canada
— New York Times
‘Above-normal temperatures’ likely upto July
— Gulf Time
April Climate Briefing: El Niño Lingers, La Niña Looms
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Over a year ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center and IRI jointly issued an El Niño advisory, indicating El Niño conditions had arrived and were expected to continue. That advisory is still in effect, but this month […]
What the hell is ACSRI?
— Columbia Spectator
Could global warming’s top culprit help crops?
— Science Codex
Scientists confirm: El Niño a disappointment in still-too-dry Southern California
— Los Angeles Times
Add Lack of Freshwater to Island Dwellers’ Woes Under Climate Change
— Takepart
Will La Niña Follow One of the Strongest Ever El Niños?
— Climate Central
El Niño 2015 Conference Report
In November 2015, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, convened the El Niño 2015 Conference. The report from this conference is now available. In addition to recordings and summaries of the […]
El Nino 2015 Conference Report
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Editorial: Aside from house fires, watch out for forest fires
— Sun Star Davao
Tornado outbreaks are becoming more dangerous, Columbia researchers find
— Columbia Spectator
Warmest 12 Months on Record for Minnesota – Arctic Slap 1 Week Away
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
New Climate Services Program in Rwanda Aims to Reach One Million Farmers
The Rwanda Climate Services for Agriculture project, officially launched on #WorldMetDay 2016, will benefit nearly one million farmers over the next three years and reshape national food-security planning for the long term. (Kigali, Rwanda) 23 March 2016. To build a more climate-resilient agriculture sector, the Rwandan government and partners are taking action to provide nearly […]
March Climate Briefing: El Niño Impacts Still Likely
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Due to sustained above-average sea surface temperatures in the Nino3.4 region of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean (see first image in gallery), the ongoing El Niño event continues to remain in the strong category. While the event is expected to quickly […]
Tips for driving in the rain
— Hanford Sentinel
El Nino 2016: Is El Nino coming to an end?
— AL.com
La Nina weather expected by autumn
— Central Valley Business Times
Storm becomes much ado about nothing in the desert
— The Desert Sun
2015 produced a whole new kind of El Niño
— The Weather Network
Will KC see more severe weather, tornadoes this year?
— http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article63993827.html
More Than 50 Tornadoes Hit the Southeast in February
— Discovery News
Extreme Tornado Outbreaks Have Become More Common
A new paper shows that the average number of tornadoes per outbreak has grown by more than 40% over the last half century. The likelihood of extreme outbreaks – those with many tornadoes – is also greater. Most death and destruction inflicted by tornadoes in North America occurs during outbreaks—large-scale weather events that can last one to […]
Korean agency sees surplus monsoon for India
— Hindu Business Line
New Research: El Niño Teleconnections in the Sahel & East Africa
Pradipta Parhi, a graduate research assistant in Columbia’s Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering published a paper in the February 2016 issue of the Journal of Climate. The study examines why two areas of Africa – the Sahel and eastern equatorial Africa – tend to experience drier- and wetter-than-normal rainy seasons, respectively, during El Niño. He is […]
Warmer Summer And Wetter Monsoon Might Be Imminent
— BW Businessworld
February Climate Briefing: Unique El Niño Slowly Weakening
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. The peak of the ongoing El Niño occurred in November 2015, but the event remains in “strong” category, and is likely to stay at moderate strength through April. The El Niño signal is still tipping the odds for certain climate impacts in some regions for the next several months (see seasonal […]
Rapid intensification’s key role in tropical cyclone risk
In studying climate and tropical cyclones, researchers find a weather phenomenon at play In October 2015, Hurricane Patricia became the strongest storm ever measured by the National Hurricane Center. But what really worried authorities was the speed at which Patricia amassed her strength. The storm’s sustained winds increased from 85 miles per hour to 200 […]
Resolving contrasting regional rainfall responses to ENSO over tropical Africa
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January Climate Briefing: Strong El Niño Will Persist
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing El Niño’s peak in tropical Pacific sea surface temperature came in late 2015, but the event is expected to stay strong, with climate impacts likely for the first few months of 2016. Recent wind patterns could lead to more Kelvin […]
2015 Shatters Hottest Year Mark; 2016 Hot on its Heels?
— Climate Central
Happy to See “Average” Temperatures – Mid Atlantic May See 1-2 Feet of Snow by Sunday
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
An observatory to gather and disseminate information on the health-related effects of environmental and climate change
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Jamaica’s drought tool could turn table on climate change
— Caribbean 360
Two summers of São Paulo drought: Origins in the western tropical Pacific
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IRI@AMS 2016: Schedule of Events
From crowd-sourcing tornado data to teaching Harlem high-school students about climate change and climate justice, IRI scientists will be sharing a number of fascinating projects at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) next week in New Orleans. Below is a schedule of their presentations and posters. Presenting authors appear in bold. Crowd-Sourcing the Storm: A New […]
December Climate Briefing: El Niño Impacts Still to Come
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing As of mid-December, sea-surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific were stable or down slightly compared to late November (see first image in first gallery). Tony Barnston, IRI’s chief climate forecaster, said the peak strength with respect to this metric of […]
VIDEO: What tools do Honduran farmers want for climate risk?
Text by Sofía Martínez Video by Elisabeth Gawthrop, Sofía Martínez and Courtney St. John Answers from insurance research La version en español esta disponible aquí. During the first of the two growing seasons of 2015, grain farmers in El Paraíso, Honduras faced one of the worst droughts in history, with losses ranging from 60 to 100% […]
¿Cuáles herramientas quieren los productores hondureños para el riesgo climático?
Texto por Sofía Martínez Video por Elisabeth Gawthrop, Sofía Martínez and Courtney St. John Respuestas de la investigación English version available here. Durante las dos temporadas agrícolas del 2015, los productores de granos básicos de El Paraíso, Honduras se enfrentaron a una de las peores sequías en la historia, con pérdidas desde un 60 hasta […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events 2015
The IRI has seven scientists and staff presenting on a wide range of topics at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting this year. Andrew Robertson and Alexis Berg will present advancements in our fundamental understanding of earth’s systems. Eunjin Han, Pietro Ceccato and Pradipta Parhi will discuss methods for using our climate knowledge for applications in agriculture, health and […]
Climate Resilience (Animation)
Climate resilience: it’s the ability for communities to recover from the impacts of climate events. It’s the difference between weather being manageable…or a catastrophe. But for many parts of the world, where livelihoods depend so much on the climate, critical weather and climate information is unavailable or unusable. The International Research Institute for Climate and […]
Namibia: City Cracks Whip On Water Crisis
— AllAfrica.com
Better science can now show how humans are making extreme weather worse
— Quartz
CIMH hosts 2015 Dry Season Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum in St. Kitts
— St. Kitts Observer
November Climate Briefing: El Niño Takes the Wheel
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Is it 1997? Rapid strengthening of the ongoing El Niño event over the last several weeks has made headlines, some saying that its strength has eclipsed that of the 1997-98 “super” El Niño event. But Tony Barnston, IRI’s chief climate forecaster, cautions that […]
El Niño Drives Drought in the Philippines
A strong El Niño event is in place in the tropical Pacific. IRI’s seasonal forecast for the October-December 2015 period, based on the most recent sea surface temperature projections, predicts a strong likelihood of below-average precipitation for regions in the western equatorial Pacific, including much of the Philippines. The strong likelihood of reduced rainfall during […]
Why Migration is a Legitimate Form of Adaptation to Climate Change in Ghana
— GhanaWeb
Hellish fire season in Indonesia poses regional health and emission problems
— ClimateWire
Climate Variability: What You Need To Know
Climate change is a fairly constant source of news, but this year’s El Niño is bringing more attention than usual to climate variability–changes in climate that unfold on shorter timescales. These are typically natural swings in our climate, be them year-to-year or decade-to-decade. They tend to be more dramatic than the projected average changes anticipated from climate […]
Indonesia’s peat fires have released more greenhouse gases than Germany does in an entire year
— Mashable
October Climate Briefing: El Niño Flexes Its Strength
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing The El Niño that officially began last March and became a “strong” event in July continues to strengthen, with the event expected to peak in the next few months. Even with the weakening projected […]
With El Nino Warming, Talk Turns to Cool La Nina
— Insurance Journal
How Indonesia’s gigantic fires are making global warming worse
— Washington Post
Climate Models Could Have Predicted Drop in Lake Kariba’s Water Levels
— AllAfrica.com
El Nino Could Make Asia’s Choking Haze Even Worse
— Bloomberg Business
Indonesia’s Parched Peatlands Burn Under El Niño
Indonesia on track for worst fire season since 1997 This post contains excerpts from a story published by IRI on Medium.com. View the full story, including data and additional graphics, here. Written by staff from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Media can contact Francesco Fiondella. Much of western Indonesia is […]
California Drought: Happy New Year?
