How much CO2 can the world emit and still avoid dangerous climate change? Carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuels burning and land‐use change is accumulating in the atmosphere. Current levels are over 40% higher than in the pre‐industrial era and a continued increase of atmospheric CO2 will lead to further warming of the planet. In the Paris Agreement, countries set out to hold the increase in the global

Introduction A tsunami is a series of waves caused by the displacement of water. The displacement may result from ‘bottom‐up’ seabed movement, such as that caused by earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions or ‘top‐down’ movement, from pressure perturbations in the atmosphere. These ‘top‐down’ events are termed meteotsunamis. Meteotsunamis frequently occur in the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea

Co‐hosted by the Grantham Institute, a Royal Meteorological Society meeting was held on 18 November 2019 to discuss climate change around the globe and the two recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special reports (SR) (IPCC, 2019a,b). The meeting's presentations and panel discussions covered the current state of knowledge on climate change and the options for action. Andy

Why is sea level rise important? Sea level rise increases the frequency and severity of storm surges and coastal flooding, causing serious damage to critical infrastructure and leading to the displacement of coastal communities around the world. Globally, more than 600 million people live in low‐lying coastal areas at less than 10m elevation, and the population of these regions is expected to exceed

During 19–20 January 2020, the rapid intensification of an anticyclone over the British Isles resulted in the mean sea level (MSL) barometric pressure surpassing 1050hPa over south Wales and southern districts of England, for the first time anywhere in England or Wales since 1932. New long‐period records for high barometric pressure were established across south‐east Ireland, all of Wales and all of

Snow lying in October at low levels in the UK is unusual even in Scotland, which is closer to the source of Arctic air necessary for its occurrence and with lower sea temperatures. Rarity increases further south, and for the southern Home Counties a single occurrence of lying snow was not reported in October during the twentieth century. As a consequence, the snow which fell in Surrey during the evening

The severe winter weather that prevailed during the period between 7 December 1981 and 18 January 1982 was truly a once‐in‐a‐lifetime experience. During this six‐week period, two episodes of heavy snowfall were followed by clearing skies and exceptionally low temperatures, both by day and by night. This account reports the author's recollections of observing daily weather conditions in rural Worcestershire

One of the most memorable weather events in my 42 years of observing occurred on the morning of Saturday 8 January 2005, during the time when I was keeping weather records from my home on the West Cliff at Whitby, North Yorkshire. A severe gale, with gusts approaching 90 knots, caused considerable structural damage to my property – and resulted in an abrupt and unfortunate termination of my anemometer

Lightning observed from Kirby Cross, near Frinton‐On‐Sea, Essex, 25 July 2019. (© Francesca Knight.)

The record‐high pressures from the January 2020 anticyclone were sufficient to measurably change the boiling point of water.

The very deep 1000‐500 hPa thickness cold pool which affected the UK and Ireland near the end of February 2018, advected the coldest air mass (in depth) into these islands since February 1991 (and the equal coldest since January 1987). This paper focuses on the first phase of the cold spell when snowfall was convective in origin. It was principally ‘Lake Effect’, i.e. associated with the inter‐action

Graphical abstractCoastal boulder deposits on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands off Ireland's west coast, showcase many of the classic features. Note the adult human for scale (in the yellow circle). The cliff‐collapse block in the foreground is the largest ever documented to be moved by storm waves. Weighing 620t, it was shifted several metres during the storms of 2013–2014. The platform on which

February 2019 was exceptionally warm in much of Western Europe, and new monthly records were established during the last week of the month in data series going back more than 100 years. So, what were the origins of the exceptional warmth? In this article, we examine the sources of the warm air, the mechanisms that led to temperatures well above those expected late in the winter season.

Recent research on snow cover patterns over recent decades is reviewed for GB. Interpretation for upland areas is complicated by data availability issues. Nevertheless, two distinct features can be highlighted. Firstly, a general relationship of average yearly snow cover duration with mean temperature. This relationship is apparently non‐linear indicating that snow cover duration is especially sensitive