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, […]

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 […]

Recommendations for Improved Tropical Cyclone Formation and Position Probabilistic Forecast Products

  • Journal: Tropical Cyclone Research and Review
  • Publisher: Science Direct
  • Published: December 2023
  • Categories: Climate

Author(s):

Jason P. Dunion
Chris Davis
Helen Titley
Helen Greatrex
Munehiko Yamaguchi
John Methven
Raghavendra Ashrit
Zhuo Wang
Hui Yu
Anne-Claire Fontan
Alan Brammer
Matthew Kucas
Matthew Ford
Philippe Papin
Fernando Prates
Carla Mooney
Andrew Kruczkiewicz
Paromita Chakraborty
Andrew Burton
Mark DeMaria
Ryan Torn
Jonathan L. Vigh

Weather and climate forecasters from East, West, and Southern Africa on Columbia’s Morningside Campus

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Seasonal prediction of the Caribbean rainfall cycle

  • Journal: Climate Services
  • Vol. 27
  • Issue: Special Issue: Sub-seasonal to decadal predictions in support of climate services
  • Publisher: Science Direct
  • Published: August 2022
  • Categories: Climate, NextGen

Author(s):

Martinez, Carlos
Muñoz Ángel
Goddard, Lisa
Kushnir, Yochanan
Ting, Mingfang

Advances in the application and utility of subseasonal-to-seasonal predictions

  • Journal: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
  • Vol. 103
  • Issue: 6
  • Publisher: AMS
  • Published: June 2022
  • Categories: Climate, NextGen, Public Health

Author(s):

Christopher J. White
Daniela I. V. Domeisen
Nachiketa Acharya
Elijah A. Adefisan
Michael L. Anderson
Stella Aura
Ahmed A. Balogun
Douglas Bertram
Sonia Bluhm
David J. Brayshaw
Jethro Browell
Dominik Büeler
Andrew Charlton-Perez
Xandre Chourio
Isadora Christel
Caio A. S. Coelho
Michael J. DeFlorio
Luca Delle Monache
Francesca Di Giuseppe
Ana María García-Solórzano
Peter B. Gibson
Lisa Goddard
Carmen González Romero
Richard J. Graham
Robert M. Graham
Christian M. Grams
Alan Halford
W. T. Katty Huang
Kjeld Jensen
Mary Kilavi
Kamoru A. Lawal
Robert W. Lee
David MacLeod
Andrea Manrique-Suñén
Eduardo S. P. R. Martins
Carolyn J. Maxwell
William J. Merryfield
Ángel G. Muñoz
Eniola Olaniyan
George Otieno
John A. Oyedepo
Lluís Palma
Ilias G. Pechlivanidis
Diego Pons
F. Martin Ralph
Dirceu S. Reis Jr.
Tomas A. Remenyi
James S. Risbey
Donald J. C. Robertson
Andrew W. Robertson
Stefan Smith
Albert Soret
ing Sun
Martin C. Todd
Carly R. Tozer
Francisco C. Vasconcelos Jr.
Ilaria Vigo54, Duane E. Waliser
Fredrik Wetterhall
Robert G. Wilson

Advances in the subseasonal prediction of extreme events: Relevant case studies across the globe

  • Journal: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
  • Vol. 103
  • Issue: 6
  • Publisher: AMS
  • Published: June 2022
  • Categories: Climate, NextGen

Author(s):

Daniela I. V. Domeisen
Christopher J. White
Hilla Afargan-Gerstman
Ángel G. Muñoz
Matthew A. Janiga
Frédéric Vitart
C. Ole Wulff
Salomé Antoine
Constantin Ardilouze
Lauriane Batté
Hannah C. Bloomfield
David J. Brayshaw
Suzana J. Camargo1
Andrew Charlton-Pérez
Dan Collins
Tim Cowan
Maria del Mar Chaves
Laura Ferranti
Rosario Gómez
Paula L. M. González
Carmen González Romero
Johnna M. Infanti
Stelios Karozis
Hera Kim
Erik W. Kolstad
Emerson LaJoie
Llorenç Lledó
Linus Magnusson
Piero Malguzzi
Andrea Manrique-Suñén
Daniele Mastrangelo
Stefano Materia
Hanoi Medina
Lluís Palma
Luis E. Pineda
Athanasios Sfetsos
Seok-Woo Son
Albert Soret
Sarah Strazzo
Di Tian

