Event Programme 2025

The RMetS Annual Weather and Climate Conference brings together the UK weather and climate community to showcase cutting-edge science. Taking place across 3 days, the event offers an extensive look at novel approaches, methodologies, and exciting applications within weather and climate science. Find out more below. 

Day 1, Wednesday 2 July 2025

The first day of the conference will officially start at 13.00 but lunch and registration will start from 12.15. The day will finish with a networking drinks reception.

TIME
11.40	Delegates are welcome to watch the Malcolm Walker Winning Lecture
	Role of the Ocean for Long Range Prediction of Atmospheric Circulation  Ned Williams (he/him), Climate Scientist, Met Office
12.15	Registration and Lunch
13.00	Opening of the Conference and Welcome
13.05	Poster Session 1
14.25	Move into Plenary Session Lecture Theatre G.42
14.30	Keynote Presentation: 175 Years of the Royal Meteorological Society: Past Lessons, Present Potential, Future Horizons Prof Liz Bentley (she/her), Chief Executive, Royal Meteorological Society
15.00	The Symons Gold Medal Award Lecture Ensemble Projections for Climate Information James Murphy (he/him), Science Fellow in Ensemble Climate Projections, Met Office Hadley Centre
15.50	Refreshments and Networking Break
	Rooms: 1.08/1.07		Rooms: 1.06/1.05
16.30	Workshop 1: How can Meteorology and Climate Science better support the transition to a Low-Carbon Energy Future?" Chair: David Brayshaw, Professor in Climate Science and Energy Meteorology, University of Reading Ben Hutchins, PhD Student, University of Reading Speakers: Robin Preece, Associate Professor in Future Power Systems, University of Manchester Yuting Chen, Lead Research Engineer, EDF Research		Workshop 2: Machine Learning and Physical Model Developments: A Blended Approach Chair: Cyril Morcrette, Interim Head of Atmospheric Processes and Parametrizations, Met Office Speakers: Helena Reid, Met Office, Joana Rodrigues, Met Office, Leon Borek, Met Office
	Energy systems around the world are undergoing rapid and far-reaching change. From the growing use of weather-sensitive renewables and changes in demand patterns to the increasing exposure of key infrastructure assets, the need for meteorological information to manage weather and climate risk has never been greater. Nowhere is this more obvious than in being able to accurately characterise ‘extreme weather’ events.  Through hands-on ‘case study’ activities, this workshop will discuss some of the scientific challenges associated with producing high-quality actionable climate information for energy system operations and planning. Working with others from both the energy and climate communities, participants will think of new ways to address these challenges using research emerging from the meteorological community, asking the question: how can meteorological science better support the transition to a low-carbon energy future? Please click here for more information		Through small team activities, we will explore ideas for using hybrid approaches in weather forecasting and climate models; combining traditional physics-based approaches with machine learning. After a brief introduction to technical details, the focus will be on new ideas for using observations and model data to better represent the physical processes and interactions in the land-atmosphere-ocean system.  Please click here for more information
18.00	Networking Drinks Reception
20.00	Close of Day 1

 