Using the IRI Data Library to Predict and Track the 2016 Water Year This post is an excerpt from a story published by IRI on Medium.com, where we are updating the post each month with the latest forecasts. View the full story and forecast maps here. October 1st marks the first day of the new “Water Year” for […]
Decadal covariability of Atlantic SSTs and western Amazon dry-season hydroclimate in observations and CMIP5 simulations
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Climate Data Can be Critical in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States – Here’s How to Get It
— New Security Beat
Cross–Time Scale Interactions and Rainfall Extreme Events in Southeastern South America for the Austral Summer. Part I: Potential Predictors
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New Integration Between Climate Predictability Tool and Data Library
Version 14 of the Climate Predictability Tool features several new updates, the most significant being integration with IRI’s Data Library that allows users to directly download datasets from IRIDL into CPT. The data will automatically be converted into CPT format. IRI scientists frequently update the Data Library and CPT in response to user input from around the world. “It’s the constant feedback […]
September Climate Briefing: More Confidence than Ever
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing An El Niño event is now in full swing, with probabilities of its continuance similar to those forecasted last month and remaining at close to 100% through the first few months of 2016 (bottom […]
Send Us El Niño Headlines!
Here at the IRI, we’re constantly thinking about El Niño: its prediction, its evolution, its impacts, etc. We also keep tabs on the communication — and miscommunication — of El Niño, but we can’t be everywhere (and neither can Tony Barnston). We need your help! We’re inviting you to send snapshots of headlines related to El Niño that […]
IRI @ Climate Week NYC 2015
Staff members from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) are participating in a number of high-level events during Climate Week NYC this year. See the schedule below, and follow the links for more information. Launch of the Global Nutrition Report Tuesday, September 22 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, Hearst Building, New York Climate change is complicating global efforts […]
Forecast models continue to point to wet Arizona winter
— Tucson News
Expect Normal To Fewer Rains
— Swazi Observer (Swaziland)
Climate Change is Greening the Sahel? Not so Fast…
The Sahel is a semiarid region south of the Sahara Desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. In the 1970s and 1980s it was hit by a series of persistent droughts and recurring famines that killed more than 100,000 people. The region remains one of the poorest and least developed in […]
August Climate Briefing: “100%” El Niño
Read our ENSO Essentials & Impacts pages for more about El Niño. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Although 100% is technically not an achievable number in the world of ENSO and climate prediction, this El Niño forecast all but reaches it for the next several months. The odds are similar to […]
Winter Is Coming. Here’s What to Expect Around the Country
— Mother Jones
Minds on the Information Gap: Climate in the Caribbean
This post is an excerpt from a multimedia story published by IRI on Medium.com. View the full story and video series here. On the road from Hewanorra airport in southern St. Lucia to the capital in the north of the island, a bridge is missing, washed out during heavy rains on Christmas Eve, 2013. A sharp […]
A Very Early Yet Highly Accurate Guide to This Coming Winter’s Weather
— Slate
Subseasonal-to-interannual Variability of Rainfall over New Caledonia (SW Pacific)
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Global Meteorological Drought Prediction Using the North American Multi-Model Ensemble
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Long-lead ENSO Predictability from CMIP5 Decadal Hindcasts
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New Discussion Briefs: Water & Climate in the Caribbean
In partnership with the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) at the University of West Indies, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society has released a set of four discussion briefs related to water and climate in the Caribbean. The briefs are designed for policy makers and others who work in the water sector to learn more about […]
July Climate Briefing: Nothin’ but Niño
Read our ENSO Essentials and ENSO Impacts pages to learn more about El Niño + check out the Storified summary of the #IRIforecast discussion on Twitter. Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Scientists usually cringe at the word certain, but the forecast for El Niño to continue through the July-September season […]
Seeds of Hope: IRI in Uruguay
This story was written by David Craig and originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of Columbia Magazine. Photography and additional reporting by Francesco Fiondella. As climate change creates agricultural instability around the world, Columbia scientists are testing a seasonal forecasting system in Uruguay to give farmers a fighting chance. Daniel Lalinde doesn’t need a […]
Q&A: Subseasonal Prediction Project
Andrew Robertson is a senior research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, where he also heads the climate group. Much of his research relates to improving climate forecasts with lead times between two weeks to two months, which scientists refer to as the subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) timescale. Decision makers in sectors such […]
How El Niño saved you from a tornado this spring
— Science
County needs a doozy of a rain year to make up the precipitation deficit
— The San Luis Obispo Tribune
June Climate Briefing: El Niño Certainty Increases
From the June climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Over the last month, the ongoing El Niño in the east-central Pacific has intensified to moderate strength. There is now a 99% chance of El Niño for the June-August season, and chances stay […]
Innovative Weather Model Helps Caribbean Prepare for Drought
This story was originally published in FrontLines, a news publication of the U.S. Agency for International Development. When it comes to climate risks in the Caribbean, the bluster and rage of hurricanes and tropical storms steal the stage. These events flare up quickly, can cause enormous damage and loss of life, and dissipate within days. Drought is […]
Behind the Expected Quiet 2015 Hurricane Season
By Chia-Ying Lee, IRI Postdoctoral Research Scientist This post originally appeared in the Earth Institute’s State of the Planet Blog. It does not feel like summer in New York City as I write, but today (a cool, rainy June 1) is the official start day for the Atlantic hurricane season, which will last until November 30. What […]
Leveraging the Climate for Improved Malaria Control in Tanzania
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May Climate Briefing: El Niño Heating Up
From the May climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing El Niño, a state of warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, has recently intensified, though scientists aren’t sure how strong the event will become. The El Niño phenomenon is part of a natural cycle of […]
Climate, Landowner Residency, and Land Cover Predict Local Scale Fire Activity in the Western Amazon
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Recognitions and Responsibilities: On the Origins and Consequences of the Uneven Attention to Climate Change around the World
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Dynamical Causes of the 2010-2011 Texas-Northern Mexico Drought
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Stochastic Decadal Climate Simulations for the Berg and Breede Water Management Areas, Western Cape Province, South Africa
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Seasonality in the Impact of ENSO and the North Atlantic High on Caribbean Rainfall
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Tornado Season 2015 Predictions: Tornadoes In Texas, Kansas, And Oklahoma Expected Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2072193/tornado-season-2015-predictions-tornadoes-in-texas-kansas-and-oklahoma-expected/#y5VXCXbIahxQx2xV.99
— Inquisitr
U.S. Drought Risk Wider than Previously Thought
— Independence News
Columbia University faculty members call for divestment from fossil fuels
— The Guardian
A Climate Generator for Agricultural Planning in Southeastern America
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Oklahomas drought likely to improve in coming months climate scientists say
— Big News Network
April Climate Briefing: El Niño, For Now
From the April climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing A weak El Niño continues in the central Pacific, and the chance that such conditions will persist has risen since last month’s forecast. It hovers around 80% through late summer, although it should be noted […]
A very long hot season
— Sun Star (Philippines)
Study Finds Link Between El Niño and Tornado Frequency in US
— AccuWeather
One Size Fits None: Drought forecasting in the Caribbean
This post contains excerpts from the full version on our Medium account. Most extreme climate and weather events involve an unwanted surplus — too much rain, too much wind or too much snow and ice. Drought is a little different: it’s the absence of something. It takes time for a drought to build, making it fundamentally different to monitor […]
#WorldMetDay: Climate Knowledge for Climate Action
Today is World Meteorological Day, this year themed Climate Knowledge for Climate Action. Since this is basically the name of our game here at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, we thought we’d share some of our recent, related activities. Working with the World Meteorological Organization Earlier this month, Rupa Kumar Kolli, Chief of the World […]
Many in US Face Another Dry Year as World Water Day Arrives
— NBC News
Philippines Braces For Climate Change, And The Aid Community Adapts
— Think Progress
Tornado Forecast Study a Piece of the Loss Puzzle, Author Says
— Risk Market News
March Climate Briefing: El Niño’s Beginning..or End?
From the March climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing https://youtu.be/D9bqP0V7j8E Changes from last month’s briefing Earlier this month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center and IRI issued an El Niño advisory, which indicates that El Niño conditions are present and expected to persist for the […]
New Information on Climate Drivers of Dengue Fever
*Original version of this release posted by Upstate Medical UniversityResearchers from Upstate Medical University, Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other U.S. and international institutions have discovered new information on the climate drivers of dengue fever and social risk factors that may be contributing to its spread. Their findings were published in the […]
El Niño, La Niña Predict Severity of Tornado Season, Study Says
— The Weather Channel
El Niño ist zurück und erleichtert die Tornado-Prognosen
— Süddeutsche Zeitung
La Niña Conditions Spin Up More Springtime Twisters
— Scientific American
Video: Managing Water in a Dry Land
The Elqui River valley lies in Chile’s northern, mountainous Coquimbo region, which is extremely dry. The region receives only about 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain each year, and most of it during one short rainy season. The rainfall is also highly variable and driven in large part on El Niño and La Niña fluctuations. In some years, […]
El Nino Could Signal Tornado Activity in South: Researchers
— Rocket News
Climate: Does La Niña increase the odds of tornadoes?