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 […]

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 […]

A young boy walks behind two oxen plowing a field in preparation for rain in Ethiopia.

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 flooded street in Germany with a rescue boat pulled up to a window to evacuate people from a building.

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 […]

Climate Services Ecosystems in times of COVID-19

  • Journal: WMO Bulletin
  • Vol. 69
  • Issue: WMO at 70 - Responding to a Global Pandemic
  • Publisher: WMO
  • Published: 2020
  • Categories: ACToday, Climate, NextGen, Public Health

Author(s):

Lisa Goddard
Carmen González Romero
Ángel G. Muñoz
Nachiketa Acharya
et al.

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 […]

Assessment of CMIP6 Performance and Projected Temperature and Precipitation Changes Over South America

  • Journal: Earth Syst Environ
  • Publisher: Springer Link
  • Published: June 2021
  • Categories: Climate

Author(s):

Mansour Almazroui
Moetasim Ashfaq
M. Nazrul Islam
Irfan Ur Rashid
Shahzad Kamil
Muhammad Adnan Abid
Enda O’Brien
Muhammad Ismail
Michelle Simões Reboita
Anna A. Sörensson
Paola A. Arias
Lincoln Muniz Alves
Michael K. Tippett
Sajjad Saeed
Rein Haarsma
Francisco J. Doblas-Reyes
Fahad Saeed
Fred Kucharski
Imran Nadeem
Yamina Silva-Vidal
Juan A. Rivera
Muhammad Azhar Ehsan
Daniel Martínez-Castro
Ángel G. Muñoz
Md. Arfan Ali
Erika Coppola
Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla

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, […]

A woman in a red dress runs along a tightrope towards a man holding out an umbrella standing on a crumbling cliff. He has several umbrellas in a bucket by his feet and there are several people running in line behind the woman in the red dress.

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 […]

Xandre Chourio speaks at a podium at the launch of NextGen in Bogotá, Colombia.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

  • Journal: Earth Syst Environ
  • Published: January 2021
  • Categories: Climate

Author(s):

Mansour Almazroui
M. Nazrul Islam
Fahad Saeed
Sajjad Saeed
Muhammad Ismail
Muhammad Azhar Ehsan
Ismaila Diallo
Enda O’Brien
Moetasim Ashfaq
Daniel Martínez-Castro
Tereza Cavazos
Ruth Cerezo-Mota
Michael K. Tippett
William J. Gutowski Jr.
Eric J. Alfaro
Hugo G. Hidalgo
Alejandro Vichot-Llano
Jayaka D. Campbell
Shahzad Kamil
Irfan Ur Rashid
Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla
Tannecia Stephenson
Michael Taylor
Mathew Barlow

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 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 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 […]

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% […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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, […]

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.

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 […]

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 […]

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?

  • Journal: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
  • Vol. 21
  • Published: September 2017
  • Categories: Climate

Author(s):

Coughlan de Perez, Erin
Stephens, Elisabeth
Bischiniotis, Konstantinos
van Aalst, Maarten
van den Hurk, Bart
Mason, Simon
Nissan, Hannah
Pappenberger, Florian

Global predictability of temperature extremes

  • Journal: Environmental Research Letters
  • Vol. 13
  • Issue: 5
  • Published: May 2018
  • Categories: Climate, Disasters

Author(s):

Coughlan de Perez, Erin
van Aalst, Maarten
Bischiniotis, Konstantinos
Mason, Simon
Nissan, Hannah
Pappenberger, Florian
Stephens, Elisabeth
Zsoter, Ervin
Bart van den Hurk

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

seasonal-forecast-dec17

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 […]

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

  • Journal: J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol.
  • Vol. 56
  • Issue: October 2017
  • Publisher: AMS
  • Published: October 2017
  • Categories: Climate, Public Health

Author(s):

Nissan, Hannah
Burkhart, Katrin,
Coughlan De Perez, Erin
van Aalst, Maarten
Mason, Simon

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?

