Obviously the lack of the major/minor system is a factor here, but another big one is the obsession with IoP accreditation, which essentially enforces a nationwide curriculum for most of a Physics degree.
Excerpt from RMetS weather: Speed rage or snow gauge? An anti-speed camera campaign in County Durham has taken an unexpected meteoro- logical turn. Three weather stations located in Bradbury, Toronto and Tow Law have been destroyed, apparently mistaken for the nation’s least-loved roadside accessory. One even found itself face down in a field full of sheep. Far from snapping speeders, these sta- tions quietly measure road and air tem- peratures so gritters know when to roll, sparing motorists from wintry hazards through the colder months. Temporary signs declaring ‘not a speed monitor’ were already in place, but the council is now arranging for permanent signs to be installed. (Source: BBC.)
A bit of an odd snippet from this month's Weather magazine. The 'campaigners' did damage equipment designed to spare road users from hazards, but that was their intention all along.
It doesn't help that most undergraduate physics courses in the UK treat classical physics as an aside. By my third year the entirety of mandatory lecture/exam modules were quantum/particle/cosmology focused and I first learnt fluid dynamics from an optional module in the maths department.
Annual updates to ‘climate forcing’ data sets would allow simulations to keep pace as global warming accelerates.
go.nature.com/45N9aXt
Compared to the excess CO2 emitted by encouraging driving in urban areas by giving them right of way over pedestrians? Pretty much zero.
It was great to give an overview of my research so far at the RMetS Early Career conference earlier today! And great to hear about the variety of other research from early career scientists in the field.
Very pleased to have won the Malcolm Walker Award for New Environmental Researchers! It is an honour to stand in the company of previous winners and it was great to attend the awards ceremony on Wednesday alongside the winners of other RMetS awards.
www.rmets.org/news/royal-m...
I have good memories of cycling to here as a teen. It's a shame if future generations won't be able to do the same.
THE RISE OF MACHINE LEARNING IN CLIMATE MODELLING Very pleased to report the first published output from the @metoffice.bsky.social new team Data Driven Climate Modelling team. A short commentary from my esteemed colleague George Jordan rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Maps illustrating the Hydrological Summary for March 2025.
💧Latest Hydrological Summary shows:
-Below-average March rainfall in all areas of UK after dry winter
-Many rivers in N & W have exceptionally low flows
-Record low March groundwater levels in N Ireland, Scotland, Wales
🔎https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-04/HS_202503.pdf
A view of the Northern Hemisphere winds at 10 hPa, with the cyclonic polar vortex shrunken and displaced to over Fennoscandia, and a large anticyclone dominating most of the Arctic
"Why are you so bent out of shape, polar vortex?"
Beautiful view via earth.nullschool.net (using NOAA's free GFS model data) of the current stratospheric warming event – likely to be the final stratospheric warming (FSW) – featuring one of the largest stratospheric wave-1 disturbances on record.
Thanks! Essentially - although I'm getting the ferry from the Netherlands (near Rotterdam) to the UK (Essex)! The Eurostar essentially doesn't allow non-folded bikes, plus it's a 1.5 day trip and the overnight ferry with a cabin is more economic than a hotel somewhere :)
Bicycle with loaded panniers and a large backpack rested on it. On a train platform.
Looking down the Elbe from Landungsbrücken towards the Elbphilharmonie. Scattered clouds.
Yesterday was my last day at MPI-M, this morning I left Hamburg. It has been a great experience to live and work abroad and there's a lot I'll miss, but I'm also looking forward to what's next!
I really cannot believe my childhood career dream might end like this. Feeling so small and lost.
Reposting this report, which has a message which I suspect holds true in many other countries.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
However...
bsky.app/profile/cowe...
A data availability statement I wrote yesterday is no longer valid...
RMetS Annual Weather and Climate Conference 2025 banner
What better way to spend three days in July than by coming to Manchester for this year's @rmets.org Annual Weather and Climate Conference? 😁
Please consider submitting an abstract – deadline 14 February.
We look forward to seeing you there! More details: www.rmets.org/annualconfer...
Sandy meandering path towards the top of a heath-covered sand dune. Grey sky
View down wooden stepped walkway towards thatched house and sand dunes
Sandy beach, looking along it with sea in background on the right
Visited Sylt at the very northern end of Germany yesterday. Only accessible from mainland Germany by train, with lots of unique landscapes and nice to see the sea!
Long exposure picture of Met Office HQ, Exeter at night/twilight. Road in foreground, greenery and path towards glass-plate building behind.
Excited to say that I'll be starting a Scientist role in the Monthly-to-Decadal team at the Met Office in March! I will miss Hamburg and it's been a great experience to live and work in Germany, but I'm also looking forward to being back in Exeter/Devon.
LinkedIn post from Andrew Ng: "Just released: New AI Climate Simulator that you can play with. Visualize how geoengineering can slow global warming. There is no longer any path to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (Paris Agreement), unless we use geoengineering. Reflecting 1% of sunlight away from earth would lead to an extra ~1 degree of cooling. Our simulator lets you explore how geoengineering via Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) gives us new paths to keep warming to 1.5 degrees. I think SAI is a promising technology worth serious exploration. Check out the simulator here: planetparasol.ai"
I worry that the concept of geoengineering is increasingly going to enter public discussion, not through climate scientists who want to make the nuances and ethics clear, but through the large audience tech sector who want to be seen as having solutions.
Pyramid shaped rock in snow, snow covered trees in background
View broadly above the same rock, with small snowman built on top
Built Hamburg's highest* snowman earlier.
*in terms of altitude
I think this issue is what leads to AI forecasts being billed as a replacement for NWP in some circles, as it's seen as something more advanced and sophisticated, whereas I think it's better seen as something that will supplement NWP for forecasting.
At some point the NWP world has to address that 'we run a statistical model based on what happened in the past to estimate the future' became the futuristic tech-y solution instead of 'we use the world's most powerful computers to represent the earth based on physics and then run it forward in time'
Dartmoor visitor centre to close as National Park Authority cannot afford to renew lease from Duchy
National Parks are facing 12% budget cuts - not a great way for Labour to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their creation
& why is Duchy charging at all?
www.tavistock-today.co.uk/news/nationa...
ASPECT project is now on Bluesky!!
Join our network to keep in touch with the latest project news!
@aspect-project.bsky.social
A little over a week to enter nominations for the 2024 Royal Meteorological Society Awards. A wide range of awards which recognise (among others) early-career scientists, educators, communicators and world-leading scientists in meteorology and climate science.
www.rmets.org/nominations-...
Pleased to have played a role in this work: the 1 year-lagged impact of ENSO in the extratropics far exceeds the expected effect due to ENSO autocorrelation, and we propose large-scale atmospheric angular momentum anomalies propagating polewards as a mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A colour coded map of UK showing central England with extraordinary high rainfall in purple and western Scotland very dry in brown
Extraordinary rainfall distribution in UK in September. Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire saw their wettest month in our 188 year series. But only 25% wetter than average overall despite many areas having 3x average rainfall. More details in Met Office press release www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
