IEDRO’s Director of Scientific Applications, Dr. Teddy Allen, recently attended the Bi-Annual Caribbean Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF), on the island of Saint Lucia, on behalf of The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), to support a seasonal rainfall prediction workshop. The three-day workshop (May […]
Hydrology
New greenhouse gases record set, WMO reiterates need for international action to avoid devastating climate change
September 9, 2014
GENEVA (WMO) | According to the World Meteorological Organization’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide. This injected even greater urgency into the need for concerted international action against accelerating and potentially devastating climate […]
Part 14: How to project climate into the future: Emission scenarios
July 16, 2012
By Luisa Cristini, PhD, University of Hawaii at Manoa. [Note from the editor: This is the fourteenth in a series of blog entries that will focus on introductory topics in climate dynamics and modeling, and will serve to provide insight into the current understanding of the science.] Changes in external forcing (e.g., solar forcings, astronomical […]
Role of Phytoplankton in Atmospheric Regulation
June 19, 2012
By Penny Paugh Scientists have been examining the self-regulating factors of climate and the oceans. A study conducted at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, WA, has been looking at the role of the tiny organisms and the planet’s atmosphere. “For many years, we thought that chemical emissions from phytoplankton was the major player in […]
Capacity Building Workshop on Data Rescue and Climate Change Indices: A Contribution to the Implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services in the Caribbean
May 23, 2012
By Teddy Allen, IEDRO Science Applications Manager May 7-10, 2012 –The University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica. IEDRO recently participated in the Capacity Building Workshop on Data Rescue and Climate Change Indices as part of the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). The remaining ETCCDI members supporting the workshop represented NOAA, […]
The Economic Impact of Extreme Weather in the US
May 4, 2012
A team of social scientists and economists from Colorado and California recently completed a study on the United States economy’s sensitivity to weather variability: extreme heat, extreme cold, droughts, and floods. This study marked the first time that US economic susceptibility to extreme weather had been explicitly quantified. Seventy years of atmospheric data were used […]
Rwandan Drought; Ongoing Climate Concerns
April 25, 2012
by Aura Lawson La Niña has persisted longer than expected this year, and with it comes agricultural uncertainty for many countries across the globe. Rwanda is no exception. Anthony Twahirwa, head of Rwanda’s Meteorological Center, explains that their forecasting agency expected decreased rainfall as a result of La Niña, or abnormally cool waters in the […]
Part 6: Water – Earth’s Most Precious Resource
April 12, 2012
Luisa Cristini, PhD, University of Hawaii at Manoa [Note from the editor: This is the sixth in a series of blog entries that will focus on introductory topics in climate dynamics and modeling, and will be a great insight into the current understanding of the science.] One of Earth’s unique and finite resources is water. […]
Could Climate Change Have Contributed to the Fall of Rome?
March 26, 2012
By Penny Paugh One form of environmental data, tree rings, has provided evidence of a climate shift that, perhaps not coincidentally, occurred from 250 to 550 A.D., a period that coincides with the fall of the Roman Empire. From ancient wood found in medieval castles and Roman ruins, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, […]
African Drought and Data Rescue
March 23, 2012
Drought in Africa has been a destructive force to life and property since the beginning of recorded time. Most recently, East Africa suffered a severe drought in 2010 that persisted nearly the entire year. However, one good thing that came out of this catastrophic drought was that it revealed several important hints for predicting future […]