— Summit County Voice
The story behind the historic tornado and severe weather drought of early 2015
— United States Tornadoes
El Nino Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Discovery News
Mit El Niño US-Tornadosaison vorhersagen
— Schweizerbauer
La frecuencia de los tornados y del granizo están vinculados a El Niño y La Niña
— Tribuna Valladolid
El Niño, La Niña Events Offer Clues To Frequency Of Tornadoes, Hail Storms In Southern US: Study
— International Business Times
El Niño Could Predict Tornado Severity, Researchers Explain
— Yibada
El Niño And La Niña Can Predict Severity Of Tornado Season, Study Says
— Yale e360
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— WPXI
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Yahoo News
Experimental Forecast Projects Tornado Season
— Scientific American
Researchers See El Nino Link to Tornadoes in Southern U.S.
— Bloomberg
Could El Niño quash tornadoes?
— USA Today
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— LiveScience
How El Niño affects your chance of a tornado today
— Science
La Niña boosts the odds of tornadoes and hailstorms in the US, study shows
— The Carbon Brief
Frequency of tornadoes, hail linked to El Nino, La Nina
— Phys.org
Experimental Forecast Projects Tornado Season
— Climate Central
Vinculan la frecuencia de tornados y granizo a El Niño y La Niña
— Ciencia Plus
El Niño ist zurück und erleichtert die Tornado-Prognosen
— Die Welt
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Palm Beach Post
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Fox 23
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Kiro TV
El Nino Years Carry Lower Tornado Risk for U.S., Study Finds
— Chicago Sun Times
El Niño Can Predict Tornado Season’s Severity
— Atlanta Journal Constitution
El Niño ist zurück und erleichtert die Tornado-Prognosen
— Südkurier
El Niño ist zurück und erleichtert die Tornado-Prognosen
— Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung
El-Niño-Phänomen kehrt zurück Forscher sagen US-Tornadosaison voraus
— n-tv
El Niño ist zurück und erleichtert die Tornado-Prognosen
— Schwarzwälder Bote
Frequency of Tornadoes, Hail Linked to El Niño, La Niña
Study May Aid Seasonal Forecasting Climate scientists can spot El Niño and La Niña conditions developing months ahead of time, and they use this knowledge to make more accurate forecasts of droughts, flooding and even hurricane activity around the world. Now, a new study shows that El Niño and La Niña conditions can also help […]
Sao Paulo’s Reservoirs Feel Pinch of Failed Wet Season
— Climate Central
Looking back: A year of forecasts, partnerships and climate information
by Manon Verchot In 2013, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society teamed up with the University of Arizona to help regions of the world that are most vulnerable to climate variability and change. Here’s a look at what has been accomplished so far. Farmers are at the mercy of the weather. They need […]
NOAA: El Niño is (technically) here
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) increased the status of El Niño from watch to advisory, indicating that El Niño has officially arrived. The latest update, issued today by CPC and IRI, indicates a 50-60% chance of El Niño conditions persisting into the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. The update notes, however, that due to its weak expected […]
Coral Collapse Millennia Ago May Preview Global Warming Impact
— Scientific American
How Sahara Dust Sustains the Amazon Rainforest, in 3-D
— Climate Central
February Climate Briefing: El Tease-O
From the February climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the current (February – April) season is around 48%, down from 63% last month. These odds for the current season are down slightly from those issued by […]
3 ways USAID and CIAT are dealing with climate change now
— CIAT
An Empirical Model Relating U.S. Monthly Hail Occurrence to Large-Scale Meteorological Environment
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Boosting Climate Resilience in Africa Through Improved Climate Services
By Katherine Peinhardt The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is hosting a side event on improving data availability, access and use at the Third African Ministerial Conference on Meteorology (AMCOMET) conference, a high-level meeting of ministers and heads of meteorological services in Africa, which takes place in Cape Verde, from February 10-14, 2015. […]
Winter Storm Juno: A Pummeling for the History Books
— Daily Beast
El Niño Odds Reduced
From the January climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the current (January – March) season is around 63%, down from 76% last month. These odds for the current season are similar to those issued by the NOAA […]
Moisture budget analysis of SST-driven decadal Sahel precipitation variability in the twentieth century
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An International Research and Applications Project (IRAP) Caribbean Workshop Report: Integrating Climate Information and Decision Processes for Regional Climate Resilience
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Strengthening Climate Services and Applications in Ethiopia: The International Research Institute for Climate & Society: Shaping the Landscape of Climate Services
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2014 was the hottest year on record
— Nature
December Climate Briefing: El Limbo Continues
From the December climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the current (December-February) season is over 80%, up slightly from last month. These odds for the current season are also higher than those issued by the NOAA Climate Prediction Center/IRI […]
Feathered Forecasters? Tiny Birds Knew Killer Tornadoes Were Coming
— NBC News
IRI@AGU: Mapping the Sahel’s Re-greening
Headed to AGU? Find the full schedule of IRI staff presenting here. The Sahel region, just south of the Sahara Desert, stretches across Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The persistent drought and resulting famines that pummeled the region in the 1970s and 80s were for decades blamed on local societies – on […]
Briefs: Rain Gauge, Guard Changing
— GoodTimes
Government Study: Natural Causes, Not Climate Change, Led To California Drought
— Christianity Daily
Fourth International Conference on Climate Services
The Climate Services Partnership is pleased to announce the fourth International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS 4), which will be held in Montevideo, Uruguay. The event starts this Wednesday, December 10 at 10:30 am UTC and runs through Friday, December 12, 2:30 pm UTC. ICCS 4 is being hosted by the Uruguayan Ministry of Agriculture, […]
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events
The IRI has a record thirteen scientists and staff presenting at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Meeting this year. Below is the schedule of events for those presenting, organized by theme and with links to additional information about their research. CLIMATE & HEALTH Climate and Population Health Vulnerabilities to Vector-Borne Diseases: Increasing Resilience Under Climate […]
NOAA report says California drought mostly due to natural causes, not global warming
— Washington Post
November Climate Briefing: El Limbo
From the November climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the current (November-January) season is about 75%, up slightly from last month. These odds for the November-January season are also higher than those issued by the NOAA Climate Prediction […]
Water and Climate Courses in the Caribbean
This article is a modification from a post by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. This month, students completed the final course in a series of four online courses that address the ongoing societal challenges of managing water resources under the pressures of climate change and variability. Early in 2014, the Water and Climate Education Program […]
IRI’s Role in South Africa’s Seasonal Climate Forecast Operations
Several decades of climate research have shown seasonal temperature and rainfall patterns over southern Africa to be predictable months in advance. While scientists recognized the importance of the El Niño Southern Oscillation on seasonal climate variability in this region during the 1980s, South Africa first began issuing regular seasonal forecasts in the early 1990s. Over the past twenty years, enhanced modeling systems have […]
Climate Services: Two conferences on two continents
By Adam Sobel This post originally appeared on Sobel’s blog. Out this month is his new book, Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future. I spent this past week in Darmstadt, Germany, for the Climate Symposium. This was a conference organized by EUMETSAT (one of the European space agencies) and the World Climate […]
Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 From a Climate Perspective
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What Will Winter Hold for Drought-Plagued California?
— Climate Central
Recent Multidecadal Strengthening of the Walker Circulation Across the Tropical Pacific
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Land Cover Change Interacts With Drought Severity to Change Fire Regimes in Western Amazonia
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The East African Long Rains in Observations and Models
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A Verification Framework for Interannual-to-Decadal Predictions Experiments
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No One Can Tell You How Much Snow We’ll Get This Winter — At Least Not Yet
— FiveThirtyEight
Climate Information, Outlooks, and Understanding – Where Does the IRI Stand?
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Development of Malaria Early Warning System (MEWS) Using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems
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Shaping Global Agendas on Climate Risk Management and Climate Services: An IRI Perspective
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October Climate Briefing: El Niño Wait Continues
From the October climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the current (October-December) season is between 65 and 70%, down slightly from last month. These odds for the October-December season are similar to those issued by […]
Tornado Days Decreasing, but Number Per Day Rising
— Climate Central
An El Niño Double-Dip?
— Slate Magazine
Crop Models to Integrate Data from Space with Climate Forecasts
In a few months, NASA will launch a new satellite mission called Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP, which will provide high-resolution global coverage of soil moisture conditions. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security to develop a crop-forecasting […]
IRI Data Library: Enhancing Accessibility of Climate Knowledge
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The Role of Targeted Climate Research at IRI
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Climate and Health in Africa
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Capacity Development Through the Sharing Of Climate Information With Diverse User Communities
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US Investments in International Climate Research and Applications: Reflections on Contributions to Interdisciplinary Climate Science and Services, Development, and Adaptation
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The International Research Institute for Climate & Society: Why, What and How
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Bridging Critical Gaps in Climate Services and Applications in Africa
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How the International Research Institute for Climate and Society Has Contributed Towards Seasonal Climate Forecast Modelling and Operations In South Africa
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How Good Have ENSO Forecasts Been Lately?
