Climate Is Not Always a Constant On the Centenary of the Birth of Academician M.I. Budyko

Abstract

This article is dedicated to one of the most authoritative climatologists of the 20th century, Academician Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko. In January 2020, we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of his birthday. Budyko had an exceptionally wide scientific horizon. Although he contributed to various scientific fields, the world knows him primarily as a founder of the theory of anthropogenic climate change. The main stages of Budyko’s scientific activity have been described in many publications. This article attempts to provide additional relevant facts and episodes of his life from both my own experience of working and communicating with Budyko and recollections of his colleagues from the Main Geophysical Observatory and the State Hydrological Institute, as well as those of American scientists who cooperated with Budyko over the years, in particular, M. C. MacCraken, who also edited the English text.