  • Journal: frontiers in Microbiology
  • Vol. 8
  • Published: July 2017
  • Categories: Climate, Public Health

Author(s):

Muñoz, Ángel G.
Thomson, Madeleine C.
Stewart-Ibarra, Anna M.
Vecchi, Gabriel A.
Chourio, Xandre
Nájera, Patricia
Moran, Zelda
Yang, Xiaosong

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)

  • Journal: Agrociencias
  • Vol. 181
  • Published: August 2014
  • Categories: Agriculture, Climate, Disasters

Author(s):

G. Cruz
W.E. Baethgen
V. Picasso
R. Terra

Agroclimatology in Grasslands

  • Journal: Agron. Monogr.
  • Vol. 60
  • Publisher: ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, Madison, WI.
  • Published: March 2017
  • Categories: Agriculture, Climate

Author(s):

D.H. Cobon
W. E. Baethgen
W. Landman
A. Williams
E. Archer van Garderen
P. Johnston
J. Malherbe
P. Maluleke
I. Ben Kgakatsi
P. Davis

Climate services and insurance: scaling climate-smart agriculture

  • Journal: Agric. For Dev.
  • Vol. 30
  • Published: May 2017
  • Categories: Agriculture, Climate

Author(s):

A.M. Loboguerrero
J. Hansen
W.E. Baethgen
D. Martinez-Baron

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

  • Publisher: IRI
  • Published: March 2016
  • Categories: Climate, Communications, Disasters, Public Health

Author(s):

Gawthrop, E.
Dinh, D.
Fiondella, F.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Farmers in Honduras. Photo: IRI/Elisabeth Gawthrop

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% […]

Farmers in Honduras. Photo: IRI/Elisabeth Gawthrop

¿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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A Verification Framework for Interannual-to-Decadal Predictions Experiments

  • Journal: Climate Dynamics
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Published: August 2012
  • Categories: Climate

Author(s):

L. Goddard
A. Kumar
A. Solomon
D. Smith
G. Boer
P. Gonzalez
V. Kharin
W. Merryfield
C. Deser
S. J. Mason
B. P. Kirtman
R. Msadek
R. Sutton
E. Hawkins
T. Fricker
G. Hegerl
C. A. T. Ferro
D. B. Stephenson
G. A. Meehl
T. Stockdale
R. Burgman
A. M. Greene
Y. Kushnir
M. Newman
J. Carton
I. Fukumori
T. Delworth

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 […]

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 […]

The Role of Targeted Climate Research at IRI

  • Journal: Earth Perspectives
  • Vol. 1
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Published: June 2014
  • Categories: Climate, Data Library, ENSO

Author(s):

Bradfield Lyon
Alessandra Giannini
Paula Gonzalez
Andrew W. Robertson

Climate and Health in Africa

  • Journal: Earth Perspectives
  • Vol. 1
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Published: June 2014
  • Categories: Climate, Public Health

Author(s):

Madeleine C Thomson
Simon Mason
Barbara Platzer
Abere Mihretie
Judy Omumbo
Gilma Mantilla
Pietro Ceccato
Michel Jancloes
Stephen Connor

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

  • Journal: WIREs Climate Change
  • Publisher: Wiley
  • Published: June 2014
  • Categories: Agriculture, Climate, ENSO, Public Health, Water

Author(s):

Stephen E. Zebiak
Ben Orlove
Àngel G. Muñoz
Catherine Vaughan
James Hansen
Tara Troy
Madeleine C. Thomson
Allyza Lustig
Samantha Garvin

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

paula gonzalez

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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)

  • Journal: Earth Perspectives
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Published: 2013
  • Categories: Climate, Ecosystems

Author(s):

Ceccato, P.
Fernandes, K.
Ruiz, D.
Allis, E.