By IRI Chief Forecaster Tony BarnstonThis post originally appeared on Climate.gov’s ENSO blog. Reproduced with permission. One of my responsibilities as the lead ENSO forecaster at IRI is to judge how well the forecasts have matched reality. One way I do this is I go back through the archived forecasts and make graphics that compare the forecasts […]
September Climate Briefing: Weak El Niño Still Favored Forecast
From the September climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the September-November season is 55%, which is the same as the forecast for the same period that was issued in August. The probability for El Niño development by the late […]
IRI presenta nuevos webinars sobre El Niño
Un nuevo conjunto de webinars de entrenamiento desarrollados por el Instituto International de Investigaciones para el Clima y la Sociedad (IRI) discuten las principales características de El niño y La Niña y sus impactos alrededor del mundo. Los nuevos videos, disponibles en ingles y español, son lo más reciente de la serie Conceptos climáticos para […]
IRI’s New El Niño Webinars
A new set of training webinars developed by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society tackles the ins and outs of El Niño and La Niña and their impacts around the world. The new videos, available in both English and Spanish, are the latest in the Climate Concepts for Development series produced by the […]
Join us for Climate Week NYC 2014
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) is co-hosting several events during Climate Week NYC 2014. See the schedule of IRI events below, and follow the links for more information. If you are a member of the media and would like to attend any of the events, please write to media @ iri.columbia.edu. Sustaining Health Linking Environment, […]
Flexible Forecasts: Responding to User Needs
Innovative flexible temperature and precipitation forecasts are among a broad suite of tools available as part of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Map Rooms. How are these forecasts used, and what makes them “flexible”? Flexible forecasts offer an alternative to traditional three-category, or tercile, climate forecast maps, which indicate the probability that temperatures or rainfall […]
Stalled El Niño Poised to Resurge
— Nature
August Climate Briefing: To Be or Not To Be?
From the August climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing Based on the latest models, the chance of an El Niño developing during the August-October season is 40%, down from 60% last month. The probability for El Niño development by the late months of 2014, […]
Field Notes: Talking Data with Senegal’s Farmers
By Catherine Pomposi On a hot weekend in mid-June, I traveled with members of the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, known by the acronym ANACIM, to the village of Toucar in the Fatick region of Senegal. The meteorological team works in the region producing and delivering climate information for the farmers who live there. Fatick, like […]
Factsheet: Climate-Resilient Farming
Farmers in Central America and the Caribbean are highly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing and variable climate. Current and projected changes in temperature, precipitation and the frequency of droughts, hurricanes and other extreme events threaten the region’s ability to meet goals for food security and economic growth. Farmers here typically lack access to timely, […]
In the Ocean, Clues to Change
— The New York Times
Involving Users in the Creation of Climate Information Products
By Tufa Dinku A recent workshop built capacity to use new climate information tools in West Africa. Agricultural practitioners are seeking to build resilience to climate variability and change while maximizing the benefits from favorable climate conditions. Decision-relevant climate information at different levels is critical to this ability, and involving users in the creation of […]
Sticky – Growing Thunder Risk (don’t write 90-degree heat off just yet)
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
El Niño relief for drought-stricken California? Chances slip to 65%
— Los Angeles Times
Odds of El Niño Weather Pattern Drop, but Still Expected to Form
— Scientific American, via Climate Central
Videos: Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum
This May, climatologists, meteorologists, social scientists, and decision-makers from sectors including water resources, agriculture, and health gathered in Kingston, Jamaica for the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF). CariCOF is one of many such forums that are held around the world to produce and disseminate consensus-based regional seasonal climate forecasts. Many of the CariCOF attendees also participated […]
Other Climate Patterns that Impact U.S. Winter Climate
By IRI Chief Forecaster Tony BarnstonThis post originally appeared on Climate.gov’s ENSO blog. Reproduced with permission. While the focus of this blog is ENSO, there are other important climate patterns that impact the United States during the Northern Hemisphere winter season. We often focus on the winter season because that is the time of year many climate […]
El Niño weakening but India could still see a below normal monsoon: US institute
— Livemint
July Climate Briefing: El Niño Still Not Fully Developed
From the July climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing The latest model runs have reduced the chance of an El Niño developing by late summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The probability of an El Niño forming during the current July-September […]
A Super-Strong El Niño Is Now Off the Table. Here’s What That Means.
— Slate
Putting Climate Services Into Farmers’ Hands
As an ‘El Niño’ climate event heats up in the Pacific, the spotlight is on how we can prepare for the weather and climate shifts that may be in store. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a kind of pendulum in the global climate system, swinging back and forth on a 2-7 year cycle, bringing drought to some areas […]
Informed consent, El Nino, Gravitational Waves, Cloud cover
— BBC Radio 4
Eight Misconceptions About El Niño (and La Niña)
For years, people have been pointing to El Niño as the culprit behind floods, droughts, famines, economic failures, and record-breaking global heat. Can a single climate phenomenon really cause all these events? Is the world just a step away from disaster when El Niño conditions develop? What exactly is this important climate phenomenon and why […]
Investigating El Niño-Southern Oscillation and society relationships
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Study: El Niño’s Impacts on Water, Agriculture and Health
By Ben Orlove and Ángel Muñoz A new study examines the degree to which decision makers working in key sectors–agriculture, water and health–have been able to make successful use of forecasts of El Niño and La Niña. We find that these forecasts have indeed often been put into use, but only when two conditions have been […]
Meteorologists shift tone on El Niño
— Financial Times
June 2014 Climate Briefing: El Niño Likely to Develop this Summer
From the June climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing As the northern hemisphere summer gets underway, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) shows signs of borderline neutral/weak El Niño conditions in the equatorial Pacific. However, conditions in the atmosphere remain ENSO-neutral. The Niño3.4 sea-surface temperature anomaly […]
Why do ENSO Forecasts Use Probabilities?
By IRI Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston This post originally appeared on Climate.gov’s ENSO blog. Reproduced with permission. Many people are interested in knowing which ENSO category (La Niña, neutral or El Niño) is expected by the climate experts, just as they might want to know the weather forecast for tomorrow. They usually prefer a simple […]
El Niño: How human history helped shape modern climate prediction
— The Carbon Brief
Odds Against Formation of a ‘Super El Niño,’ Experts Say
— NBC News
El Niño Could Make U.S. Weather More Extreme during 2014
— Scientific American
Extreme weather to occur more often around Indian Ocean rim
— Science Magazine
Of Brazil, the World Cup and Climate Change
— Climate Central
The El Niño effect: What it means for commodities
— CNBC
Live from Kingston: It’s CariCOF
By Elisabeth Gawthrop and Mea Halperin The Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF) took place yesterday in Kingston, Jamaica. It is one of a number of Climate Outlook Forums (COFs) around the world during which scientists present a forecast to decision makers who work in climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water management, disaster planning and health. The forecast […]
Make A Tornado in Your Home
— The Weather Channel
Will El Niño Lead To Extreme Weather This Year?
— WBUR Here and Now
Laif Meidell: El Niño already affecting commodities
— Reno Gazette
Q&A – Why care about CariCOF?
Next week, the Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (known as CariCOF) will kick off in Kingston, Jamaica. At this event, both providers and users of climate information from across the Caribbean will discuss the upcoming season’s forecast and the ways the forecast might be used to make decisions in water resources, tourism and disaster risk management. To learn […]
IRI and U. of Arizona Team Up for Climate
IRI and the University of Arizona address climate vulnerability in most at-risk areas of the world in new project The Caribbean, Asia’s Indo-Gangetic Plain and West Africa are three regions known to be extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change, particularly to droughts, extreme weather events and stresses on food production, water resources and coastal areas. A […]
How ENSO Leads to a Cascade of Global Impacts
By IRI Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston This post originally appeared on Climate.gov’s ENSO blog. Reproduced with permission. ENSO arises from changes across the tropical Pacific Ocean. So why does ENSO affect the climate over sizable portions of the globe, including some regions far removed from the tropical Pacific Ocean? Does the strength of ENSO matter […]
Spatiotemporal analysis of extreme precipitation events in the Northeast region of Argentina (NEA)
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El Niño 2014 Developing in Pacific, Suggest Satellite Images
— Newsmax.com
May 2014 Climate Briefing: Weak El Niño Developing
From the May climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions are borderline neutral/El Niño. The Nino3.4 sea surface temperature anomaly was +0.5° C last week, which is the threshold for El Niño. Forecaster Tony Barnston […]
Water and Climate Courses in the Caribbean
This article is a modification from a post by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. In the Caribbean, most states rely on a single source of water for all domestic, agricultural and industrial needs. Variations in rainfall brought on by climate change add to the challenge of managing this limited resource. Furthermore, there […]
Monster El Niño May Be Brewing, Experts Say
— NBC News
April 2014 Climate Briefing: El Niño Likely, Strength Uncertain
From the April climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions are currently neutral, although the warming process has begun. The IRI’s April ENSO forecast puts the chances of El Niño conditions at more than 70% for early next […]
El Niño return likely but little crop impact expected — for now
— Farm Talk
Latest outlook says El Niño likely, but a lot could still change
— EENews/ClimateWire
El Nino 2014: 70 Percent Chance of US Experiencing an El Nino This Year
— Epoch Times
Weather in Context: Weird Winter or Standard Season?
