Tim Woollings

Is "blocking" causing the incoming heatwave in Australia? Australia is set to scorch this week, with the majority of southern Australia under heatwave conditions.

If you're wondering what is causing the extreme heat over SE Australia at the moment, don't miss @weathermanbarnes.bsky.social's excellent explainer on substack. weathermanbarnes.substack.com/p/is-blockin...

Screenshot of the Nullschool app in landscape orientation showing wind streams over the Northern Pacific Ocean with the action menu overlaid on top.

I'm excited to announce the official Nullschool app is here!

earth.nullschool.net on mobile browsers works fine, but the app is nicer. Full screen display, persistence across sessions, text size that matches device settings. Even landscape works well.

And, like the website: no ads!

Links below ⬇️

New session on blocking at EGU!
Please put in an abstract and spread the word...

Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics (AOPP) Open Day 2025
Online, 2 Dec, 1:30-4pm
Meet academics plus drop-in sessions with ample opportunity for you to ask questions.
Fill in the form via https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/study/postgraduates/dphil-atmospheric-oceanic-and-planetary-physics

New Postdoc opportunity with us in AOPP, Oxford!

Overheard In Space by Michael Rosen I Hot Poets Ignite YouTube video by Kids’ Poems and Stories With Michael Rosen

We’re excited to be a part of Hot Poets🔥Ignite a brand new climate & poetry education campaign featuring Michael Rosen - watch the poem, buy the children's poetry book, or book hot poets at your school at hotpoets.org (1/2)

youtu.be/KquXACs9GSQ?...

#climateaction #education #hotpoets

Evaluating seasonal forecast improvements over the past two decades We have analysed the performance of operational seasonal forecasting models since their inception. Clear improvements are measured through the different model eras, particularly in the Tropics. For t....

Are you interested in seasonal forecasts and how they have advanced over the past two decades?
Chris O’Reilly (Univ. of Reading) led a new paper on exactly this: rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Two postdoc jobs available on our Arctic Butterflies project! (Not actual butterflies - basically Arctic dynamics and predictability - the butterfly effect in the Arctic...)

Oxford job: tinyurl.com/yc6h4b35

Reading job: tinyurl.com/ypn75jh2

Please help spread the word!

Oxford Climate Research Network are recruiting!

Join OCRN as the network coordinator (0.6FTE) and help us raise the impact, effectiveness, and profile of climate research at Oxford University.

Deadline: midday 8 Sept 2025

@oxuniearthsci.bsky.social

More details: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job alert: we are looking for a postdoc to join the Atmospheric Dynamics group in Oxford to study Arctic atmospheric dynamics. The focus is on energy transfers between scales and implications for predictability. More details here: tinyurl.com/yc6h4b35

Great Climate Justice event last night at the #RHRNCimate Summit @morethanadodo.bsky.social @pittriversmuseum.bsky.social late night at the museum. Well done everyone, including @climateoxford.bsky.social @geologisetheatre.bsky.social!

Today's climate events in the #RHRNClimate Summit local programme. #MutiraoGlobalCOP30

🗓️ Fri 6 Jun PART 1/3

➡️ All day - Global Youth Climate Summit
➡️ Until 4pm - Climate and Law Conference
➡️ 10-2pm & 2-4pm - Environmental photography exhibit
➡️ 11am - Call for Code

One of our motivations for writing this was a prevalent misconception that blocking systems are becoming more common.

They aren’t. They’re projected to become less frequent.

However, the hot and dry spring is consistent with climate change.

@ncas-uk.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

MSCA opens €404.3 million call for Postdoctoral Fellowships Postdoctoral Fellowships offer researchers holding a PhD the opportunity to acquire new skills through advanced training and international, interdisciplinary, and inter-sectoral mobility.

The ERC Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral programme is now open . marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-op... , closing 10 Sept. (but the Oxford Physics internal deadline is 16 June). A great opportunity for folks from outside the UK to come do a two-year postdoc at Oxford.

Do you have research interests in sub-seasonal prediction, high resolution modelling or data assimilation of the Earth system?

Open junior and senior fellowship opportunities in partnership with University of Reading, ECMWF, NCAS and UK Met Office:

research.reading.ac.uk/earth-system...

Thanks to Tiffany and Isla for leading this review paper - and the workshop last year which inspired it!

And thanks to @erichfischer.bsky.social for a great thread summarising it 👇

10th UK Climate Dynamics Workshop 2025 UK Climate Dynamics Workshops are annual in-person events aiming to promote collaboration amongst the UK academic sector and the Met Office.

10th UK Climate Dynamics Workshop 2025

7–9 July, Met Office, Exeter

Abstract deadline 16 May

www.rmets.org/event/10th-u...

The UK’s gamble on solar geoengineering is like using aspirin for cancer | Raymond Pierrehumbert and Michael Mann Injecting pollutants into the atmosphere to reflect the sun would be extremely dangerous, but the UK is funding field trials

#NotInOurSky : Our opinion piece with Mike Mann on the extreme dangers of ARIA's solar geoengineering project, which is reviewing proposals including field experiments right now: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sensitivity of European blocking to physical parameters in a large ensemble climate model experiment Atmospheric blocking over Europe is found to have surprisingly limited sensitivity to variations of physical parameters in a climate model. Some sensitivity of winter blocking is shown here to nsigma...

New paper on European blocking just out:
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Quite surprising - we looked at how blocking depends on physical parameters in a model and found very few sensitivities - only to convection in summer and to drag in winter.
@cfmcswede.bsky.social

Karen Heywood Houghton Lecture

Wonderful to welcome Prof. Karen Heywood to deliver the annual @ox.ac.uk - @metoffice.bsky.social Houghton Lecture at @oxfordphysics.bsky.social this afternoon, a great choice!

New paper day!

Increasingly Seasonal Jet Stream Raises Risk of Co-Occurring Flooding and Extreme Wind in Great Britain

rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The final piece in the CGFI and friends compound wind flood risk puzzle, led by John Hillier :-)

Still time - abstract deadline for BACO2025 now extended to 25 Feb!

Why meteorologists are comparing Storm Éowyn to a bomb Éowyn’s wind speeds are comparable with the most infamous storms of recent years and decades.

We've put together a little explainer on Storm Éowyn, its development, where it stands compared to other (in)famous storms and on whether future explosive cyclones could become more "sting-jetty" and diabatically driven
theconversation.com/why-meteorol...
@ncas-uk.bsky.social

Great news - well done Libby!

2 weeks left to apply for a NERC-funded PhD place at Oxford!

Abstract deadline for the storm tracks workshop has been extended to 20 January - please tell your friends!

Will be a great meeting in a wonderful place.

We have another great Stormtracks workshop coming up: Rosendal, Norway (near Bergen), 15-20 June 2025.

Abstract submissions deadline is approaching fast: 15 January 2025.

More information:
stormtracks2025.w.uib.no

Please consider coming, and also help spread the word!

New climate science faculty post going in the great Earth Sciences dept here at Oxford. Details below...

Excited to share our latest research, which tries to answer the question of “how long does the ocean remember?”

To find out more, see press release and article.
news.liverpool.ac.uk/2024/12/03/r...

@ricliv.bsky.social @timwoollings.bsky.social

Calling all Oxford climate folks!

Oxford climate drinks is back on Thursday 5th December. Come grab a pint, meet like-minded people and chat about all things climate 🌎 All welcome!

🗓 Thursday 5 December
🕕 From 6pm
🍻 The Victoria, Jericho