My very first post!

Welcome to my blog! Here I will be posting news stories, scientific research and personal thoughts about the topic of the blog. I am going to discuss whether or not anthropogenic activity has got anything to do with the extreme weather events that have occurred in Europe and North America over the past years, like wet summers, flooding, heat waves, droughts, extreme winters, snow chaos and storms, or if it is solely due to the natural modes of variability in the climate system.

For example, this summer has been a season of record braking extreme weather. It has been the wettest summer in the UK for 100 years, and it has generally been an unusually wet summer across northern and central Europe. In the Black Sea region of Russia at least 103 people were killed by intense flooding caused by sudden heavy rainfall. In the US nearly two thirds of the nation experienced some level of drought, with 39 percent of the nation suffering from severe to extreme drought, destroying farmers’ crops and livestock. Colorado experienced its worst wildfire season in a decade, with half a dozen lives lost. In June Florida was hit by tropical storm Debby, which caused extensive flooding, several tornadoes, and high winds.

What is up with this weather? Can we blame it on ourselves and our emissions? How are the predictions for the future? Is it only going to get worse? These are questions I’ll be discussing further on this blog, and I hope you will find it interesting.

I will leave you with this video from the Global Climate News channel on YouTube that is trying to explain one mechanism behind the extreme climate of 2012. Although focusing on America, it will give a taste of what this blog will be about.