Abstract submission and registrations are now open for the ICRC-CORDEX 2019 conference taking place in October in Beijing, China. The deadline for abstract submissions is April 30, 2019. Click the headline to learn more about the conference and how to submit an abstract.

A special collection entitled “The Earth’s energy imbalance and its implications” will be included in the Journal of Climate and all other journals of the American Meteorological Society. To find out more, click the heading above.

The Working Group 1 (WG1) contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6) is seeking further author contributions in some key areas. Click the headline above for more details.

On Tuesday 12 March, WCRP expert James Renwick has been awarded the New Zealand 2018 Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize. James is both a valued active member of the WCRP and WMO community as well as internationally recognized for his exemplary approach to science communication. Click the headline to learn more.

A paper published this week in Nature Climate Change is the first to quantify and contrast the magnitude and impacts of several prominent marine heatwaves using the same methods and metrics as for atmospheric weather extremes. Click the heading above to learn more.

Image: PIXABAY 1993704

Nature Climate Change talks to Dame Julia Slingo, leader of the Review of the World Climate Research Programme, about the achievements and future directions of WCRP. To read more click the heading above.

Hanover, Germany | October 9-11, 2019

Registration is open now for the Herrenhausen Conference "Extreme Events: Building Climate Resilient Societies". For more information, click the heading above.

Photo by Kevin Grieve on Unsplash

We are delighted to announce that the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) has elected Professor Detlef Stammer as its Chair and Dr Helen Cleugh as its Vice-chair for two years. For more information, click the heading above.

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Beatriz Balino has been appointed as the new science coordinator of the WCRP Coordination Office of Regional Activities (CORA) hosted at the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) in Bergen, Norway. Click the headline above for more details. 

A new paper, an outcome of the Young Earth System Scientists—Young Hydrologic Society (YESS-YHS) Workshop in May 2018, presents an early career perspective on major challenges and opportunities that arise in the study, the understanding, and the provision of regional information for climate, weather, and hydrological extreme events. To find out more please click the heading above.

Nanjing, China, 21 October - 1 November 2019

WCRP and partners are bringing together early career scientists and professionals to learn from each other on weather and climate extremes and disaster risk reduction and management. Applications for this highly sought after summer school are now open and will close on 28 March 2019. For more information, click the headline above.

Professor Pavel Kabat, Director of WCRP, Director of WMO Research and WMO Chief Scientist, today addressed the United Nations Security Council during a session on climate related disasters and their impacts on international peace and security. Click the headline for details.

Xuebin Zhang and Olivia Martius, co-conveners and leaders of WCRP's Grand Challenge on Weather and Climate Extremes, would like to bring to your attention an association symposium on high impact weather and climate extremes at the upcoming 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) General Assembly. The deadline for abstracts is 18 February 2019. Click the headline above for more details. 

An overview article published in Nature Climate Change this week describes the work and vision of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Near-Term Climate Prediction. The paper also highlights operational production of decadal climate predictions through the World Meteorological Organization. Click the headline for details.

WCRP is proud to announce that a Workshop on Correlated Extremes will take place at Columbia University from 29 - 31 May 2019, preceded by an evening panel on 28 May 2019. For more information click the heading above.

Nature Climate Change Perspective, 'Taking climate model evaluation to the next level', by Veronika Eyring and others discusses newly developed tools that improve the evaluation of climate models. Advancement in this area is critical for providing the most credible information possible to stakeholders and policy-makers.

Figure: Annual mean SST error from the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble. Figure reproduced from Wiley (see Eyring et al., 2019).

WCRP is pleased to announce that the 2018 WCRP/WWRP International Prize for Model Development has been awarded to Dr Thomas Melvin from the UK Met Office; and the 2018 WCRP/GCOS International Data Prize has been awarded to Dr Paul Durack (Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA). Click the headline for the full announcement.

We are excited to announce that a new book, entitled 'Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction: The Gap Between Weather and Climate Forecasting,' has just been published. It is edited by Andrew Robertson and Frederic Vitart, co-chairs of the Subseasonal-to-Seasonal (S2S) Prediction Project. To find out more click the heading above.

The IPCC invites nominations for Expert Reviewers for two Special Reports' Second Order Drafts: both the "IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land" and "IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere" will be open to government and expert review between November 2018 and January 2019. Click the headline for details.

The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR) is currently seeking a senior adviser to coordinate the newly established office for the World Climate Research Program's regional activities. For more information, click the heading above.

Credit: Tore Furevik, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research

Is there a connection between climate change and wildfires? Kevin Trenberth, Senior Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, explains that "Global warming does not cause wildfires ... global warming exacerbates the conditions and raises the risk of wildfire." To find out how this relates to the Earth's energy imbalance, click the headline above.

A satellite image of the Carr Fire in California (NASA.)