As the waters recede on another monster flood, thousands of homes and businesses along the Severn and Wye remain dry thanks to flood defences.

They work.

But they’re not the answer to future flooding and are creating a false sense of security.

A (long!) 🧵

The Copernicus ECMWF team announce that 2023 was hottest on record, about 1.48°C above pre-industrial levels.

'2023 was an exceptional year, with climate records tumbling like dominoes,' says Dr Sam Burgess 🌍🌡🛰

Great graphics in this BBC article about the data: bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…

Devastating footage of flooding in England.

It’s been known since the 1800s that for every degree the atmosphere warms it can hold 7% more moisture.

Wet places are now starting to feel the impact of that as the atmosphere warms…

bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-678…

Whether you agree with the decision or not, it has clearly been made on a point of principle and it gives the climate the consideration it requires, but so rarely gets, from politicians. For that, Skidmore is to be applauded.

It may not be a white Christmas but at least it’s a green one

(UK National Grid status from grid.iamkate.com)

#COP28 likely final stocktake text

No fossil fuel 'phase out'

➡️weak 'calls on parties to contribute to' (but stronger than 'could include')
➡️'transitioning away from FF…accel action in this critical decade' (was 'reducing prod/use')
➡️no methane goal

carbonbrief.org/interactive-tr…

This is what geological-scale sea level rise looks like: Glasgow’s #COP26 venue with water back where it was the last time CO2 was this high. One of many reasons why we need a rapid phase out of fossil fuels at #COP28

🚨 The closing date for these postdoc positions is 18th December (next Monday) 🚨

Please help me spread the word!

UK close to breaking its wind energy generation record: 21.43 GW just now, 21.67 GW to beat!
Sources:
grid.iamkate.com
earth.nullschool.net

It's that time of year when the Scottish gritters are out on the roads.

They all have names, which you can track here: traffic.gov.scot/gritter-tracker

Some favourites in the next tweet 👇

So, the WMO’s provisional State of the Global Climate 2023 report is out. Long-term the story hasn’t changed: world warming, sea rising, ice melting, as well as everything that goes with that. There are details of course, so thread… 1/n

Our next #ClimateConversationsLive is tonight!

Dr James Rae James Rae gives a whistle-stop tour of the 3 S’s of climate change; Simplicity of the science, Seriousness of the impacts, & the action needed to make this problem Solvable

ℹ️ glasgowsciencecentre.org/whats-on/clima…

Nuff said.

You may have seen the news that, yesterday, the Office for Budget Responsibility revised down its forecasts for #ElectricVehicle sales in the UK in the years ahead

A short thread from me on my take on these revisions, and the factors behind them

These postdoc positions are still available (deadline December 18th). I would love to hear from you if you're interested in the high-latitude oceans, circulation, carbon cycle, and climate!