Extreme Weather
When meteorologists call weather 'extreme' they really mean it!
Whilst a hot or windy day may feel extreme to us as we experience it, because it’s very different from the previous few days or weeks, meteorologists take a scientific view. A weather event is not characterised as extreme unless it falls in the outer edges of the climate - what has been experienced over a thirty-year period.
Extreme events have been a major feature of our weather over the last few years. To make relevant resources more accessible for people with a specific interest in extreme weather, it's causes and what future extremes might look like, we have created this page for your convenience. It will be updated when we have new content related to extreme weather and you'll find links to relevant upcoming events and meetings, as well as articles in our publications and some further resources.
(Image Credit: The Wrath of Eleanor by Bill Brooks, shortlisted in the Weather Photographer of the Year 2018 Competition)
Extreme Weather Resources
Journal Articles
- Bad days at the office. Extreme weather events
by Ken Kemp
First published in Weather, 03 August 2018 - The drivers of variability in UK extreme rainfall
by Simon J. Brown
First published in International Journal Of Climatology, 27 November 2018 - Can Arctic warming influence UK extreme weather?
by Edward Hanna, Richard J. Hall, James E.Overland
First published in Weather, 08 November 2017 - Evidence of links between regional climate change and precipitation extremes over India
by Anoop Kumar Mishra, V. Nagaraju, Mohammd Rafiq, Sagarika Chandra
First published in Weather, 20 June 2018
RMetS.org Articles
- Measuring the Weather for Understanding the Climate (Briefing Paper)
- Upward Lightning
- The Beaufort Scale
News Articles
- Hurricane Michael devastates American Panhandle
- Met Office Report - Extreme weather reveals changing climate
- RMetS Meeting - How to Avoid the Worst Effects of Climate Change (Includes video)
UK Severe Weather Warnings
The Met Office issues the official several weather warnings for the UK.
These warnings alert everyone to the possibility of significant impacts that may be caused by expected weather conditions. Even weather that is quite common – so not extreme – can be the subject of a severe weather warning, if it is likely to have a large impact on people’s lives.
The severe weather warnings cover rain, thunderstorms, wind, snow, lightning, ice and fog.
