Extreme Climate Events

Extreme climate events exact a heavy socio-economic toll on humankind, and anthropogenic climate change may further aggravate the situation. This has led to a growing scientific and societal awareness of the importance of understanding climate extremes.

In Uppsala, we investigate the drivers, predictability and impacts of a broad range of climate extremes, with a focus on the mid and high latitudes. Our research touches events as different as polar cyclones, heavy precipitation, cold spells, windstorms and more.

To understand the physical drivers of these extreme events, we study processes ranging from hundreds (e.g. extratropical cyclones) to thousands of kilometres (e.g. planetary waves). The work on predictability leverages this physical understanding to improve our ability to forecast the occurrence of extreme events on multiple timescales. Finally, the work on impacts considers effects on the biosphere, including agriculture, on the built environment and on energy production. The tools we employ span from idealised approaches grounded in applied mathematics to in situ observations, machine learning approaches and numerical modelling.

Persons: Vera Melinda Galfi, Gabriele Messori, Anna Rutgersson, Venugopal Reddy Thandlam, Kunhui Ye

Extreme Climate Events

Ongoing projects