Day 2, Thursday 3 July 2025

TIME
08.30	Registration and Refreshments
09.00	Conference Welcome and Introductions
09.10	Move into Parallel Oral Sessions
	Forecasting Room: G.42	Tropical Room: 1.08/1.07	Financial Services Room: G.37
	Chair: Brian Golding	Chair: Ruth Geen	Chair: Matt Priestley
09.15	How Consistently Do Ensemble Prediction Systems Represent The Growth Of Atmospheric Uncertainty? Doug Wood (he/him), PhD Student, University of Reading	TOPIM – Modelling Hurricane Intensity for the Caribbean Region Dr Samantha Hallam (she/her), Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher, Irish Climate Analysis Research Units, Maynooth University, Ireland	CRUCIAL: Prediction markets for climate risk forecasting Mark Roulston (he/him), Senior Research Fellow, Lancaster University Management School
09.30	A Multivariate Ensemble Post-Processing Technique for Physically-Consistent Spot Forecasts Alice Lake (she/her), Post-processing Senior Scientist, Met Office	Extreme Weather Events in a Changing Climate: A case study for West Africa (WA)  Manjari Singh, Postdoctoral Researcher, Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Senegal	UK National Climate Science Partnership: Climate Science for Climate Solutions Dr Matt Palmer (he/him), Science Fellow/Associate Professor, Met Office Hadley Centre/University of Bristol
09.45	Can you Brute-Force the Signal to Noise Paradox? Using diffusion models to create seasonal forecast ensembles for forecasting the NAO Alexander Chamberlain-Clay (he/him), Scientific Software Engineer, Met Office	Mesoscale Convective Systems over South America: Representation in km-scale climate simulations and future change Harriet Gilmour (she/her), PhD Student, University of Exeter	Present-day Risk from Winter Storms in the United Kingdom Eloise Matthews (she/her), Deployable Project Scientist, Met Office
10.00	Decadal Predictions for the Energy Sector Benjamin Hutchins (he/him), PhD Student, University of Reading, Department of Meteorology	How ENSO Modifies Propagation of the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation (BSISO) in the Asian Monsoon Region Indrakshi Mukherjee (she/her), PhD Student, University of Reading	The Novelty of the Huracán Project in Understanding Risks Posed to the UK by Tropical and Post-Tropical Cyclones in a Changing Climate Haider Ali (he/him), Senior Research Associate, Newcastle University
10.15	Seamless Climate Forecast of Climate Extremes across Seasonal to Multi-Annual Timescales Muhammad Adnan Abid (he/him), Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Oxford	How does the Spatial Scale of Surface Flux Variability affect MCS Properties? Ben Maybee (he/him), Research Fellow in Tropical Meteorology, University of Leeds	Future Labour Productivity Loss Estimates for Financial Services from Climate Model Projections Aidan Starr (he/him/his), Climate Scientist, Climate X
10.30	Understanding the Accuracy of Weather Forecasts Ben Ayliffe (he/him), Post-processing Scientist, Met Office	The Role of Dry Intrusions in Breaks of the Indian Summer Monsoon Dr Akshay Deoras (he/him), Research Scientist, National Centre for Atmospheric Science & Department of Meteorology, University of Reading	Towards Multi-Hazard and Multi-Risk Indicators for Climate Extremes Dr Christopher White (he/him), Director of the Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde
10.45	Refreshments and Networking Break
11.30	Room: 1.08/1.07	Room: 1.06/1.05	Room: G.42
	Workshop 3: Compound Extremes and Cascading Impacts and Risks Chair: Dr Christopher White, Director of the Centre for Water, Environment, Sustainability and Public Health, University of Strathclyde Co-chairs: Dr Mohammed Sarfaraz Gani Adnan, Research Fellow, Brunel University and Isabel Rushby, Applied Climate Scientist, Met Office. Speakers: David Harkin, Network Rail, Prof Hayley Fowler, Newcastle University.	Workshop 4:  Cognitive Biases: Shaping Weather and Climate Perception Chair: Helen Roberts, Socio-meteorologist, Met Office and Bath University Speakers: Sarah Jenkins, Social Scientist, Met Office and Leeds University, Bria Grange, Civil Contingencies Advisor, Met Office, Greg Wolverson, Civil Contingencies Advisor, Met Office	Panel 5: Air Quality Panel Session Chair: Jim McQuaid, University of Leeds Speakers: Kayla Schulte, MRC Early Career Research Fellow, Imperial College London, David Topping, Professor of The Digital Environment, University of Manchester, Ailish Graham, University of Leeds
	This interdisciplinary workshop will explore the complex interplay of compound hydrometeorological extremes—events involving multiple climate drivers and/or impacts—and their potential to trigger cascading impacts and risks across interconnected systems. Focusing on developing interdisciplinary approaches to improve scientific approaches, impact assessments and risk management strategies, keynote presentations and structured discussions will explore recent advances in identifying, modelling, and predicting compound events and their amplified impacts on critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities. The workshop will draw on case studies to highlight real-world examples of high-impact cascading risks, including disruptions to energy, transport and supply chains. The workshop is seeking interdisciplinary participants including climate scientists, engineers, policymakers, and risk analysts, aiming to fill knowledge gaps and bridge research and application. The workshop will help identify recent progress and priority research areas in support of the ongoing UK Fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment independent assessment (CCRA4). The workshop will be supported by two Horizon Europe projects MEDiate: Multi-hazard and risk-informed system for enhanced local and regional disaster risk management and COMPASS: Compound extremes attribution of climate change: towards an operational service. The full workshop agenda is available to download. This workshop is supported by:	The Met Office' purpose is to 'help you to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive’. To fulfil this, we must understand how people make decisions. This requires transdisciplinary working across the physical and social sciences, including psychology and behavioural science. One important aspect of decision-making, is the potential for cognitive biases, this is particularly relevant for how people understand and respond to weather warnings. In this workshop we will explore decision theory, and consider how cognitive biases can impact how people respond to weather and climate information, including suggestions for ways in which we might mitigate these challenges.    