It’s nearly impossible to pinpoint a particular weather event as caused or made worse by climate change, but during any prolonged duration of exceptional weather, such questions always arise. We want to know if the weather we’re experiencing is actually unusual, if it’s part of larger climatic change and if it’s going to become more […]
How climate modelers became calendar models
— The Plainspoken Scientist, AGU
El Niño Could Grow Into a Monster, New Data Show
— Slate
2014 El Niño Warming Up to Be a Mighty One?
— ABC News
Online Crop Calendar Helps Indonesian Government Manage Climate Risk
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia University are collaborating with the Centre for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia Pacific at Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB – Bogor Agriculture University) in Indonesia to help farmers cope with droughts, fires and other climate impacts. The project, called “CU-IPB […]
Climate Change: A Global Public Health Issue
By Madeleine Thomson, Senior Research Scientist For a long time people perceived climate change as an environmental issue–the concern of environmentalists, the concern of a few. It was reframed as a justice issue at the turn of the 21st century, when it became clear that those most likely to suffer the consequences of climate change […]
March 2014 Climate Briefing: Increasing Odds for El Niño
From the March climate briefing, given by IRI’s Chief Forecaster Tony Barnston: Tony Barnston provides an overview of the briefing Changes from last month’s briefing The IRI’s March ENSO forecast puts the chances of El Niño conditions at 60% for early next fall, an increase from the 45% probability in IRI’s February forecast and the 52% probability from NOAA/IRI’s official […]
Scientists develop climate forecast model for meningitis
Note: Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2014 E&E Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net/cw by Umair Irfan, E&E reporter The Harmattan, a dark, dusty northeasterly trade wind, dims the winter skies over West Africa and sows a deadly plague in its wake. The affliction, meningitis, can infect up to 200,000 people annually across the Sahel, but with regional climate […]
Climate Conditions Help Forecast Meningitis Outbreaks
by Michael Shirber, for Astrobiology Magazine Wind and dust conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa Africa can help predict a meningitis epidemic. Determining the role of climate in the spread of certain diseases can assist health officials in “forecasting” epidemics. New research on meningitis incidence in sub-Saharan Africa pinpoints wind and dust conditions as predictors of the […]
Get Ready for Next Climate Phenomenon: El Niño
— Climate Central
John Allen Discusses Extreme Weather
— Xinhua News Agency
New paper: Wild card of decadal variability when simulating future climate scenarios
What follows is the first half of a post written by IRI climate scientist Arthur Greene for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security web site. Greene describes his work to understand how year-to-year and decadal climate fluctuations can act to either enhance or mitigate the effects of climate change. Follow the […]
Explainer: The Global Warming ‘Hiatus’
In the March issue of Nature Climate Change, IRI Director Lisa Goddard explains what may be behind the recent slowdown in global temperature growth in a piece titled “Heat Hide and Seek”. The Earth Institute’s Kim Martineau interviewed Goddard for some additional thoughts. We include the original Q&A here along with additional resources. Q: Is there a global warming […]
El Niño may return late this year, experts say
— Los Angeles Times
February 2014 Climate Briefing: Kelvin Waves Signal Potential El Niño
From February’s climate briefing, given by our Tony Barnston: The central and eastern Pacific Ocean is currently experiencing borderline La Niña conditions, but many models are forecasting an El Niño to develop this (northern hemisphere) summer. Although scientists still don’t know the exact mechanism behind the Pacific’s transition from one state of the El Niño […]
The early return of El Niño
— Climate Spectator
Scientists Tout El Niño Forecast, Others Doubt It
— LiveScience
Study Sounds ‘El Niño Alarm’ For Late This Year
— Climate Central
Climate Services for Farmers: Jamaica
Follow-up coverage from the recently held Third International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS3) continues, this time from our partners at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The World Bank’s Ana E. Bucher gives an informative overview of the climate challenges faced by farmers in Mafoota, a small farming community in […]
Oceanic influence on the sub-seasonal to interannual timing and frequency of extreme dry spells over the West African Sahel
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Climate Information for Humanitarian Agencies: Some Basic Principles
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Climate prediction tools show role of oceans in Amazon drought and fire season
In the last decade, warmer sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have corresponded with below-average precipitation in Peru and western Brazil. The relationship is due to the effect of sea surface temperatures on the location of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) – a band of clouds and rain stretching around the globe where trade winds […]
Climate prediction tools show role of oceans in Amazon drought
— CIFOR Blog
Interns Explore Epidemic, Crop Yield Predictions for IRI, NASA
Andrew Kruczkiewicz sits in front of his laptop, examining a map of South Sudan. The map shows precipitation across the country in varying shades of green. Kruczkiewicz is comparing maps of rainfall and other climate variables with epidemiological information over the same area. He and his research partner, Alexandra Sweeney, are both interns for NASA’s DEVELOP […]
Weather Journal: Beware of Black Ice During the Morning Commute
— The Wall Street Journal
A Closer Look at Tornadoes in a Human-Heated Climate
— New York Times
IRI@AGU: Schedule of Events
Four IRI scientists and one PhD student are attending the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting. Below are links to Q&As with each of the presenters and the schedule of their posters and presentations. For additional information about the scientists’ work, search the conference program for their names here. Pietro Ceccato Q&A Poster: Development and Implementation of Flood […]
IRI@AGU: The Climate Scenarios behind Ag Models
This post is the fourth in a series of Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. IRI’s Arthur Greene develops methods for characterizing climate trends on “near-term” time scales, i.e., […]
IRI@AGU: Bridging the Climate-Weather Gap
This post is the last in a series of five Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. Not all climate forecasts are created (and researched) equally, something that climate scientists […]
IRI@AGU: Inundation Detection for Public Health is “Far-out”
This post is the third in a series of Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. Climate variability and change is an important facet of public health studies of infectious […]
IRI, USAID’s New Training Webcasts for Climate-Resilient Development
IRI, USAID Launch Training Webcasts to Inform Adaptation Planning and Climate-Resilient Development The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have launched a new set of training webcasts geared for development professionals who want to be more fluent in the science that underpins their climate change adaptation projects. The […]
Grid Breakers
— The Weather Channel
IRI@AGU: Linking Ocean Temperatures and Sahel Climate
This post is the second in a series of Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. During the 1970s and 80s, the western Sahel suffered from severe and prolonged […]
IRI@AGU: Capturing ENSO Predictability
This post is the first in a series of Q&As with scientists from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society who will be presenting their work at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco December 9 to 13. Many researchers focus on the ability to predict El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) […]
The Real Truth About Tornadoes (Op-Ed)
— LiveScience
Q&A – Steve Zebiak on Climate Services Conference
Stephen Zebiak is head of the Climate Services Partnership Secretariat, and Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. The Climate Services Partnership is an informal collaborative platform to advance knowledge, tools, and capacities in the delivery of science-based climate services to inform practical decision and policy making. Previously, Zebiak was Director-General […]
Dengue’s Climate Connection
This article is a modification from the press release issued by SUNY’s Upstate Medical University. A study by an international team of researchers led by Anna M. Stewart Ibarra, Ph.D., at the Center for Global Health & Translational Science (CGHATS) at SUNY Upstate Medical University, has provided public health officials with information that will help decrease the […]
El Niño may make 2014 the world’s hottest year yet
— Quartz
Historic Super Typhoon Haiyan Assaults Philippines
— Climate Central
Laos to improve climate forecast by data training
— Xinhua
Ozone Hole Could Be on the Mend
— Climate Central
Climate-proofing major development efforts in East and Southern Africa
— CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
Seasonal Drying In The Amazon Has Greater Impact Than Previously Thought
— redOrbit
Risk of Amazon Rainforest Dieback Higher than IPCC Projects
This article is a modification from the original press release issued by The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences A new study suggests the southern portion of the Amazon rainforest is at a much higher risk of dieback due to climate change than projections made in the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel […]
A call to action: building an index insurance community in Bangladesh
— CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
Tornado Watch in Effect for New York
— The Wall Street Journal
CMIP5 Projected Changes in the Annual Cycle of Precipitation in Monsoon Regions
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Predicting geographic distribution and habitat suitability due to climate change of selected threatened forest tree species in the Philippines
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Use of Climate Information in Malaria Stratification/Early Warning Systems/Impact Assessment for Malaria Interventions
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How can we reach a million farmers with climate services?
— CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
NASA and IRI: Bringing ‘Space to Village’ in East Africa
IRI and NASA have been working together for the past five years on developing products derived from remotely sensed images for monitoring climate and environmental factors that affect the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Their collaboration has expanded recently through new activities with SERVIR Africa, NASA’s partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Regional […]
A hurricane by any other name: How Sandy changed the way we issue storm warnings
— Earth Magazine
Insuring 37,000 Rwandan Farmers Against Drought
Index insurance can lower the cost of insurance, allowing smallholder farmers to buy insurance that can help them withstand the impacts of bad years and risk making productive investments in good years. A key component of index insurance is historical data – often temperature or rainfall data – to use as a basis for creating an index that determines when insurance payouts […]
An Index Insurance Primer
IRI has put together a list of Frequently Asked Questions for the US Agency for International Development about index insurance and how it is being used in development and adaptation projects around the world. Download the FAQ or click on the image. If you’re looking for even more resources on index insurance, head over to our Financial […]
Climate and environmental information for ecosystem services. (Submitted)
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Interview with Dr Lisa Goddard, Director, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
— International Innovation
Climate Forecasts: A Vital Tool for Policymakers
Our friends at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network have written a nice post that explains how IRI’s seasonal climate forecasts have been for decision making, focusing on a particular case in Uruguay. In December 2010, reports showed that many areas of Uruguay were headed for drought. IRI’s seasonal precipitation forecast map issued in November […]
Planning in the Near Term for Climate Change
By Georgette Jasen When scientists talk about climate change, they usually mean significant changes in the measures of climate over several decades or longer. Climate variability generally refers to seasonal changes over a year or so. Lisa Goddard, an expert on climate change and variability, focuses on where the two intersect. As director of the […]
El Niño weather could be forecast a year ahead
— USA Today
Greenhouse gases could cause more frequent El Niño and La Niña events — study
— ClimateWire
Tornado tour selling out despite deadly season
— NBC Today Show
Chasing Tornadoes: A Close Call with a Deadly Storm
By John Allen I’ve been chasing storms in the Great Plains of the United States since 2010, and before that in Australia since 2003. My interest in meteorology started from an encounter with a hailstorm in Sydney, Australia back in 1990, and since then I have had an avid interest in storms that has led […]
Managing Water in a Dry Land
The Elqui River basin in Chile’s Coquimbo region is one of the driest places on Earth. It receives only about 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain each year, and most of it during one short rainy season. The rainfall isalso highly variable. In some years, the region will get close to zero rainfall, while in […]
Managing Water in a Dry Land
— Huffington Post
Responsibility in Index Insurance: The Importance of a Solid Science Base for Farmer-Driven Design
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The challenges of index-based insurance for food security in developing countries
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Climate at Different Spatial and Temporal Scales
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Capturing the Spatial Variability of Rainfall in Weather-Based Index Insurance
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A Wetter Sahel, But Will It Last?
The Sahel is a semiarid region south of the Sahara Desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. In the 1970s and 1980s it was hit by a series of persistent droughts and recurring famines, epitomized by the 1984 famine in Ethiopia. The Sahel remains one of the poorest and least developed […]
Workshop Report: Improving Resilience to Climate Impacts in Ethiopia Through Improved Availability, Access and Use of Climate Information: Dialogue With Users
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A Climate and Health Partnership to Inform the Prevention and Control of Meningoccocal Meningitis in Sub-Saharan Africa: The MERIT Initiative
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Moore Tornado Showcases Advancements in Warnings
— Climate Central
Farmers in Senegal Use Forecasts to Combat Climate Risks
Climate in Africa’s Sahel region varies dramatically from one year to the next and often threatens farmers’ livelihoods. In Kaffrine, Senegal, the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, the Senegalese National Meteorological Agency, the country’s agriculture extension service, the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society and many farmers […]
Making Sense of the Moore Tornado in a Climate Context
— Climate Central
Temperature to be above normal in Azerbaijan in summer
— APA
Training related to the Climate Predictability Tool (CPT)
— CIAT News
Taller especializado en el CIAT sobre pronóstico climático
— CIAT News
A unifying view of climate change in the Sahel linking intra-seasonal, interannual and longer time scales
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Singing the Blues About Water Scarcity
A version of this post originally appeared on the Climate and Society Hot Topics blog. Otis Redding wraps up his acclaimed 1965 album Otis Blue with “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” The refrain “you don’t miss your water ’til your well runs dry” was originally written by William Bell and inspired by his feelings of homesickness for his native Memphis […]
IRI to develop climate adaptation tools to help farmers in South and Southeast Asia
A new two-year climate change initiative, led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society aims to help farmers in Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Bangladesh reduce their vulnerability to climate risks. The International Fund for Agricultural Development is the primary project sponsor and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has provided additional resources. The project was […]
Climate adaptation tools to help farmers in South and Southeast Asia
A new two-year climate change initiative, led by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society aims to help farmers in Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Bangladesh reduce their vulnerability to climate risks. The International Fund for Agricultural Development is the primary project sponsor and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has provided additional resources. […]
Vandalism on the high seas leaves gaps in key climate data
— ClimateWire
Neutral’ Pacific may aid Indian monsoon
— Hindu Business Line
Summer drought may clobber the Midwest
— Wall Street Journal
Discussing Climate, Cities and Food
On October 29, the Earth Institute and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society were slated to hold a discussion on climate, food and cities. The event was canceled, though, as Sandy made landfall that night. In the wake of the storm, which left millions without power and washed away neighborhoods on the Jersey Shore, Staten Island and […]
Paleoclimate histories improve access and sustainability in index insurance programs
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Climate Conversations – Is acceptance of climate change adaptation an admission that mitigation has failed?
— Reuters AlertNet
IPCC urges Obama to raise awareness of science behind climate change
— The Guardian
Power Tool Helps Climate, Public Health Researchers Drill into Data
by Brian Kahn Health and climate are intrinsically linked, yet they rarely operate on the same scales. The flu doesn’t last all winter and malaria outbreaks don’t happen with the first drops of rain, yet deciphering the relationships of these and other infectious diseases with climate factors is vitally important to public health professionals. This […]
Winter Storm Nemo Bares Down on Northeast
— Wall Street Journal
Northeast Braces for Major Storm
— Wall Street Journal
Usaid iniciará plan para ayudar contra el cambio climático
— Listindiario.com
2012: Hottest Year on Record for Continental U.S.
— National Geographic
A simple mechanism for the climatological midsummer drought along the Pacific coast of Central America
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Changes in the character of precipitation in Burkina Faso associated with late-20th century drought and recovery in the Sahel
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Scenario development for estimating potential climate change impacts on crop production in the North China Plain
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Prediction of Rice Production in the Philippines using Seasonal Climate Forecasts
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Diurnal Cycle in Different Weather Regimes and Rainfall Variability over Borneo Associated with ENSO
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Extracting subseasonal scenarios: An alternative method to analyze seasonal predictability of regional-scale tropical rainfall
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Diagnostics of Western Himalayan River Flow: Warm Season (MAM/JJAS) Inflow into Bhakra Dam in India
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Changes in seasonal descriptors of precipitation in Burkina Faso associated with late 20th century drought and recovery in the Sahel
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A month after superstorm Sandy, Americans consider retreat from the sea
— Montreal Gazette
Visualizing Malaria from Space
By Elisabeth Gawthrop, Climate and Society ’13 Public health professionals are increasingly concerned about the impact climate variability and change can have on infectious diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and bacterial meningitis. However, in order to study the relationships between climate and health, researchers first need access to the appropriate kinds of climate data — an […]
Tree Rings and Teachable Moments
By Elisabeth Gawthrop, Climate and Society ’13 Nicole Davi, a postdoctoral scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, thinks tree rings are an ideal way to motivate students to collect and analyze data as well as to learn about climate change. She and her colleagues are developing curriculum, interactive […]
Predicting the Future of Soy in South America
By Elisabeth Gawthrop, Climate and Society ’13 During the 20th century, southeastern South America experienced a soybean boom due in part to increased summer rainfall. Soybean prices have been so high that farmers are planting this crop in areas that were traditionally considered marginal. Why rainfall increased remains unclear. Human-induced climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion […]
South American Cities Face Flood Risk Due to Andes Meltdown
— Scientific American
Latin American Perspectives on Adaptation of Agricultural Systems to Climate Variability and Change
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When Paradise Avenue went under in the flood
— Xinhua News
Winter Outlook Offers Hope For U.S. Skiers & Boarders
— Climate Central
Hurricane Sandy: A disaster foretold?
