Weather Rescue at Sea: Recovering Historical Weather Observations From 19th Century British Naval Ships
Adding hundreds of thousands more marine weather observations from the 1860s to global datasets
Teleti et al. (2026): rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Humans have become a force of nature!
20K years ago we emerged out of the ice age. Temps climbed gradually over ~12K years… then stabilized for 10K years. That’s when & why modern humans have thrived. But 150 years ago the rate of change abruptly changed… 1/
I made the underlying figure which was adapted into the published version. Might be able to dig out the timeseries.
Bus on campus
Explanation of the stripes inside the bus.
This bus is electric!
Stripes made in Reading.
The new Reading 'warming stripes' double-decker electric bus came to campus today.
The bus is painted in the local warming stripes to start climate conversations throughout the town.
Aside: the bus drivers much prefer driving the electric buses to the diesel or gas-powered ones that are still in the fleet.
Bus on campus
Explanation of the stripes inside the bus.
This bus is electric!
Stripes made in Reading.
The new Reading 'warming stripes' double-decker electric bus came to campus today.
The bus is painted in the local warming stripes to start climate conversations throughout the town.
We would be interested too!
It does not seem straightforward to do ‘before’ and ‘after’ experiments with the datasets?
And, there are a LOT more US ship logs online often with 12x daily observations, all typeset, which are straightforward for the latest AI models to read.
Interesting to see this. And, we have lots more data for WW2 in the Pacific now, but I don't think they've been integrated into any of the datasets yet: rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
These three contributions alone led to a huge financial benefit to UK plc, outweighing the costs of the aircraft.
After spending £50M over the past few years on an mid-life upgrade to the FAAM , the £32M to keep it flying for the next few years seems like a bargain.
A short-sighted decision? (4/4)
During the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010, FAAM flights provided critical evidence to support the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. The aircraft also made flights at the request of the Home Office in response to the Buncefield oil depot fire & the Elgin gas platform release, among others. (3/4)
Key component for me:
Airborne measurement is not solely a research tool; it is a national contingency asset. Decisions about FAAM's future should be viewed through a resilience & security lens, not purely a budgetary one. (2/4)
Statement from RMetS on removal of funding for the FAAM aircraft by NERC, urging continued dialogue between funders, government and the scientific community to reassess the long-term implications of this decision. (1/4)
www.rmets.org/news/stateme...
Major threats to our well being from climate change can be avoided, or hugely reduced, by rapid action.
Our Nature comment calls for a global risk assessment, effectively communicated to governments, the media and the public, to make clear what is at stake.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
No. UKRI have just spent £50 million on an upgrade to the aircraft which was expecting to operate until 2029 at least. The other technologies available cannot (yet) replicate what the FAAM can do.
This aircraft recently had a ~£50 million upgrade to extend its life, and has now been cancelled to save £37 million.
The UK atmospheric research aircraft (the FAAM) will cease operations in one month's time due to a research 'pivot' by UKRI...
www.ukri.org/news/nerc-pi...
Nice tutorial on re-creating @edhawkins.org Warming Stripes in Python & Matplotlib:
towardsdatascience.com/visualizing-...
A screenshot of the CRU-TS national time series dashboard
New dashboard to visualise CRU-TS country averages (i.e. CRU-CY) for temperature, precipitation, humidity and drought area (using our scPDSI indicator).
(It takes a little while to first load, but is quite responsive after that)
climate.uea.co/CRU-Timeseri...
Range of climate indicators for the last 2025 years
And, if you prefer more details, then a graphic with a more complete range of indicators is also available, including Arctic sea ice, ocean heat content, tropospheric temperatures, cherry blossom dates and humidity over land.
ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
Graphic showing changes in CO₂, global temperatures and global sea levels over the last 2025 years. Steep increases are visible after the industrial revolution.
Updated climate indicators graphics, now including 2025
ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
“It was for the sake of this day that he had first decided to run for the Presidency, a decision which had sent waves of astonishment throughout the Imperial Galaxy—Zaphod Beeblebrox? President? Not the Zaphod Beeblebrox? Not the President?” /continued
All these point in one direction: the climate is changing, and the rapid changes started after the steam engine was invented and society started using fossil fuels to generate heat and power on an industrial scale.
Perhaps we ought to think about curtailing our use of fossil fuels?
Just an idea.
Range of climate indicators for the last 2025 years
And, if you prefer more details, then a graphic with a more complete range of indicators is also available, including Arctic sea ice, ocean heat content, tropospheric temperatures, cherry blossom dates and humidity over land.
ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
Graphic showing changes in CO₂, global temperatures and global sea levels over the last 2025 years. Steep increases are visible after the industrial revolution.
Updated climate indicators graphics, now including 2025
ed-hawkins.github.io/climate-visu...
“Many had seen it as a clinching proof that the whole of known creation had finally gone bananas.”
— Douglas Adams
“It was for the sake of this day that he had first decided to run for the Presidency, a decision which had sent waves of astonishment throughout the Imperial Galaxy—Zaphod Beeblebrox? President? Not the Zaphod Beeblebrox? Not the President?” /continued
A new all-electric double-decker Climate Stripes bus has started taking passengers around Reading today.
The bus shows the warming stripes for Reading back to the 1860s and will hopefully help start climate conversations amongst passengers.
#ShowYourStripes
A new all-electric double-decker Climate Stripes bus has started taking passengers around Reading today.
The bus shows the warming stripes for Reading back to the 1860s and will hopefully help start climate conversations amongst passengers.
#ShowYourStripes
Think Reading managed one dry day otherwise we would be the same.
