Communicating changes in the intensity of UK heatwaves
Global warming of ‘just’ 1°C does not necessarily sound like a problem. But in the UK, the hottest summer days are warming much faster than typical summer days, changing our experience of heatwaves
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Aerial view of river winding through farmed fields
UKCEH and @rothamsted.bsky.social modelling shows how climate change could reshape GB’s rivers/farms by 2050.
Findings: river nutrients ↑20–30%, ↑ west coast fluxes (3–10%), ↓ east (3–13%), 5-20% drop in most arable yields, 20% boost in maize yields
Read more: agzeroplus.org.uk/news-and-med... 🧪
Fantastic new @ukceh.bsky.social dataset now out: 30-minute actual evapotranspiration from 45 sites for up to 10 years, with measurements co-located with rainfall and multiple soil moisture measurements from our @cosmosuk.bsky.social network over the same period: catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/documents/c0...
Map of UK with Jan 2026 river flows indicated at various sites
What happened with river flows, groundwater levels and reservoirs in January? The latest UK Hydrological Summary was published today!
nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/sites/defaul... (PDF)
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From drought to downpour, 2025 brought the UK
whiplash weather 🌦️
New on our Counting the Earth podcast, we delve into the UK's weather extremes.
After a dry spring & four heatwaves we had
significant rainfall later in the year. By December, total
rainfall reached ~90% of the UK average.
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Map of UK showing detail for February 2026 UK Hydrological Outlook
Latest UK Hydrological Outlook 🌧️
River flows in eastern Scotland likely normal to above normal over next 3 months; flows elsewhere in the normal range except southern England. Here, river flows & groundwater levels likely above normal to notably high.
See more: hydoutuk.net/latest-outlook 🧪
We need to talk about drought. Yes, that's right, drought! Our weather is experiencing extremes – from flooding to drought – so on the next episode of Counting the Earth, we'll be delving deeper into this whiplash weather.
🎧 Subscribe now and never miss an episode: www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...
Comparing summers of 1976 and 2024 for the UK and Ireland
Putting the hot & dry summer of 1976 into context
50 years after the extreme summer for the UK and Ireland, what can we still learn?
climatelabbook.substack.com/p/the-summer...
Plausible worst-case climate futures and extreme events for the UK
Paper by Arnell et al.: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Article: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Poster titled "Accelerating Multilateral Action for Global Water Security" by UNESCO. Highlights the critical need for coordinated water management and the projected $5.6 trillion economic loss by 2050 due to inaction. Features a QR code and partners' logos, including UKCEH, University of Birmingham, and others.
Mobilising multilateral action is essential for water security.
A new policy brief from the UK Committee for International Hydrology (UKCIH) calls for coherent global action as billions face worsening water challenges.
Read it here ➡️ www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/defaul... [PDF]
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Exciting jobs & PhD studentship!
1) postdoc in historical windstorms: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
2) postdoc in extreme event storylines: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
3) PhD in redeveloping the Central England Temperature series (led by Tim Osborn): www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
🌍 CANARI scientists @ukceh.bsky.social briefed the @houseoflords.parliament.uk Environment & Climate Change Committee on drought preparedness
🏜️ @jamiehannahydro.bsky.social shared expert evidence on advances in drought monitoring and changing risks of future droughts
🔗 canari.ac.uk/2025/12/04/c...
Storm clouds and text Join our session at EGU26: Understanding climate variability's impact on hydrological regimes. Abstracts due by January 15, 2026.
📣 Call for abstracts #EGU26: How do climate variability patterns (eg ENSO, NAO, AMO) influence water resources & extremes like floods & droughts?
🌍💧 Submit by 15 Jan! 🔗 meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU26/session/55947
#Hydrology #ClimateVariability #WaterResources
Invitation to join a session at EGU26 on learning from model differences in hydrology, focusing on intercomparison, benchmarking, and multi-model approaches. Abstract submissions open.
💧 📢Calling all river flow modellers heading to #EGU26
The UK Hydro-MIP team are inviting submissions for their session on Learning from model differences: model intercomparison, benchmarking and multi-model approaches in hydrology (HS2.2.8)
meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU26/sessio...
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Two exciting postdoc positions available!
Historical windstorms - working with two insurance companies to explore UK wind risks: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
Extreme event storylines - working as part of a EU collaboration on event attribution: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
Droughts cause a wide range of impacts - this image shows a dry riverbed in France.
