It was close to midnight when I received a phone call from my sister telling me that our parent’s house was under water. Neither she nor they really knew what…Read More >
weather
How to predict the summer weather – magic, miracle and meteorology
On July 15 971, the bones of St Swithin were removed from their resting place on the order of Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and placed in a shrine inside the…Read More >
Severe storms from tropics reach Europe once every five years on average – new research
An unusual and devastating storm struck Ireland in the early hours of October 16, 2017. Record-breaking gusts of up to 119mph left 360,000 homes without electricity and, sadly, three people…Read More >
Meteorological Masterclass: Representing Convection in Numerical Weather Prediction models and its Implications
Wednesday 10 March 2021: Representing convection in Numerical Weather Prediction models and its implications Professor Bob Plant, University of Reading The forecasting of convective precipitation remains among the most challenging…Read More >
Climate change is making extreme cold much less likely, despite the UK plummeting to -23°C
The UK, along with large parts of northern Europe, is in the grip of an unusually cold period of weather thanks to a flow of cold easterly winds from Siberia….Read More >
Beware Floods Ahead!
Join us at in the ExplorerZone Digital of the Oxford Science and Ideas Festival on Saturday 17 October – from 8am to 8pm from the comfort of your own home. …Read More >
Heatwaves are an invisible killer – and the UK is woefully unprepared
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause suffering around the world, but another killer has silently struck in summer 2020. With relatively little by way of official warning or advice on…Read More >
Cold war nuclear tests changed rainfall thousands of miles away
It’s difficult to imagine quite how alarming it would have been for the world’s meteorologists monitoring the atmosphere during the nuclear tests in the 1950s and early 60s. The radioactivity…Read More >
London just broke a 300-year-old weather record – but you probably didn’t even notice it
A London weather record was broken recently making for an exceptionally crisp, clear winter day – but you probably didn’t notice it, explains Professor Stephen Burt in a recent post…Read More >
The heatwave in numbers
The University of Reading weather records, captured at the Atmospheric Observatory, are updated daily and are publicly available online. Temperatures and rain records go back to 1908, while the sunshine…Read More >