— PBS.org
Food Security in the Face of Changing Climate
The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 900 million people in the world were chronically hungry between 2010 and 2012. The organization is also warning we could face a global food crisis in 2013 because of historically low grain reserves and rising food prices. Add to this the ever-present challenge of trying to increase both production of and […]
‘This is a wake-up call – don’t hit the snooze button’
“We have to stop thinking in terms of ‘100-year events.’ It’s not going to be another 100 years before we see another extreme storm such as Sandy.” – Art Lerner-Lam, deputy director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory For years before Hurricane Sandy charged ashore on Monday, researchers from the Earth Institute knew what was coming. In a rapidly […]
Party’s Over After Sandy
— Wall Street Journal
Twentieth-Century Summer Precipitation in South Eastern South America: Comparison of Gridded and Station Data
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Feeding the world causes greenhouse emission
— India Blooms
Sandy Just the Latest Example of Climate Change’s Threat to East Coast
— Voice of Russia
The Truth About Verification
In December 2011, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society issued a seasonal precipitation forecast. The forecast called for a 75 percent chance of above normal precipitation over parts of the Philippines between January and March. As the months played out, storms brought roughly eight inches more rain than usual for the period. That’s about 85 percent […]
Breaking the Poverty Trap in Ethiopia: Subsistence, Satellites, and Some Other Important Stuff
Subsistence Two acres of cracked earth. In northern Ethiopia, it can be a trap that keeps farmers tethered to it for generations. Or it can be a springboard to a better life for this and future generations. What impedes it from showing its springier qualities? You could argue the biggest pressure on the land comes […]
From Birmingham to Bamako: How Farmers Deal with Drought
by Vanessa Meadu, Francesco Fiondella and Brian Kahn The massive and wide-scale drought that has left American farmers shaking their fists at barren clouds is the fifth-worst on record for the U.S. Eight out of every 10 acres of agricultural land has been affected. As a result, farmers will pull in the lowest corn yield […]
IRI’s New Director
Lisa Goddard, a leading expert on climate change and El Niño’s influence on climate has been appointed director of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. The IRI is devoted to studying climate prediction and helping vulnerable societies anticipate, prevent and manage climate-related events such as droughts, floods […]
Photo Essay: Into the Heart of Dryness
Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Life expectancy there is 54 years, and it has an infant mortality rate higher than any other country except Afghanistan. It is also a country that is extremely vulnerable to climate variability and change. The livelihoods of four out of five people in Niger depend […]
Climate Information for Improving Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change
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Assessing the individual contributions of variations in temperature, solar radiation and precipitation to crop yield in the North China Plain, 1961-2003
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Decadal Prediction: The New Kid on the Block
Climate scientists generally group future outlooks of the earth’s climate into two, and now possibly three, time-scales. First, there’s short term, or seasonal forecasting, which covers the next month to a year into the future. The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other centers in the U.S. and around the world issue new […]
Is Drought In East Africa The New Normal?
Earlier this month, we wrote about a report from the US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) that warns the Horn of Africa may once again face food shortages because of a poorly performing rainy season. In January, climate scientists Bradfield Lyon and David Dewitt from the International Research Institute for Climate and Society […]
Climate and Food Security in the Horn of Africa
The latest report from the US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warns that the March-to-May rainy season for the Horn of Africa, also known as the “long rains”, is likely to perform poorly again this year. The agency has called for humanitarian organizations to “immediately implement programs to protect livelihoods […]
Spring Sprang Early: Should We Worry?
Last month was the warmest March ever recorded in the U.S, according to the National Weather Service. Here in the northeast, we saw daffodils, tulips and the other colorful banners that signal spring unfurl a few weeks earlier than usual. Even though average temperatures were breaking records, however, the early flowering wasn’t extreme or unusual, says Robert […]
More Food Insecurity Expected in Horn of Africa
The latest report from the US Agency for International Development’s Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warns that the March-to-May rainy season for the Horn of Africa–also known as the “long rains”–is likely to perform poorly again this year. The agency is calling for humanitarian organizations to “immediately implement programs to protect livelihoods and household […]
Seasonal Rainfall Prediction Skill over South Africa: One- versus Two-tiered Forecasting Systems
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Climate Services: Power in Numbers
This is the tenth and final interview in our series on the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. In this interview, the IRI’s Stephen Zebiak describes the fledgling Climate Services Partnership, which was a key outcome of the International Conference on Climate Services. Developing useful climate services requires overcoming both […]
Climate Services: Bring In Many Perspectives, Early On
This is the ninth of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Guy Brassuer is the Director of Germany’s Climate Service Center. In this interview, he discusses the need to bring together many different experts to help define climate services and its […]
Climate Services: Global Framework
This is the eighth of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Jerry Lengoasa is the Deputy Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization. In this interview he describes the thinking behind the Global Framework for Climate Services, which aims to […]
Climate Services: A Private-Sector Perspective
This is the seventh of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Jean-Cristophe Amado is a Risk Manager at Acclimatise North America. He says climate services can’t just be about providing data; they need to focus on building trust with user […]
Climates Services: Must Help Us Understand Risks
This is the fifth of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Carlo Scaramella is the World Food Programme’s Coordinator for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction. He says the WFP’s interest in climate services is fundamentally to make use of […]
Climate Services: Science = Credibility
This is the fourth of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. John Zillman is the former president of the World Meteorological Organization and is currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “The really big challenge these […]
Climate Services: No need to wait for disasters to happen
This is the third of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Maarten Van Aalst is the Director of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre. In this interview he talks about how the Red Cross is using climate information to mobilize […]
Climate Services: A Regional Perspective
This is the second of ten interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Patricia Ramirez is the Director of Meteorology and Climate for the Regional Water Resources Committee, which is based in Costa Rica. She wants to work more with the international […]
Climate Services: Think Local
This is one of a series interviews with climate and development experts conducted at the International Conference on Climate Services, held at Columbia University in October 2011. Edward Carr is the Global Climate Change Science Adviser to the US Agency for International Development. He wants to ensure that international climate services will take into account […]
A model for improving climate services in Africa
In developed countries, we are accustomed to having access to long and detailed records on weather and climate conditions, demographics, disease incidence and many other types of data. Decision makers use this information for a variety of societal benefits: they spot trends, fine-tune public health systems and optimize crop yields, for example. Researchers use it […]
East Africa Drought Is “Exceptional”
In this video interview, IRI’s chief climate scientist, Simon Mason, explains how truly intense the drought in East Africa has been compared to other droughts. In many parts of Kenya…the amount of rain that has been received is less 25% of normal, in some areas it’s less than 5%. To put those figures in context…much […]
Emerging trends in the IGP countries in relation to delivery and exchange of climate information in institutionalized agri-extension systems and through ICT4D.
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Skill of real-time seasonal ENSO model predictions during 2002-2011–Is our capability increasing?
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Downscaling of seasonal rainfall over the Philippines: Dynamical vs. statistical approaches
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Climate Services event at COP-17
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society will be hosting a panel event at this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Durban, South Africa from Nov. 28 to Dec. 9. The panelists will discuss the recent creation of the Climate Services Partnership, which was the main outcome of the recent International […]
International Climate Services
Easily accessible and timely climate information can help societies not only limit the economic and social damage caused by climate-related disasters, but also take advantage of opportunities provided by favorable conditions. Climate services are meant to fill this need. The IRI and the Earth Institute, along with NOAA, Germany’s Climate Services Center, the UK Met […]
Welcome Back, La Niña
Well it’s nearly official: La Niña is making her second appearance this year. After a few months’ hiatus this summer, ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific have dipped back below normal. Does that mean we’ll also see a return of the extreme global weather of this past winter blamed on La Niña? It’s possible but not […]
Fears of a Double Dip…La Niña
What do the economy and tropical ocean temperatures have in common? They’re both exhibiting patterns very similar to 2008. At the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s monthly climate briefing, chief forecaster Tony Barnston focused more on the latter. He laid out the past and the present and what clues they provide about the future. The […]
The Role of Drought in the Horn of Africa Famine
Let’s get this out of the way. The current famine in the Horn of Africa isn’t caused by drought. Rather, a complex mix of societal and political factors created a dangerous situation.The worst drought in 60 years is what pushed that situation over the edge into a humanitarian crisis. However, just as these social factors were […]
Climate Information Crucial to Help Reduce Risk and Limit Disaster Damage
Forecasts can play an invaluable role when used properly in helping humanitarian agencies and governments plan for and prevent disasters, according to the latest Climate and Society publication launched by the IRI and the American Red Cross last week in Washington D.C. Climate and weather disasters, from the massive floods in Pakistan, Australia and Colombia, to the […]
Climate Forecasting: Oceans, Droughts, Climate Change and Other Tools of the Trade
At IRI’s monthly climate briefing, talk often focuses on the role that El Niño or La Niña play in driving global climate. With the collapse of La Niñalast month, though, IRI’s forecasters now have to rely on different tools to offer forecasts for the coming year. That’s both good and bad news for forecasting skill. Climate […]
Climate change threatens a fragile ecosystem in the Andes
In the Andes mountains of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, tucked between the tree line and the line of permanent snow, is the páramo, a unique and hauntingly beautiful mountainous wetland that is threatened by climate change and growing temperature extremes. The páramo of the Northern Andes is wet and cold. Temperatures can dip below […]
R.I.P. La Niña
Attendees observed a brief moment of silence during this month’s climate briefing. Why? Because after nine months, the climate phenomenon La Niña has died. Is there any chance a zombie La Niña could rise from the dead, though? Tony Barnston, IRI’s lead forecaster, answered that question and more. This year’s La Niña was near record setting […]
La Niña Still Hanging On
Don’t write a eulogy for La Niña quite yet. “I thought it would die by this briefing,” said Tony Barnston, the chief forecaster at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, last week. At the climate briefing, which IRI holds every month, Barnston showed signs of La Niña are still observable in the equatorial Pacific. […]
Consequences of climate change for ecosystems and ecosystem services in the Tropical Andes [In Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Tropical Andes, Herzog, et al, Ed.]
