Industry News
November 2023 was the warmest November on record globally, Copernicus finds
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has found that November 2023 was the warmest November on record globally, with an average surface air temperature of 14.22°C, 0.85°C above the 1991-2020 average for November and 0.32°C above the temperature of the previous warmest November, in 2020.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU, routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on the changes observed in global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. All the reported findings are based on computer-generated analyses and according to the ERA5 data set, using billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
UK Environment Agency publishes review of UK drought research and impacts
The UK Environment Agency has published a review of the latest research into drought including its impacts on people and the environment.
The agency worked with more than 40 experts from 13 different universities, consultancies and research institutes to compile the report. It focuses on three themes: the physical processes that drive droughts, the impacts of droughts, and the management of droughts.
Each theme is further divided into specialist topics, each providing an expert review of a specialist area. UKCEH scientists led the reviews on: past river flow drought trends; future river flow projections; impacts of drought on water quality; and impacts of drought on vegetation.
NASA launches US Greenhouse Gas Center to share climate data
NASA has unveiled the US Greenhouse Gas Center during the 28th annual United Nations Climate Conference (COP28).
Built on open source principles, the US Greenhouse Gas Center’s data sets, related algorithms and supporting code are fully open source. This means anyone can test the data, algorithms and results. The center also includes user support and an analysis hub for users to perform advanced data analysis with computational resources and an interactive, visual interface for storytelling.
The center’s data catalog includes a curated collection of data sets that provide insights into greenhouse gas sources, sinks, emissions and fluxes.
Biden-Harris Administration awards US$7.2m to improve climate projections of extreme weather
The Biden-Harris Administration has awarded US$7.2m to external partners and NOAA collaborators to improve climate projections of extreme weather, which will help communities, businesses and industries better plan for the future.
The projects aim to produce climate projections multiple years and decades in advance to help communities take actions to reduce damage and losses from future weather and climate extremes.
“NOAA has a long history of expert weather and climate forecasting,” said Gina Raimondo, US Secretary of Commerce. “This new set of projects, which were made possible by funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and the Inflation Reduction Act, are designed to significantly advance the quality and breadth of products NOAA provides to better prepare the nation, our communities and industries for the impacts of climate change in future years and decades.”
The funding will support 13 projects to advance projections of tropical cyclones, heat extremes, precipitation and global weather and climate drivers such El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
UAH researchers to study how lightning detected in space relates to thunderstorm strengthening
Two researchers from The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Earth System Science Center were recently awarded US$402,000 to discover what aspects of lightning flashes are captured by NASA’s lightning imaging sensor on the International Space Station and how these characteristics can provide information about how thunderstorms strengthen in intensity.
The funding came from the NASA 2022 Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science and was awarded to Dr Sarah Stough, a research associate at UAH and principal investigator on the project, along with co-investigators Dr Daniel Walker, a research scientist at UAH, and Dr Mason Quick, an atmospheric physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology updates digital climate tool for farmers
Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), and the Bureau of Meteorology have updated their digital climate tool for farmers to include local climate projections for 22 agricultural commodities.
Overall, My Climate View has four major updates: a ‘future climate overview’ that provides users with a snapshot of projected changes across key climate factors for their location and commodity by the 2050s; climate information for two more commodities – tomato and pork; a feature that enables users to download reports and share key climate information with relevant peers, advisers or support networks; and features to improve the experience on a mobile device.
INTERVIEW: Pedro DiNezio, an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder
Unrelenting wildfires in Canada and Hawaii. Catastrophic floods in Libya. Sweltering temperatures across the globe. These climate disasters, which once would have happened every decade or longer, all took place in 2023. As the planet warms, extreme weather events like heat waves, hurricanes, droughts and floods are undeniably becoming more frequent and intense, according to Pedro DiNezio, an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder).
On the eve of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28), set to kick off in Dubai on November 30, 2023, DiNezio spoke with Yvaine Ye, a science writer at CU Boulder, about weather extremes becoming the new normal and what can be done to mitigate future climate disasters.
LSI Lastem installs 38 automatic weather and hydrological stations in Congo
LSI Lastem has supplied and collaborated in the installation of 38 automatic weather and hydrological monitoring stations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Of the 38 stations, 26 are hydro-pluviometric monitoring stations and play an important role in the management of water resources in the region, with a focus on the Ndjili river area. Each station is equipped with a rain gauge, water level sensor and temperature and relative humidity sensors. This equipment will enable real-time data collection, providing warnings and important information for flood prediction and prevention and, more generally, the management of water resources in the area.