Please could all delegates bring their mobile phones to this workshop for use in the session. For more information on the session, please click here.	Air pollution is a major public health risk, contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, low birth weight, and cognitive decline.  In particular, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is of particular concern because it can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream as well as having a wide range of sources which change in their relative importance through the year. The smallest particles (PM0.1) are small enough to cross the blood/brain barrier, which results in neurological decline caused by the toxic nature of this material. Furthermore, the health burdens are often unevenly distributed, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged communities creating an environmental justice element in the quality of the air we breathe.  The recent report from the Royal College of Physicians has estimated that around 30,000 deaths per year in the UK are thought to be attributed to air pollution, with an economic cost of £27 billion in the UK due to healthcare costs, productivity losses and reduced quality of life. When wider impacts such as dementia are accounted for, the economic cost may be as high as £50bn every year, this represents over 2% of the UK GDP.   While tailpipe emissions from transport have decreased, diesel vehicles, especially older models, remain a major source of both PM and also NO₂ whilst the shift to electric vehicles has reduced combustion emissions but raises questions around tyre wear, brake dust, and also upstream energy source emissions. A growing source of PM in the UK is wood burning in stoves and open fires for secondary heating, especially in suburban and rural areas.  The size of this particulate material also means that there is potential for significant long range transport which imposes a higher regional background concentration which we have no way to control. This means that the UK is very challenged to meet the WHO guideline levels for PM2.5 which were set in 2021.  Given all of this clear evidence of the dangers of exposure to air pollution, many feel that public awareness is still limited, and regulation/enforcement is often weak. Since the pandemic there has been a major shift to include indoor air quality which is a considerably more variable mix of gases and particles. In order to better assess human exposure we need to consider that most people spend a large fraction of their time inside and across a number of very different settings. We will discuss where the data challenges are, particularly with the growth of citizen and community led science and also consider how we best make use of low-cost sensors which are growing rapidly but present their own challenges in terms of data quality and integration.
13.00	Lunch and Networking
	Keynote Plenary Room: G.42
14.15	Keynote Presentation: Drivers of Humid Heat Extremes across the Global Tropics Cathryn Birch (she/her), Professor of Meteorology and Climate, University of Leeds
14.45	Keynote Presentation: Translating Academic Research for the Media Ayesha Tandon  (she/her), Science Correspondent, Carbon Brief
15.15	Keynote Presentation: Climate Projections of Net-Zero Futures Andrea Dittus (she/her), NERC Independent Research Fellow, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading
15.45	Refreshments and Networking Break
	Move into Parallel Oral Sessions
	Floods Room: 1.08/1.07	Extremes Room: G.42	Dynamics Room: G.37
	Chair: Andy Russell	Chair: Bria Grange	Chair: Simon Lee
16.25	Testing the Predictability of Intense Convective Rainfall in the UK: Results from the 2024 Met Office summer testbed Brian Golding, Fellow in Weather Impacts, Met Office and President, Royal Meteorological Society	An Urban Street Canyon Heat Stress Calculation Method for Weather and Climate Models Jon Shonk (he/him), Senior Scientist, Met Office	Europe’s Elevated Mixed Layer: New Insights into the Spanish Plume David M. Schultz (he/him), Professor of Synoptic Meteorology, Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester
16.40	Improving Design Event Extreme Rainfall Estimation for Flood Risk Management Duncan Faulkner (he/him), Chief Hydrologist, JBA Consulting	The Changing Probability of Hot-Dry Compound Extremes in England Isabel Rushby (she/her), Applied Climate Scientist, Met Office	Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity in the Changing Response of Atmospheric Water Vapour Variability to Global Warming over the Past Decades Dr Vikas K. Patel (he/him), Research Fellow, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
16.55	Projecting Changes in Power Outage Frequency due to Pluvial Flooding in Northwest England Will Hodder (he/him), Lead Research Engineer, EDF Energy, EDF UK R&D	Application of GEV Modelling to 80 Years of Precipitation Data at weather stations across Ireland: Trends and Extremes Darshana Jayakumari, Post Doc, Climate Services Division, HQ Glasnevin, Met Éireann	Deep Learning for Identifying High-Impact Dry Intrusions: European Storm Case Study Owain Harris (he/him), PhD Student, University of Exeter
17.05	Evaluating the Impacts and Countermeasures of Repeated Flooding in Beledweyne City, Somalia Hodo Ahmed Abdilahi (she/her), Director of Public Relations, Gollis University		The Impact of Stratospheric Ozone on Weather Prediction Dr Beatriz Monge-Sanz, Senior Researcher, University of Oxford
17.20	Close of Day 2
19.00	Evening BBQ