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Interannual Variation of the South Asian Monsoon: Links with ENSO and EQUINOO (In The Global Monsoon System: Research and Forecast, Chang, C.-P., et al, Ed.)
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Homecoming
by Ken Kostel It would be easy for any graduate student to turn inward during his or her time at Columbia University, to focus solely on the long, rigorous task of publishing journal articles and completing the thesis. It would be easier still for a newly minted scientist to look anywhere other than his or […]
Multimedia: Summer Institute
Since 2008, public-health professionals and climate scientists from around the world have come to Columbia University to take part in the Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health. Participants spend two weeks learning how to use climate information to make better decisions for health-care planning and disease prevention. The event is organized by the International […]
La Niña Related Impacts Likely to Continue
As of mid-January, moderate-to-strong La Niña conditions continue to exist in the tropical Pacific. Scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society expect these to linger, potentially causing additional shifts in rainfall patterns across many parts of the world in months to come. These shifts, combined with socioeconomic conditions and other factors, can […]
Now is the Time for Climate Services
Changes in climate and weather affect everyone on the planet. Those changes can cause damage or pose opportunities depending on their scale. For example, drought or overly heavy rains can wipe out crops and cause a ripple of damages. However, a more manageable increase in rains can help farmers have a bumper year and accompanying […]
Rainfall prediction based on the relationship between rainfall and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
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Strengthening U.S.-India Agricultural Research
Earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a new era of collaboration on agricultural research in the face of climate change. In fact, efforts have been underway since 2009: the Earth Institute’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) has been working for the past two years […]
‘Democratizing’ Seasonal Forecasts in Latin America
A central tenet of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society is that providing people and institutions with climate information is just one step in a larger effort. There’s also a clear need to build the capacity of scientists to generate tailored information — and to help users ask for information relevant to them. […]
Interactions between ENSO, Monsoon and Diurnal Cycle in Rainfall Variability over Java, Indonesia
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IRI Scientist wins NSF CAREER award
Alessandra Giannini, a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award to advance our understanding of climate model projections in the African Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The Faculty […]
New Report: The State of Climate Prediction
A new report recently released by the National Research Council called “Assessment of Intraseasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction and Predictability” examines the current state of climate forecasting over time periods of a few weeks to a few years, and makes suggestions on how these forecasts might be improved. The International Research Institute for Climate and […]
Early-season warning of soybean rust regional epidemics using El Niño/Southern Oscillation information
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What is Climate Risk Management?
By Stephen Zebiak As I wrote in the previous installment, climate risk management is a process that informs decision making through the application of climate knowledge and information. IRI’s approach to climate risk management consists of four components. The first is identifying vulnerabilities and potential opportunities posed by climate variability or change in a given […]
Managing Risk in a Changing Climate: Making the Case
by Stephen Zebiak We live in a time of rapidly escalating concern about climate change. Although scientific evidence on climate change has been steadily building over many years, only recently has the consensus concerning observed impacts and future scenarios reached a level to capture the world’s attention. Increasingly, the question of whether or not climate […]
An Active Hurricane Season Predicted
by Eric Holthaus The Atlantic hurricane season has officially started, and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society has issued its updated seasonal hurricane forecast for the region. The results continue to indicate that an above-normal season is very likely. This could spell trouble for highly vulnerable Caribbean nations such as Haiti, still reeling […]
Climate and Health Communities Training Together
For the third year in a row, public-health professionals and climate scientists from around the world are visiting Columbia University’s Lamont campus, where the International Research Institute for Climate and Society is based, to learn how to use climate information to make better decisions for health-care planning and disease prevention. They’re taking part in the […]
Climate Information Helps Prepare for Disasters
Climate-related disasters can have a devastating impact on human life and development. Globally, climate events including floods, droughts, cyclones, heat waves and mudslides contribute to tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of injuries and billions of dollars in economic losses each year. In recent years, it’s become clear that such losses can be […]
Creating More Useful Forecasts
Seasonal forecasts can be effective tools for agricultural planners,water resources managers and other decision makers. For example, after torrential rains and floods wreaked havoc in the West African nation of Ghana in 2007, displacing some 400,000 people here, the regional office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies started using seasonal […]
New Program Aims to Mitigate Climate Threats to Food Security
A new multimillion dollar research program by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research aims to alleviate climate-related threats to the food security, livelihoods and environment of people living in the developing world. One of the key intellectual forces behind this initiative has been the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s Jim Hansen. He’ll […]
Climate Risks in Haiti
In this Q+A, IRI staffers discuss some of the climate-related risks that could affect Haitians over the next year as they struggle to rebuild their country after a devastating earthquake in January. Currently, about 1.2 million Haitians are without proper shelter, and an additional 470,000 have been displaced from their homes, according to the U.N. […]
Climate information seen as key in new Early Warning, Early Action report
The latest World Disasters Report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies argues that disaster-relief agencies need to shift focus from expensive response operations to cost-effective prevention measures. An important component of this, the report details, is using climate records, monitoring and forecasts to make planning decisions days, weeks, even months […]
Climate Information and Humanitarian Assistance
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre produced a short video for COP 15 called Using Climate and Weather Forecasts to Improve Humanitarian Decision Making. In the video, staff from the three organizations detail how they have […]
Climate and Meningitis in Africa – A Google Earth Tour
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Google are offering a guided tour of Africa to teach you about the relationship between climate and deadly meningitis outbreaks there. No need to pack your bags, though: it’s a virtual tour, one you can run on Google Earth from your living room. The climate and […]
IRI in Copenhagen
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, will host and participate in a number of events at this year’s Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen, Denmark. Event details are below, in chronological order. Climate change in Google Earth Climate Change Kiosk in the Bella Center, December 10, 11 […]
Leaders in index insurance expand their commitments in Ethiopia
Swiss Re, Oxfam America, The Rockefeller Foundation and Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society announced a joint Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative 2009 meeting in New York, held from September 22 to 25. The collaboration is aimed at helping communities most vulnerable to climate variability and change. It will […]
Statistical Prediction of ENSO from Subsurface Sea Temperature Using a Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction
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Top misconceptions about El Niño
Forecasts by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other institutions show that a weak El Niño has developed in the equatorial Pacific, and is likely to continue evolving with warmer-than-normal conditions persisting there until early 2010. What exactly is this important climate phenomenon and why should society care about it? Who will […]
Index insurance for development and disaster management
Para Espanol: Seguro ‘parametrico’ y reduccion de la pobreza Pour Francais: Une assurance particuliere pour la gestion des risques climatiques Climate has always presented a challenge to farmers, herders, fishermen and others whose livelihoods are closely linked to their environment, particularly those in poor areas of the world. A type of insurance called index insurance […]
Hindcasts of tropical Atlantic SST gradient and South American precipitation: the influences of the ENSO forcing and the Atlantic preconditioning
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Betting on the Rains
By Caitlin Kopcik Rising global food prices and favorable rainfall patterns in recent decades have allowed farmers in South America’s Southern Cone region to grow crops on formerly marginal lands. But if climate patterns shift and the rains start to fail, the region could face devastating losses in its economy, livelihoods and infrastructure. The IRI […]
Climate and Coconuts
Millions of people in the tropics depend on coconuts for food, raw materials and livelihood. Coconuts are also a high value commercial crop. But like any crop, coconuts are at risk of drought and other prolonged events. By using climate science and better agricultural forecast models, the IRI has helped increase the resilience of coconut […]
An Interview with Graeme Hammer
This is the first of an ongoing series of interviews with prominent thinkers in the area of climate risk management. Over the next year, we will be sharing their insights on how climate science and information can help meet the goals of development and adaptation. These individuals are pioneers in fields as diverse as climate […]
The seasonally-varying influence of ENSO on rainfall and tropical cyclone activity in the Philippines
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IRI Technical Report: Guidance on Verification of Operational Seasonal Climate Forecasts
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Shifting from Response to Prevention
Torrential rains lashed West and Central African countries this rainy season, setting off flooding and causing considerable damage. On the evening of June 26th alone, nearly 200 millimeters of rain fell on the villages of Malem Hoddar and Malem Thierigne in eastern Senegal. The ensuing flash floods killed at least one person, displaced dozens of […]
Clustering of eastern North Pacific tropical cyclone tracks: ENSO and MJO effects
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Predictive Skill of AGCM Seasonal Climate Forecasts Subject to Different SST Prediction Methodologies
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Shifts in the Statistics of Daily Rainfall in South America Conditional on ENSO Phase
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Predictability of Sri Lankan Rainfall based on ENSO
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A New Partnership
The International Research Institute for Climate and Society, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have forged a partnership to help save lives from the humanitarian impacts of climate change. The IRI is developing tailored forecasting and monitoring products to help the International […]
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