Looking for a #PhD in #ClimateExtremes?
We are advertising a project attributing causes of recent #droughts using counter-factual storylines.
Based in #Edinburgh, working with Andrew Schurer, me, @gabihegerl.bsky.social, & @edhawkins.org
tinyurl.com/5n7b52fr
The Rainfall Observers
Over the past three centuries, thousands of people across the British & Irish Isles have recorded rainfall, often every day for decades. Here we recognise some of the individuals who made particularly important contributions.
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Heading to IAHS 2025 in Roorkee 🇮🇳? 🌏
I’m co-hosting a side event + giving a talk with the ROBIN Network!
Let’s talk reference hydrological networks, drought indicators & climate change detection!
🧵👇
Climate change is not a con-job. If you want to know more about the evidence for and causes of #ClimateChange, head to our website: royalsociety.org/news-resourc...
Excited to host a hands-on #IAHS2025 workshop with @sayaliuk.bsky.social & @wilsonchan.bsky.social
🗓️ 6 Oct, 18:00 IST | 📍 Roorkee, India
Explore the ROBIN dataset, drought indicators & FlowScreen.
More info: iahs2025.com/SEROBIN
Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
#ROBINHydro #Hydrology
📢 New paper! Events like the winter 2023/24 floods are wetter with higher river flows due to climate change.
A worst-case “storyline” shows flows could be even higher - anticipating UNSEEN extremes is vital for adaptation.
🔗: doi.org/10.1088/1748...
@ukceh.bsky.social @climatecocentre.bsky.social
Map of UK with shaded areas showing principal aquifers annotated with information from the September 2025 UK Hydrological Outlook as outlined in the accompanying post.
🌊 Latest UK Hydrological Outlook: Normal to below normal river flows likely in southern & eastern areas over the next 3 months, with low flows for the time of year persisting in some catchments.
River flows in northwestern areas likely shifting towards normal to above normal by November.
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📢 New paper! Events like the winter 2023/24 floods are wetter with higher river flows due to climate change.
A worst-case “storyline” shows flows could be even higher - anticipating UNSEEN extremes is vital for adaptation.
🔗: doi.org/10.1088/1748...
@ukceh.bsky.social @climatecocentre.bsky.social
With exceptionally dry conditions in many parts of the UK this year, hydrologists at UKCEH address the question of whether #globalwarming is increasing severity of #droughts in a guest post for @carbonbrief.org
NEW – Guest post: Is climate change making UK droughts worse?
✍️ Jamie Hannaford, @wilsonchan.bsky.social, Lucy Barker, Stephen Turner
➡️ Read here: buff.ly/boBB8nU
Photograph of bright sun in a clear blue sky with clouds at the bottom. Text reads: 'Met Office NEWS RELEASE 26 August 2025 – This summer will ‘almost certainly’ be warmest on record for the UK.'
Provisional statistics from the Met Office show that summer 2025 will ‘almost certainly’ be the warmest summer on record for the UK.
It would move 2018 off the top spot and relegate 1976 out of the top five warmest summer in a series which dates back to 1884.
👉 www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
🌊🏜️🌍 New job opportunity @ukceh.bsky.social for a Hydroclimate Scientist to work on the @climatecocentre.bsky.social and @canari-science.bsky.social projects to advance understanding of hydroclimatic extremes in the face of climate change!
Apply now: ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/CEH_Ca...
Map of UK showing river flows as percentage of average
The UK Hydrological Summary confirms heightened risk of drought impacts this summer — especially in eastern Britain.
June was the warmest on record for England and 2nd warmest for the UK overall. Rainfall showed stark regional contrasts, with some areas seeing less than half of average.
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What is the hydrological outlook for the UK in the weeks and months ahead? Steve Turner talks us through the likely situation for river flows and groundwater levels.
See the full outlook: hydoutuk.net/latest-outlook
🧵🧪 1/ #WaterResources @steveturner.bsky.social
Showing the rainfall of 14th July 2021 (upper left) and 5 alternative scenarios derived from a climate model, conditioned to the atmospheric circulation patterns of the observed event. Similar to fig.6 of https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02386-y
📣 New paper:
💧💧💧 In July 2021 record breaking rainfall hit western Europe, we use ensemble boosting to explore different plausible storylines. These show it could have rained for longer, or over a larger area, or in a different place. Are we prepared?
doi.org/10.1038/s432...
