The largest impacts of increases in temperature will not be experienced due to changes in the mean, but by changes in the extremes. This is illustrated using UK heatwaves to show that the number of days which will require preventative action will increase by roughly a factor of 6 for a 2ºC increase in summer temperatures. Continue reading Extreme UK heatwaves
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Hiatus delays unprecedented warming rates
Current global temperatures are often discussed in terms of their unprecedented nature when compared to the last few thousand years. An interesting paper in Nature Climate Change by Steven J Smith and colleagues examines the rate of warming projected by the CMIP5 ensemble and suggests that the rate of warming is unprecedented also. However, we note here that their projections are not constrained by the current observations which do not show such strong warming rates at present, and are unlikely to do so in the next few years. Continue reading Hiatus delays unprecedented warming rates
Reinventing the colour wheel
Between 5-10% of men and around 0.5% of women are affected by various forms of colour blindness. The most common form is deuteranopia, for which distinguishing between red and green is particularly challenging. This has been pointed out many times before, but it may be worth remembering next time you make a figure or visualisation: ‘red and green should never be seen’.
[Part of the #endrainbow campaign.]