Day 3, Friday 4 July 2025

TIME
08.30	Registration and Refreshments
09.00	Conference Welcome and Introductions
09.00	Move into Parallel Oral Sessions
	Clouds & Aerosols  Room: 1.08/1.07	Changing Climate Room: G.42	Observations Room: G.37
	Chair: Jim McQuaid	Chair: Bria Grange	Chair: Andy Russell
09.05	Evaluation of a Simplified Double-Moment Aerosol Scheme (SOL/INSOL) using Synchronous UK Satellite, Airborne and Ground-Based Observations Angela Mynard (she/her), Aerosol Scientist, Met Office	An Emergent Constraint for European Storminess Matthew Priestley (he/him), Research Fellow, University of Exeter	Gridded Climatologies from Crowdsourced Data: A 12-Year Daily Dataset for Climate Services in the UK Matthew Fry (he/him), Scientist, Met Office
09.20	Meteorological and Climatological Conditions Supportive for Windblown Dust Formation in Poland Filip Skop (he/him), PhD Student, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Department of Meteorology and Climatology	Energetic Signatures of Tropical Rainband Biases & Shifts in CMIP6 Ruth Geen (she/her), Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham	Identifying Cumulonimbus Clouds from Radar Imagery Using a Convolutional Neural Network James Mitton (he/him), Foundation Scientist, Aviation Applications, Met Office
09.35	Diffusion Models for Image-Based Nowcasting of Desert Dust for West Africa Kilian Hermes (he/him), PhD Student, University of Leeds	From Weather to Climate: Using Medium-Range Forecasts to Quantify Long-Term Trends in Extreme Events Olivia Vashti Ayim (she/her),DPhil Student, University of Oxford	Astroclimes - Measuring the abundance of CO2 and CH4 in the Earth's atmosphere using astronomical observations Marcelo Aron Fetzner Keniger (he/him), PhD Student, University of Warwick
09.50	Modelling the Stratospheric Impacts of the Australian Wildfires Dr Meghna Soni, Postdoc, University of Exeter	Multidecadal Trends in Seasonal Hindcasts Rhidian Thomas (he/him), Research Scientist, National Centre for Atmospheric Science/University of Reading	Disentangling Mechanisms Controlling Atmospheric Transport and Mixing Processes over Mountain Areas at Different Space and Timescales: Preliminary results from the field campaigns of the project DECIPHER Dino Zardi (he/him), Professor, University of Trento, Italy
10.05	Characterising Secondary Ice Production Regimes in Midlatitude Frontal Clouds Using Radar and Aircraft Observations Rosie Mammatt (she/her), PhD Student, University of Reading	Modelling Tropical Forest Responses to Elevated CO2 in a Nutrient-Limited Environment: JULES simulations at the AmazonFACE site Peter Anthony Cook (he/him), Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter	Crowdsourced All-Sky Imagery: Goldmine or Bust? Dr Ben S. Pickering (he/him), Self-employed
10.20		Future High Resolution UK Wave Projections Katie Hodge (she/her), Senior Applied Climate Scientist, Met Office	Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Methods for Imputing Missing Daily Rainfall Data in Complex Himalayan Terrains Rahul Sharma, S. Sreekesh, PhD Research Scholar, Center for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University
10.35	Poster Session with Refreshments
12.00	Lunch and Networking
13.00	Room: 1.08/1.07	Room: 1.06/1.05	Room: 1.04
	Workshop 7: Moving Towards Uninsurability?: Insights of seasonal/decadal forecasts on Insurance risk Chair: Matthew Priestley, University of Exeter Facilitators: Melissa Seabrook, Met Office, Chris Webber, Brit Insurance	Workshop 8: Engaging in the Policy Process with Government, Parliament and Beyond Chair: Andy Russell Speakers: Katharine Steentjes, Swansea University, Friso de Graaf, QMUL, Symiah Barnett, Loughborough University	Workshop 9: Emotionally Connecting and Supporting Action on Climate Change Chair: John Thorne