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 […]

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 […]

Climate at Different Spatial and Temporal Scales

  • Journal: Proceeding of Workshop: The challenges of index-based insurance for food security in developing countries
  • Publisher: Publications Office of the European Union
  • Published: June 2013
  • Categories: Climate, Financial Instruments

Author(s):

Lyon, Bradfield

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

A simple mechanism for the climatological midsummer drought along the Pacific coast of Central America

  • Journal: Atmósfera
  • Vol. 26
  • Published: 2013
  • Categories: Climate, Water

Author(s):

Karnauskas, K. B.,
Seager, R.,
Giannini A.,
Busalacchi, A. J.

Changes in the character of precipitation in Burkina Faso associated with late-20th century drought and recovery in the Sahel

  • Journal: Environmental Development
  • Vol. 5
  • Published: 2013
  • Categories: Climate, Water

Author(s):

Lodoun, T.,
Giannini, A.,
Traoré, P. S.,
Somé, L.,
Sanon, M.,
Vaksmann, M.,
Millogo-Rasolodimby, J.

Extracting subseasonal scenarios: An alternative method to analyze seasonal predictability of regional-scale tropical rainfall

  • Journal: Journal of Climate
  • Published: 2013
  • Categories: Climate, Water

Author(s):

Moron, Vincent
Camberlin, Pierre
Robertson, Andrew W.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Use of ENSO-related climate information in agricultural decision-making in Argentina: a pilot experience.

  • Journal: Agricultural Systems
  • Vol. 74
  • Published: 2002
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Podesta, Guillermo ;Letson, D.;Messina, C.D. ;Royce, F.S. ;Jones, J. W.;Hansen, J.W. ;Ferreyra, A.;Llovet, I.;Grondona, M.;O'Brien, James J.

The ENSO signal in tropical tropospheric temperature

  • Journal: Journal of Climate
  • Vol. 15
  • Published: 2002
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Sobel, A.H.
Held, I.M.
Bretherton, C.S.

ENSO, Pacific decadal variability, and U.S. summertime precipitation, drought, and stream flow

  • Journal: Journal of Climate
  • Vol. 14
  • Published: 2001
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Barlow, M.A.
Nigam, S.
Berbery, E.R.

A Climate Information System Plan: Feasibility for ENSO Early Warning in Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Publisher: IRI
  • Published: 2001
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Ropelewski, C.F.

On the weakening relationship between the Indian Monsoon and ENSO

  • Publisher: Frontier Research System for Global Change (FRSGC)
  • Published: 2000
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Rajagopalan, B.
Kumar, K.K.
Cane, M.A.

Interactions between the Pacific ENSO and tropical Atlantic climate variability.

  • Journal: Journal of Climate
  • Vol. 13
  • Published: 2000
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Saravanan, R.
Chang, P.

ENSO Signals in East African Rainfall Seasons

  • Journal: International Journal of Climatology
  • Vol. 20
  • Published: 2000
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Indeje, M.
Semazzi, F.H.
Ogallo, L.

Does a Climate Model Reproduce Consistent ENSO Precipitation Signals in Southern South America?

  • Publisher: American Meteorological Society
  • Published: 2000
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Grimm, A.M.
Ropelewski, C.F.
Mason, S.J.

Mechanisms of Seasonal ENSO Interaction

  • Journal: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
  • Vol. 54
  • Issue: 1
  • Publisher: American Meteorological Society
  • Published: January 1997
  • Categories: Climate, ENSO

Author(s):

Tziperman, E.
Zebiak, S.E.
Cane, M.A.

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