	Insurance is in place to cover risk and protect against potential damages from natural disasters. As the climate changes, we are seeing more extreme hazards. In certain regions, it may be that the risk is so high that property, or business, becomes uninsurable, or has limited coverage. Recent examples are the withdrawal of some insurance companies from the California Wildfire market, citing too high risk. This is a region that was then heavily impacted in early 2025. For many hazards (e.g. Hurricane’s in Florida) the risk potential is understood, however, owing to the high year-to-year variability and potential changes from climate change, the exact impact in the coming 5-10 years is uncertain. Through utilisation of decadal forecasting products a greater understanding of the risk in the coming years, and what regions may be that are not now, can be made. Information of this type can help insurers understand how to evolve premiums, and understand the impacts facing their portfolios in the near-term. This workshop will explore regions of potential decadal predictability that are currently at high risk, and regions where we expect to see rapid changes in the coming years. Participants from industry will highlight the key usability of this information, with group discussions focussing on areas for research development, pathways to impact, and utilisation of existing data products.	Effective and efficient policy requires a robust evidence base to inform the direction of the policy development.  However, the process by which policy professionals find and use evidence can be opaque and difficult to penetrate. Even the meanings of "evidence", “policy” and “policy makers” are not clear to many of us or consistently used by different actors.  In this workshop we aim to discuss and share our experiences on different ways that weather and climate researchers can, and have, engaged with policy professionals and what they learned from that experience. We’ll go through this process in 3 steps:  1.    We’ll start with a short overview of Government(s), Parliament(s) and other policy relevant actors and routes to engagement in the UK. 2.    Then we’ll hear from some people who have spent significant periods of time working with different policy actors and how that impacted their research and what they learned from the process. 3.    Finally, we’ll open to floor to questions and discussion about why and how you might want to (or already have) engaged in the policy process and also think about actions you can take to engage the right policy professionals in your research process.	Despite the logical and evidence-driven, forthright approach we take to researching and communicating Climate Science, we continue with a system that will ultimately destroy humanity. We are distressed with how clear warning signs are ignored and a global lack of action. As scientists we are emotionally involved, but unsure how to translate this into our roles. In this workshop we seek perspective, using tools such as the Planetary Boundaries, and holistically considering environment, society and a designed economy. Understanding the psychology at play, how systems drive what we do, and in the face of overwhelming issues just what meaningful professional action really looks like. The session is a safe and positive space to interact, to share ideas and concerns, to ask the questions you need to. You will work out your own response, having time to workshop a personal approach and future strategy.
14.30	Moving into Final Plenary session Room: G.42
	Chair: Liz Bentley
14.35	On the Predictive Value of Upper Stratosphere Dynamics for the Winter NAO Lizzie Collingwood (she/her), PhD Student, British Antarctic Survey, University of Southampton
14.50	The Devil’s in the Detail – Medium range forecasts for the public Ben Ayliffe (he/him), Post-processing Scientist, Met Office
15.05	Counterfactuals2 : Exploring the plausible limits of future extremes Nick Leach (he/him), Senior Research Scientist, University of Oxford // Climate X Ltd
15.20	State of the UK Climate in 2024 Mike Kendon, Climate Information Scientist, Met Office
15.35	Conference Conclusions
15.45	Conference Close